Pet-food recall: Trader Joe ' s pulls foods

Trader Joe's, a nationwide chain of grocery stores, just announced it was voluntarily yanking all canned pet foods manufactured by Menu Foods from their shelves, even though:

According to the FDA, Trader Joe’s pet food products are NOT the same pet foods that are currently being recalled by Menu Foods. However, since safety is of the utmost importance to us, as an extra precaution we have voluntarily pulled all canned pet food items manufactured by Menu Foods from our shelves until we can test the products and be 100 percent sure they are safe for your pets. The products voluntarily pulled are: Dog Food Chunky Beef 22 oz., Dog Food Chunky Chicken 22 oz., Dog Food Lamb & Rice 22 oz., Cat Food Turkey & Giblets, Cat Food Premium Fish/Salmon/Rice and Cat Food Premium Chicken/Turkey/Rice.

You can return your pet foods to Trader Joe's for a full refund. More info here.

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Comments

[Mary Shelton]

I have three dogs that have been eating dog food from Trader Joe's for a couple of years now. All three have been sick with vomiting. My dogs are usually very healthy. I thought they maybe had gotten into something but I couldn't find anything that would make them sick. Then this recall happened. I didn't see the Trader Joe's pet food on the list, but my dogs continued to be sick so I stopped feeding it to them. They seem to be doing a little better now but I am going to keep a close watch on them.

[jared crow]

i feed my dog trader joes all the time and about 2 weeks ago he got really sick.diarreah and vomitting.i quit feeding him the trader joes food and he was better after a few days.

[Dimitri]

So, which foods are the problem? I fed my cats

(4 of them) food that was recalled from Iams,

Nutro, and Authority (Petsmart brand). In spite

of the fact that all food was recalled (and what

little I had left has been returned for a refund) only 1 of the 4 cats appears to be sick. It is the cat that ate the most Iams and, especially, Authority. No Nutro at all for that cat. (The cats do not all eat the same food together.) I know all of the food was pulled, but that does not mean it was all affected, especially when there is no test available so far, AFAIK. Some data about which foods seem more likely to cause illness would be reassuring. For instance, has anyone who fed Nutro exclusively reported a problem? Should I be concerned about the 3 "healthy" cats?

[Erin]

My mom had to put one of her dogs down on Wednesday. She just found out today from the vet that the cause of illness was due to the recalled food. The only canned food she used was from Trader Joe's. FYI.

[Linda]

I'm sick. I gave my puppy Trader Joes wet food - just a little to moisten his dry food. He didn't like it much though so I stopped feeding it to him. He seems fine though.

[Linda]

The can was probably 6 months old. Maybe that's why it didn't bother him. I'm so sorry to hear about your mom pet Erin and all the others. I'm angry and heartbroken to read these stories.

[Laurie]

My cat died after eating Sophiticat, and she also ate food from Trader joes.

[mario bonelli]

My other question, is why is one company making 100 brand name cat and dog foods???

[Cheri]

Im so confused. Ive heard Purina is made in China. Ive got to stop by the store and pick up something for my cats to eat and I have not a clue.

PLEASE HELP

cheri

[Cheri]

Im refering to dry food of course

[Dawn Turner]

Hi Cheri,



Don't know if this will help you or not, but there's a list of foods on another site that might help you:



http://petsitusa.com/blog/?p=210



Mind you, not all of the listed foods are good quality, much less great quality, but at least it's a start for those who can't or won't do a home-prepared diet.

[Cheri]

Thanks so much Dawn. Im working on the home prepared diet. I just wonder if we will ever feel safe about our pets again.

Thanks again Dawn.

Cheri

[Dawn Turner]

I think home prepared is about as safe as you'll ever feel. At least that way you know exactly what's going into the diet.



For those feeding commercial? I don't think they will ever feel "safe" again. I certainly wouldn't. When you look back at the history of recalls of pet foods in the last few years, something this big was bound to come up sooner or later. I knew it would come at some point, but I never in my worst nightmares would have dreamed it would be THIS big and widespread.

[Linda]

I bought Natural Balance Duck and Sweet Potato. I have six dogs and work full time. Making homemade food is not practical but I would do it if the Natural Balance isn't good.

[DAvid]

Apparently, while Trader Joes is being responsible, Nutro is not. They tried -- unsuccessfully it turns out -- to restock a local PetSmar in our area today. They were denied the ability to doso bystore managment.

[Pam]

On Feb. 16 I had to take both my cats to the vet because they had begun vomiting and had severe diarrhea from eating Trader Joe's tuna cat food, which they have had many times before. Fortunately they are both well now, or seem to be. What worries me is that the tuna is not listed on the recall list and yet I am positive that it caused their illnesses. They were vomiting a foamy liquid as others have reported. Anyone else had trouble with the tuna cat food from Trader Joe's?

[Wanita]

Looking further into the recall adulterated wheat gluten and hydrolyzed vegetable protein from one source the FDA knows of are the most problematic pet food ingredients. The "closest" ingredient to either in Trader Joe's canned chunky dog food is the fourth ingredient textured soy protein. I can't eat wheat without being unhealthy and avoid soy's overly processed derivatives as much as possible in mine and my pet's food.