Alexander J Wilkas

Before I became a Realtor, I spent 20 + years in quality Assurance for a major consumer products company. My responsibility was for the over site of Contract Manufactures producing product for my company. Most companies spend a great deal of money and effort to insure that all ingredients used in their products meet all Federal and State regulatory requirements. This basically applies to all Food, Drugs and Cosmetics used for human use and consumption.

The pet food industry is a different story. Regulation is almost nonexistent. Pet food companies   are not required to use the same standards used in human food products and purchase ingredients at the least expensive cost. I have heard that the corn gluten used in the recent pet food recall was purchased from a source in China. If you have done any research on ingredients manufactured in China, regulatory standards are almost non-existent; anything goes as to how the ingredients were grown, handled and are processed and then shipped to the U.S.

I have visited more than one pet food manufacturing/packaging facilities in the U.S. and it is not a pretty site. The only saving grace is that the product that is in cans is processed at a very high temperature in a retort cooker, which kills bacteria and pathogens but that does not solve the problem of contaminated ingredients such as what was found in the current recall.

When you pay .40 cents to $1.00+ for a can for pet food, how much do you think the manufacture spend for Quality Testing of the content Quality and the ingredients safety that go into the finished product? Most pet food companies spend very little on testing, since this cost affects the bottom line and “its only pet food”.

The cost of the recall, bad press and the law suits that will follow may change the practices of the pet food industry and insure that our pets are safe.