New Diamond News

[Ash47]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11099237/

[Renee750il]

Another good reason to make sure your pet's food is made from human grade ingredients!

[juliefurry]

I'm glad I don't feed that, although the store I shop at has signs posted all over saying that their dog food came from a plant not affected by the poison. I feel so bad for all those dogs that died from eating that food. I heard (don't know if it's true or not, but I HEARD) that Diamond has offered to pay for the medical treatment for the dogs that became ill and didn't get sick from the food. That's the least they could do though.

[Boxer*Mom]

Diamond Pet Food Media Statement on FDA Investigation Findings
02/01/2006

Diamond Pet Food Media Statement on FDA Investigation Findings

META, Mo. – Jan. 31, 2006 – Diamond Pet Foods cooperated fully with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during its investigation and supports the findings that were released today.

Prior to the product recall, the company had stringent guidelines in place to test incoming shipments of corn for aflatoxin exposure. It was apparent by the FDA report that those guidelines were not followed. The company has taken the necessary actions to prevent these oversights from happening in the future. In addition, Diamond also has strengthened its testing procedures on incoming shipments of corn, and initiated final product testing as an additive step to its procedures. This additional step will provide an extra layer of protection prior to the bagging and shipping of products.

As a result of Diamond's cooperation with the FDA investigation and Diamond's implementation of additional testing, the United States Department of Agriculture has cleared the Gaston, S.C., facility for all product shipments, including export.

- From diamondpetrecall.com

The term "human-grade" does not have a place in the pet food industry. Legally, for a meat to be "human-grade", it must be processed in a human-grade facility. Pet food facilities are not human-grade, rather, they are ALL feed grade. In fact, pet food manufacturing facilities are held to a different level of sanitation standards by the USDA than those applied to a human food processing plant, or even a restaurant. By law, as soon as meat, even "human-grade" meat, is shipped to a pet food facility it becomes "feed-grade".

[Renee750il]

That business about "human grade" is a nice bit of double-speak to get around the fact that the raw materials being used have been deemed unfit for human consumption. They know what we're talking about - they just choose to talk like politicians

[Mordy]

Yup, Renee is right here. They are arguing about the word that is used instead of outright telling people whether they actually use meats that would be considered human grade, instead of garbage that has been declared unfit for human consumption and thus has to be denatured with chemicals - and these chemicals don't just disappear when the meat is made into petfood.

[Boxer*Mom]

Human-grade meat is a tricky subject. And, while we at Chicken Soup for the Soul™ brand dog and cat foods would love to call our fresh, never frozen, meats "human-grade" our conscience does not allow us.

You see, even though our fresh meats are the same grade and quality and come from the same sources used for human food applications, they are not "human-grade". And here's why:

-part quoted above-

Now this doesn't change the quality of the meat—but it does change its legal definition. And, to us, it would be irresponsible to tell you that our products are better than the competition because our foods use "human-grade" meats.

So, you won't find a "human-grade" claim on any Chicken Soup for the Soul™ brand dog and cat food, or in our brochures, or on this web site. Period.

What you will find is our products are of the highest quality, processed within the strictest standards in the industry, and guaranteed to help your pet become a better, healthier, happier companion.

[Boxer*Mom]

Why does everything have to be so compicated?!!! lol Even for people food businesses, doing my search on the boycott to help protect the seals, I'm finding out just how many companies are all in the bed together.