Look at this good news

I have been emailing a local dog food maker and trying to get them to drop some or change some ingredients. This is an email I got back

Good Afternoon Mr. XXXX:

As promised, news on the American Natural Premium front for you.

At a meeting today, ANP concluded that, in the interest of assuring our customers of the wholesome qualities of ANP, we will remove Menadione from our food. We will replace it in the formula if we find a substitute that fits our requirements.

We had been reviewing the matter for several weeks, and at our regular meeting decided that it should be done.

Please be aware that our next scheduled production run is the 3rd week of this month, with product arriving in our dealers around the first of May.

We are confident that no harm exists in the old formulation, so are not taking steps to remove existing stocks from the dealer's shelves. The new food will be packaged starting April 23, 2007 but the old labels will be used until late May or early June when the new packaging arrives from the supplier.

Also, please be aware that the fish used in the "fish meal" in ANP is, the supplier guarantees, free of Ethoxyquin or any other artificial preservative.Our Fish meal consists of "Ocean White Fish" and/or "Menhaden" and is human consumption grade, supplied by a regular restaurant vendor.

I hope this information is of use. We're proud of our product and want to assure all users that it is what we intend it to be; a very good pet food at a very good price.

Tom Baetz
for American Natural Premium

What do you guys think about the fish meal explanation?

If it's true, that is really stand-up and reassuring. Could you take a drive to their factory and see their manufacturing process first-hand?

Just FYI: Menhaden is not a fish ever used for human consumption (it's harvested for oil and manufacturing of fish meal), so no "restaurant supplier" would carry this. "Ocean white fish" is not a specific species, but includes a variety of different fish.

Restaurant vendors also do not manufacture fish meal.

Ok...I just sent off some questions about the fish meal provider, I'll keep you posted.

This is their latest response:

No, I said that the fish meal is human consumption grade, meaning it has no ethoxyquin or artificial preservative and that the fish meal is considered human consumption grade as far as it's quality is concerned, and is without harmful preservatives, and is supplied by a supplier who provides other materials to restaurants and is normally equipped for maintaining the "purity" of his product.. If you understood me to say that the fish meal is consumed by humans, I'm afraid you misunderstood.

It's sold by a restaurant supplier because his business is selling fish. The meal has menhaden in it because menhaden is an extremely available fish, suitable for human consumption but not valued for that use, and can be processed for fish meal with no fear of contamination.

All our suppliers identities are proprietary information.

Our product is manufactured for us to our specifications by a regional facility with an extremely good history in the industry. I am informed that public tours are not available due to insurance concerns.

Hope this clears up your questions.

Tom Baetz

Says all the right things....just wonder how someone can be sure.