Problem with Felidae canned

First off this is NOT a recall, so nobody panic!
But I have a problem with Felidae canned and I want to know what you think.
I wanted to do the right thing by Brady and so I got some Felidae canned. The type I got was "Chicken, Turkey, Lamb & Fish in Chicken Broth".

Well I got home and it was dinner time so I opened one of the cans.
It did not make that typical sound (ssssst-thwack) that you hear when poping open a can. It made more of a "bang!" sound and the contents did not look right. The can looked to be about 2/3 full.



I had another can of the same type so for comparison I opened it. The noise it made "sounded" right and the can looked much fuller.



Here they are on the counter side by side. The "good" one is on the left and the "bad" one is on the right. This is right after I opened them. It took me about 2 minutes to go get the digital camera.


I am not sure why the "bad " one has a greenish label and the "good" one has a grey label. They do have different "batch numbers". The good one is 5006 6 292 07, Best by Oct 2009, and the bad one is 30066178 4 Best by June 2009.

What I am thinking is that the can was damaged, and air had leaked into it. That was why I did not break a vacuum when I opened the can, so moisture evaporated from it.

This has me worried. I am not a nutrition or poison expert, but I do make my own jams and jellies and have read a little on "putting foods by". What I have read is that if you have canned your own food that does not have a high sugar, acid, or salt content (natural peservatives) and you go to open the jar and you do not have a vacuum (like it is too easy to open) then there is a danger of botulism. In that case the advice is to bury it so it doesn't get eaten.

Call me paranoid if you want, I capped the can, wrapped it tightly in plastic and put it in the freezer to preserve the evidence.

Sorry if this is a long ramble. Unless anyone else says that this is normal for Felidae I am going to contact them and ask what is going on.

Something does look off in the first one, but you're right, with it being partially empty looking, I would have started to worry, as well.
Let us know what Felidae says about it...wonder if there would be more in the batch that would be bad because of a problem at some part in the canning process that day/run.

(I don't think I ever pay attention to the vacuum seal when I open the lids...good eye!)

I had a similar experience with 2 cans of Felidae, but it was Chicken and Rice. The difference was not so extreme, but there was a difference. The funky can was dented, so after I saw the contents I threw it out.

It's not obvious at first, but you've got 2 different varieties of Felidae there in your picture. Like you said, both are "Chicken, Turkey, Lamb & Fish in Chicken Broth", but the one on the left is Felidae Platinum (senior/overweight) and the one on the right is Felidae Cat and Kitten. That explains the slight color difference in the labels.

Originally Posted by beandip

It's not obvious at first, but you've got 2 different varieties of Felidae there in your picture. Like you said, both are "Chicken, Turkey, Lamb & Fish in Chicken Broth", but the one on the left is Felidae Platinum (senior/overweight) and the one on the right is Felidae Cat and Kitten. That explains the slight color difference in the labels.

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Thanks for the clarification on that. I am a little annoyed, because I had gone into the store without my reading glasses and specifically asked the clerk to tell me if they were all the same. He had said that they were all "all life stages" formulae.

Originally Posted by 2dogmom

Thanks for the clarification on that. I am a little annoyed, because I had gone into the store without my reading glasses and specifically asked the clerk to tell me if they were all the same. He had said that they were all "all life stages" formulae.

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Don't feel bad..their labels could stand to be much, much clearer. I have to strain every time to make sure I pick up the right ones. The clerk should've known better, though.

the gold one is all life stage ... but they also may the platnium for older cats

You did the right thing... did you call the 800 number on the can??

I've had that happen once, with a can of Evangers. I threw it away because it didn't look right; I hope nothing got into the trash & ate it. I didn't even think of that at the time.

I did not call the 1-800 number. It was Friday evening so I assumed that I would get one of those "Our normal business hours are (9AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday") bla bla recordings. Come to think of it, they may still have at work since they are in California and I am on the East Coast.
I sent them an email and am not too hopeful about getting a reply. They say on their site that they are getting swamped with requests for recalls and that they are overwhelmed.
I will def call on Monday though.

Let us know what they say?

I feed large cans of Felidae (13oz) and the last can of Chicken and Rice was kinda dry.
All the before cans were pate consistency and the last can was more like merrick, shredded, dry, but the can opened right and didn't smell bad at all.

I mixed in warm water and fed it to my girls. Both ate it and no one got sick.

Maybe they are going through formula changes?

I have an update-although so far it is not very helpful.

I tried calling the 1-800 number and after listening to ten minutes of abut how they are not involved in the recent recalls and how it is such a shame finally got to the menu to call customer service. I left a voice mail and am waiting for an answer.

I had sent an email through their customer service page which had almost the identical text to my post above along with the pictures.

This was their response:

FDA rules regulate that all canned foods must contain a minimum of 4 inches of vacuum. There is no stated maximum.

Vacuum is created by injecting steam into a filled open can while the lid is being applied. Vacuum can also be obtained by putting hot material into the can and then applying the lid, therefore creating a vacuum. Using both systems will create a compound vacuum at certain readings in excess of 15 inches. The steam injecting system is the most effective way to achieve vacuum.

A loud pop may be heard when opening any Pop Top lid. This popping is the normal result of air rapidly moving into the area of vacuum in the can, and in no way is a reflection on quality of the actual product produced within the can.

Hi Catherine,
I hope the above information helps gives a better understanding on why occasionally it is possible you may hear a louder popping sound. It has not effect on the quality of the product, but we understand how it startles you. For the cans you have opened and are unsatisfied with please feel free to send us the UPC codes and date codes and we will be happy to send you replacement vouchers. For unopened cans or cases that you may have with the same date coding, please return to your Canidae dealer for store credit or exchange.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have cause you.
Sincerely,
Team Canidae

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Pretty useless, a tutorial on vacuum canning and explaining that cans "pop" when you open them because of the vacuum. I don't care that they called me "Catherine" (not my name!) Thanks guys, now tell me why it did not sound the same as the other can and why it was nowhere near as full.

And they can keep their offer of a $0.79 voucher for a replacement. If there is something wrong with it then I don't want it even if they give it to me!

I replied and asked them to kindly read my initial email and try to respond again.

That's really discouraging that all they offered was a tutorial on vacuum. I think from this

What I am thinking is that the can was damaged, and air had leaked into it. That was why I did not break a vacuum when I opened the can, so moisture evaporated from it.

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they would know that you already understand that there is vacuum involved in canning.

I hope you get some better results from their follow up replies. Let us know!

I think I would also send the pics again (especially the ones showing the different levels of food ) and bold print that the "pop" when you opened the 2 different cans were significantly different, and see if you get a different rep this time. Maybe emphasize that there was only the metal pop, and not the air pop? I know they are overwhelmed right now, but they should want to know this! Maybe head it "not a recall question- possible packaging problem?" or something like that... I admit, I want to know, too, what is going on with it! That can just didn't look right!

Somehow I have never had any luck sending emails to companies. It's like they have some stupid keyword system that spits out a canned response. I would rather talk to a human being and explain it.
They still have not returned my call, and I read on a dog forum elsewhere that Canidae is closed (?). Like what, for a holiday? Doesn't make sense.

I got a reply to my reply on Tuesday:

Hi Jean,
I apologize for that. Its really hard to say what happened with you cans. Thank you for bringing that to our attention, I will forward to our production manager for review. Please cut off the UPC bar codes or just the ones from the outer cartons if you have them to our office along with a copy of this e-mail and we will be happy to replace those for you.
Sincerely,
Julie@Team Canidae

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So I sent them the label-we shall see.

Well, that at least sounds like someone actually read what you wrote . Getting better !