Object Found in Bag of Cat Food!!!

whispern'cats

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Not sure where to post this, hope this is the right place.

On Wed. morning, I scooped out a cup of cat food and dumped it into the bowl, I then noticed a quarter sized piece of black like plastic and another off to the side of it on top of the food that I just poured out. Picked them up and examined them. They look like PVC and the underside is ridgged (caked full of kibble). Took away the food and called the manufacturer. The woman I talked with did not even seem alarmed and asked if I would send it to them. Asked for additional info, like where I purchased the food, the exp. date on the bag, ect. then told me to take the bag of unused food back to where I bought it and have them give me another bag with a different exp. date. I said that I would do that but not right away as I live 20 miles one way from there and we are under a snow advisory. I was told they would email a form to accompany the plastic piece within 24 hours.

Called back Friday afternoon as I had not received an email and talked to the same person, she actually remembered me
Put me on hold and came back and said that 'they' were going to send the email later Friday night as they were waiting to send out "a batch of them".

Received the email last night and the form to be filled out is already filled out by them. Questions that I never was asked or answered. Now they are asking for 2 cups of the food. (Good thing it has not been returned!!!) They also want the actual experation date from the bag removed and mailed.

It will take 3-4 weeks after sending to get a report back on what they find!!!!! If they do not hear back by 5-11-08 they will close the paperwork.

My issues with all of this are, no I am sorry or concern, gas money and time to return to the store and the conflicting info on what I should do. To me the time frame is way too long and they act like no big deal. Say what?!

I have not mentioned the manufacturer or brand as I am not sure if it is ok to do here. If it is I have no problem letting anyone know what food this is. Almost $40 for a 15 pound bag.

I'm thinking about taking the food and the black plastic pieces to a local lab and testing them myself. Like I trust them now to tell me what is in there!! I feed several kinds of this brand to my cats and also feed my dog, food from this manufacturer also. (The pieces of plastic were found about half way through the bag use.)

Frustrated to say the least and what ever happened to customer service.
Sorry for the rant but needed to vent. Is anything safe anymore, does any manufacturer even care?!
 

sharky

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Some will get right on it... unfortunately it seems many will OFFER a VOUCHER ...
 

gidgetcat

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Since you're not making accusations, but rather reporting actual findings, it would fine to post the brand of food here.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by GidgetCat

Since you're not making accusations, but rather reporting actual findings, it would fine to post the brand of food here.
it actually would be better to see if it gets resolved , I agree with the OP not stateing
...
 

strange_wings

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It's probably just normal plastic, sometimes workers don't notice or are afraid to speak up. It could have fallen off of machinery or during dump back. They do have metal detectors and magnets to scan all food - obviously this can't pick up glass or plastics. Accidents happen, and it's likely just limited to a small part of that day's run. Other bags may even be fine.
 

natalie_ca

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Some years ago I had a problem with a pet food too.

I decided to give my cat Toby some "Whiskas". She loved it. However, after her 2nd or 3rd serving, she developed explosive vomiting and diarrhea. I rushed her to the vet.

I contacted the pet food company and told them what happened. They were really good about it.

They asked me to keep the can that I had last opened, and to send them any unopened cans. In fact they had one of their representatives pick them up from me. They paid for my vet bill, and sent me a whole bunch of coupons for free products.

I never did hear back about the food though. I don't know if it was tainted, or if she just had a really bad reaction to it.
 

eliot'smom

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It would be nice for them to issue an "I'm sorry for your trouble". Anywhere where food is manufactured large scale there is bound to be "variables" (I believe this is what companies call it) in the food. Heck, the FDA has a guide for what is acceptable to be found in human food plants, like how much rat droppings, mold, etc, before it is deemed unsuitable. I learned about this in a public health class in nursing school. I remember I ate non-processed foods for weeks afterward.

Reminds me of the time I found a screw....a metal screw, in my Hardee's hamburger a few years ago. They tried to give me free meal coupons, lol. Haven't eaten there since.

Please keep us updated on anything that you find out.
 

jen

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Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Some years ago I had a problem with a pet food too.

I decided to give my cat Toby some "Whiskas". She loved it. However, after her 2nd or 3rd serving, she developed explosive vomiting and diarrhea. I rushed her to the vet.

I contacted the pet food company and told them what happened. They were really good about it.

They asked me to keep the can that I had last opened, and to send them any unopened cans. In fact they had one of their representatives pick them up from me. They paid for my vet bill, and sent me a whole bunch of coupons for free products.

I never did hear back about the food though. I don't know if it was tainted, or if she just had a really bad reaction to it.
Food like Whiskas is full of horrible ingredients already and full of corn and fillers and by-products, and many have red dye which is really bad for cats (I think people too actually) but they can't digest that stuff. A cat should never be switched from one kind of food to another just like that because they will definitely have diarrhea and vomit it all back up. Especially a poor quality of food and especially if she was eating a high quality before.
 

cata_mint

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Maybe its because I'm a...
My cats get a bit of whiskas in the morning as decent wet is hard to find, fairly expensive and comes in tiny tiny tins, so we splurge on the dry food instead.

I found a few peculiar round red pieces of kibble in my cat's food once, which looked far too big to be cat food, and looking at the website weren't sold as dog food either.
I emailed the dry food company, who were extremely apologetic and asked me to send the kibble to them, along with the batch number and expiry date of the food. They promised to send a free bag to compensate me, and actually sent 4! I didn't have to buy dry cat food for 3 months!

I still feed Joe and Jill's cat food.

If they hadn't been apologetic I would have switched brands. when something like this happens you can really lose your faith in a company.
Maybe make a complaint?
 

strange_wings

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Originally Posted by cata_mint

I found a few peculiar round red pieces of kibble in my cat's food once, which looked far too big to be cat food, and looking at the website weren't sold as dog food either.
That's normal. I see it all the time with a lot of foods. Sometimes when they switch from one feed to another they don't get things cleaned out perfectly and a certain amount of mix is allowed at the plants.
Just pick the large pieces out and toss them in the trash. But it's good that so many are looking at the food they're putting down.
 

cata_mint

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Maybe its because I'm a...
I wasn't majorly worried, but I kept finding them, along with other strangely shaped bits and wasn't aware it often happened, so I thought I'd ask. I'm even more impressed with the free food now, I'd have been perfectly happy with a "sorry, it happens sometimes"
 
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whispern'cats

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http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/j...08_0414003.jpg
http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/j...08_0414002.jpg
http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/j...08_0414001.jpg

Monday I took some picks of what I found in the cat food before mailing it off with the sample of food. The cats who ate this food developed vomiting and diarreha for several days after it was removed. Could be not food related but considering the others were not sick makes me think it was the food. They also tried to bury it! Thankfully those issues have since resolved themselves over several days. Also took the food back to where I got it and it ws replaced with different exp. # bags. The sad part was that the only large bags all had that exp.# so they gave me smaller bags. The food in those smaller bags looks a lot different then the food that was returned! The folks who worked there were concerned, took info and I gave them copies of the paperwork that was sent along with the food/pieces returned to the company. Will update this post when I hear something from the company.

Thank you all for your responses, lol at a few too. A sense of humor can be so valuable at times as I know you all are aware of.
 

blaise

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Whispern'Cats-
Could you transcribe the letter - I'm having trouble deciphering the small print.

thx
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by BLAISE

Whispern'Cats-
Could you transcribe the letter - I'm having trouble deciphering the small print.

thx
just click on it and adjust your magnifier
 

strange_wings

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I wonder if someone got in trouble for not cleaning thoroughly?
Good to know it wasn't anything toxic... just kind of gross.
 

goldentails87

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Well it's good to know that if you hadn't found it there wouldn't have been any issues. I think it's good that you brought it to thier attention, maybe the cleaner has been having issues lately and they were just "waiting to fire him", ugh, I dunno.
But look at the bright side...YOU GOT A FREE BAG OF FOOD!
 

camille eonich

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When I read the first post in this thread I would have bet money on who the company was. I'm really disappointed that my experience with them wasn't just a fluke but it's identical. I found some small pieces of blue plastic in three different cans of the same lot and finally contacted the company. They were just very nonchalant and slow to deal with me.

I just got my "case number" and form back from them and am getting ready to send a sample in. They'll probably want some of the cat food too which I don't have any from the actual can that I took the plastic from.


Here's what I found looked like. It's the blue speck.




another...




 

mnjulz

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Catamint and Camille - Are you still feeding them Innova? I feed mine Innova all the time.
 
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