The 'helpful reply' I just received from a Pet Food company!

Well, I know I'll get a few laughs and much solidarity about this one!  Last night I wrote to Dine Australia, to find out the ingredients in the canned food my cat likes (I feed 90% raw in any case).  I specifically asked for the names of the 'gelling agents' and 'colours' and 'flavours' that the labelling mentions.  Nothing sinister in asking this I would assume....

Thank you for your email regarding the DINE Desire pet food. Due to recipe confidentiality we are not able to provide a list of ingredients other than what is listed on labelling.

If your cat does have a medical condition and you need to confirm if a specific ingredient please let me know what those ingredients are and I can confirm if they are included in the recipes.

Kind Regards
Cath
Customer Enquiries Co-ordinator
MARS Petcare Australia

Seriously?? 

'recipe confidentiality'

Yeah, right.

Mars generally seems less than forthcoming about their foods.I know that Mars here in the U.S. wouldn't give Dr. Pierson the typical analysis for their foods for her chart, because they were "afraid the chart wouldn't be kept up-to-date".

And yet they own the Banfield pet hospitals. You'd think they'd care, and want to help (insert tongue-in-cheek icon here).

And yet they own the Banfield pet hospitals.

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Interesting, I didn't know that.  

My experience with Banfield has been less than acceptable.  So, there you go.

Amazing.  I've referred it on to Consumer Affairs, so it will be interesting to see what they say.  As the regulations are pretty lax, I'm not holding my breath!

Banfield includes declawing as part of their "kitten wellness" package. Of course they "want to help" pets.

tammyp said:

Amazing.  I've referred it on to Consumer Affairs, so it will be interesting to see what they say.  As the regulations are pretty lax, I'm not holding my breath!

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:lol3: Consumer Affairs is probably the part of the organization that drafted the standard response. :lol3:

Oh gosh, gah!  I've had a response from them and they simply told me the bodies to whom I should refer the matter.  So, I've referred it on...(ACCC and some other labelling body I'd not heard of).

This could be interesting... if you get a good response, perhaps this is an inroad to making all Aussie labelling accountable on pet foods.

Do keep us posted!

Mani, I'd love to be an aide in this objective.  But, given the power of the pet food companies, the history of them silencing voices against them (Eg Tom Lonsdale - they even got a lot of his press coverage scrapped), don't get your hopes up!  Having said that, just one more bit of writing can add a bit of weight...I'll keep you posted.

I've had companies tell me that their recipe was "proprietary" and they couldn't tell me what I was asking.  When I see that, I figure it means they are using bad stuff and don't want us to know.  Just because something is proprietary doesn't mean they can't tell the actual ingredients, they can just keep the amounts and process "secret."

Yeah, totally!  (And like I'd want to copy their recipe anyway; it ain't the recipe that's selling cat food, it's the marketing)