Purina Lawsuit Claims Blue Buffalo Is Misleading Customers About Its Natural Ingredients

There could be a rather large cat fight on the horizon. Nestle Purina PetCare is suing rival Blue Buffalo alleging the company is lying about the natural ingredients in its pet food.

See the full story here:
http://consumerist.com/2014/05/06/p...ding-customers-about-its-natural-ingredients/

I almost spit water all over my laptop at this one: 

Steven Crimmins, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Nestlé Purina, says in a statement. “We believe consumers deserve honesty when it comes to the ingredients in the food they choose to feed their pets."

I think this may fall in the category of the pot calling the kettle black.

I find it rather amusing. I definitely believe a company should be called out on false advertising, for sure. That it is Purina vs Blue Buffalo is what has me giggling. I can't think of a single product that either company makes, that I would use the word "natural" to describe. 

Denice said:

I think this may fall in the category of the pot calling the kettle black.

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That was my first thought, too.

If this sets a precedent, i.e., lots of companies have other companies' products tested and publish the results, it won't be bad for consumers.

Oh, the irony...   

peaches08 said:

 
I almost spit water all over my laptop at this one: 

Steven Crimmins, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Nestlé Purina, says in a statement. “We believe consumers deserve honesty when it comes to the ingredients in the food they choose to feed their pets."

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I always wonder how people say that sort of stuff with a straight face, knowing their own shady practices. Balls of steel! Seriously.

Burkey said:

 
I find it rather amusing. I definitely believe a company should be called out on false advertising, for sure.

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I thought it was amusing that Hill's of all companies made a similar challenge, according to the article.

From the complaint filed:

" Testing from an independent laboratory reveals that Blue Buffalo is falsely promoting its pet food as containing “NO Chicken/Poultry By-Product Meals” when, in fact, Blue Buffalo pet food contains significant amounts of chicken/poultry by-product meals. Contrary to Blue Buffalo’s so-called “True Blue Promise,” many Blue Buffalo products also contain corn, other grains, and artificial preservatives when they promise otherwise. In short, Blue Buffalo is not being honest with consumers about the true ingredients of Blue Buffalo products."

(Eye opening percentages of the undesirable ingredients can be found in the complaint)

I have no dog....er, cat in this fight. I think all the companies should suit each other so we can find out what is in all the brands with all these independent lab tests.
Wouldn't that be great?? I'm sure Wellness isnt being truthful either. Let the games begin!

I do see the humor in Purina making these charges, but I love that Blue Buffalo is being called out on their advertising. It is a good thing that the BB commercials have made people think about what they are actually feeding their pets, but the guilt trippy, condescending tone of those commercials have always bothered me. And they are very misleading. The Dog Food Advisor opened my eyes to Blue Buffalo's highly self-touted use of meat in their dry food. This is the breakdown of the first two ingredients in Blue Buffalo Basics for dogs, Dry:

'The first ingredient in this dog food lists turkey. Although it is a quality item, raw turkey contains about 80% water. After cooking, most of that moisture is lost… reducing the meat content to just a fraction of its original weight.
After processing, this item would probably account for a smaller part of the total content of the finished product.
The second ingredient is turkey meal. Turkey meal is considered a meat concentrate and contains nearly 300% more protein than fresh turkey.'

From this, it would seem that meal is a better ingredient than meat. Deboned meat may be listed as the most plentiful ingredient, but if it were weighed after it was processed, the meat would be further down on the ingredient list. That is sneaky, especially since BB make such a big to-do over meat being the first ingredient.
Meat by products are an entirely different, disgusting issue. If BB really is using by-products, that seems to be fraud. They have made a point to trash talk the companies who do use and list by-products. I do not use BB, but that still would make me angry. It will be very interesting to see how this turns out.

if it leads to any more openness and honesty in the labeling, i'm all for it.  i refuse to feed anything from blue buffalo because they were not forthcoming with information when i asked and they finally admitted using ingredients sourced from china when they were not 'readily' available in the US.

I know that there is a lot of negative opinions about Blue Buffalo on dog forums, much more than about Purina.  One of the big complaints seems to be about their secrecy.  Purina does seem to be open about what is in their food and they take the criticism for their ingredients.

This tickles my whiskers because I don't feed neither brands because they both had made my pets sick I didn't understand why BB made mine sick thinking it was ''a no grain etc free '' when wasn't no wonder why they got sick off of BB.

I wonder what is going to be reveled in this and you got to bet that Purina is hiding stuff too.

@happybird said -- "It is a good thing that the BB commercials have made people think about what they are actually feeding their pets..."

i agree! and i also see the irony in nestle purina filing the suit.

i do think maybe this has to do with more consumers/pet "owners" becoming knowledgeable about cat (/dog) nutrition and being more selective about their cat (/dog) food choices. and it may also have to do with more people switching to a raw food or homecooked diet.

Pet Wars: Blue Buffalo Fires Back at Purina Over Food-Quality Claim

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industri...fires-back-at-purina-over-food-quality-claim/


Excerpt:

“We haven’t purchased one kernel of corn, nor have we bought one ounce of by-product meal,” he said, noting that he can’t imagine how Purina’s independent lab tests found any of the substances in the foods.

Blue Buffalo uses third-party co-manufacturers to produce its foods, but Bishop said the company provides all of its own ingredients. Bishop said, however, that he trusts his manufacturers and that his firm has “people watching the manufacturers” closely for quality-control purposes.

Still, Bishop wouldn’t entirely rule out the possibility of a small-scale snafu at the manufacturer level."

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Mosimom said:

Pet Wars: Blue Buffalo Fires Back at Purina Over Food-Quality Claim

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industri...fires-back-at-purina-over-food-quality-claim/


Excerpt:

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Um fox news dont fully tell the truth eather.

Mewlittle said:

Um fox news dont fully tell the truth eather.

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Well that is the only news source that has printed a response by BB....and is keeping the story updated so far. I, for one wanted to hear the response from BB so I can form my own opinion as this saga unfolds.
Why on earth would they (Fox) not be telling the truth? You should probably read the link and point out this untruth so we all can benefit from your wisdom.

It's all on truthaboutpetfood, in case you think that's a better source :tongue2:.

http://truthaboutpetfood.com/purina-sues-blue-buffalo

http://truthaboutpetfood.com/blue-buffalo-responds-to-purina-lawsuit

A lot of what Purina is basing their suit on revolves around the life source bits.   I always did think that the thing with these 'magical' bits was sketchy and some kind of marketing scam.  I'm not defending Purina by any means but I think they are less secretive and less prone to advertising gimmicks.

I'm not defending one over the other, either, but I just remembered that Blue Buffalo was one of the few companies that would not disclose information to Dr. Pierson when she was compiling information for her food chart in 2012.

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf (see page 34)

Why so secretive, BB?