Friday, March 23, 2007

Natura Pet (Innova, California Natural, Healthwise) Responds to My Email

This is an email direct from Natura Pet, the company that makes Innova, California Natural and Healthwise. I've been buying wet and dry food from all of these brands .

Turns out they do use Menu Foods to manufacture some of their canned products. No one knows yet what caused the contamination. So how could ANY company who has ANY products made by Menu Foods have 100% confidence in their product?

I’ve been recommending Innova to everyone for a couple of years. No longer. Their food is probably safe (as stated they make their own dry food) but
1) I’m not taking a chance and
2) I will never again spend a single dollar with a company that contracts out ANY of their food production to Menu Foods. Period. Added 3/25 10am: I remain extremely disappointed at how Natura Pet has handled this recall. By taking the road of deniability they have lost the chance to re-earn my trust and my business.

I added carriage returns to their email response to make it easier to read. I changed no words.

-----Original Message-----
From: Customer Service [mailto:custserv@naturapet.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 1:22 PM
To: 'Kim Duke'
Subject: RE: Menu Foods makes your food?

Natura Pet Products owns and operates two manufacturing facilities, including a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Fremont, Nebraska. Our plants are AIB Certified “Superior”, Organic Certified, USDA APHIS Registered and ISO 9001:2001 compliant.

Natura does utilize Menu Foods to manufacture canned products; however, Natura maintains final review and strict approval of all formulation designs, including the types and quality of ingredients included.

Menu Foods is responsible for quality control in its facilities, based upon their Good Manufacturing Practice process; a copy of which is on file in our offices.

Natura has a complete and documented Product Quality reference on hand detailing the quality standards for each formula and can size produced under Natura’s labels. Each of our canned products are routinely reviewed and compared to the standards set out in this reference material.

It is important to emphasize that: 1) the Menu Foods recall is specific to “cuts and gravy” products WHICH NATURA DOES NOT SELL, and; 2) Natura’s canned products are made at a facility which has NOT BEEN IMPLICATED IN THE RECALL.

Since being notified of the recall, Natura has been in direct contact with Menu Foods management and have a 100% confidence level that our canned products in the market are healthful and safe.


From: Kim Duke [mailto:kim@playingbig.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:50 PM
To: custserv@naturapet.com
Subject: Menu Foods makes your food?

According to this, http://www.petfoodexpress.com/petfood/default.asp?pageid=78&Section=About Menu Foods makes your food.

Is this true? If it is, I am absolutely horrified. I’ve felt safe feeding my cats Innova brands for the past year or so, and to hear you don’t make your own food is shocking. Please confirm or deny…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think your immediate distrust of Natura is understandable.

I work for the pet food industry (A supply store, not for a company directly). While Innova/C.Nat are not my preferred brands, I think you should know that while they DO outsource the manufacturing of their canned foods, it's made at a completely different facility than the one where food was being contaminated. They also have inspectors from the Natura company there to make sure all of the food is safe for consumption in humans (If you've ever seen a plant that makes pet food, even if they use holistic/human grade ingrediants, the facilities themselves are generally DISGUSTING).

Your decision to boycott Natura is your own, and I'm absolutly not saying you're wrong: My animals are one of the most important things in my life, and I would not want to risk their health in any way, but in terms of food quality, and customer feedback they're one of the best.

I'm curious to know what you're feeding your animals now.