Emergency Bulletin from Labpups.com

      Several days ago, dogs and cats that were eating commercial and private label foods produced with contaminated wheat fell terribly ill. Some died. Wheat is an ingredient in many canned and retort pouch foods manufactured by Menu Foods, one of the largest producers of such items. They produce (under contract) foods for Eukaneuba, Iams, Science Diet, and about 60 other companies. Each of these companies have several products that were affected. In all, roughly 61 million individual cans and pouches are being removed from store shelves. For detailed recall information, you can visit www.Menufoods.com/recall.

      The contaminant was reportedly Aminopterin, a rat poison used in China, which is also the exporting country of the contaminated wheat. (Aminopterin is also a Cancer treatment drug).

How Does This Happen?

      When a product such as wheat gluten arrives at the factory’s mixing plant, it should be tested for Microtoxins, Vomitoxins, and other contaminants. (These are toxins produced by mold. Most production plants will accept 20 parts per million of these contaminants). If testing is inadequate or non-existent, and a load of contaminated grain makes its way into production, dogs and cats are in trouble. When a plant is under pressure to produce millions of pounds of product, one can see how testing may get lax. In 2006, Diamond Pet Foods had this problem with contaminated corn, leading to sickness and death of dogs. This problem may occur more often than we realize. Should the contaminant be a poison that is not routinely tested for, such as rat poison, the glitch goes unnoticed. This time, the press happened to pick up on the story. It is possible there have been other cases where no one made the connection between sick dogs and contaminated foods.

      This is one of the reasons we decided to produce JaxMax – to have formula and production control. Our suppliers are not the cheapest, but by far the safest suppliers. Before grains used in our products are offloaded from trucks, they are tested for Microtoxins and Vomitoxins. When ingredients are mixed, just prior to cooking, the mix is tested a second time. We do everything in our power to use only the most fresh and wholesome ingredients. Of course, handling production in this manner costs a bit more, but in the end, it’s worth it.

We remain committed to serving your friend only the best!

                The Labpups and JaxMax team   www.Labpups.com   www.JaxMax.com

Sincerely,