Premium Edge Cat Food Voluntary Withdrawal

[Hannie]

No more recalls, folks, they are all "voluntary withdrawals" now.  Guess they think it sounds better & it won't upset pet parents as much........don't get me started!!!!!  Once again, many thanks to Susan for keeping us up to date.

http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/458/1/Premium-Edge-Cat-Food-Voluntary-Withdrawal/Page1.html

Original article updated after receiving additional information from Premium Edge Cat Food representative...

A spokesman at Diamond Pet Food, manufacturer of Premium Edge Cat Food, relates information regarding problems with Premium Edge Cat Food; the food has been withdrawn from retail outlets.

I received a tip that there was a potential problem with Premium Edge cat food; follow up information provided to TruthaboutPetFood.com stated that Dr. Susan Hubbard of Stone Ridge Veterinary Hospital in Rochester, NY has treated “13+ cats eating Finicky Adult Cat or Hairball Formula” Premium Edge cat food.  Symptoms have included; decreased appetite prior to neuro signs, vomiting, vestibular-like ataxia, dull mentation, a subtle positional ventral nystagmus, dilated pupils, decreased to absent PLR and menance, blindness, seizures, head & neck weakness with ventral flexion, postural rigidity, circling, increased respiratory rate, hypothermia.

A Diamond Pet Food company spokesman confirmed the above to me late this morning (10/2/09 11:50 AM ET).  The Diamond Pet Food representative related that testing proved no contaminants were discovered in the cat food; the only issue discovered was the cat foods were deficient in Thiamine (the level in the tested food was only >1.5 ppm - should be >5 ppm).  Diamond tracked the vitamin premix lot number that was utilized in these particular cat foods and have performed testing on another lot of Premium Edge cat food that used the same vitamin premix.  That food was not deficient in thiamine.

The Diamond Pet Food company spokesman relayed the following theory to TruthaboutPetFood.com regarding this issue with Premium Edge Cat Food:

Diamond pet food time stamps each product manufactured (date and time food was manufactured).  The time stamps for the first calls logged of affected cat foods were manufactured within a twelve minute time frame.  The speculation is some type of manufacturing error during those twelve minutes resulted in these cat foods becoming deficient in Thiamine.

The company stated there have been no other complaints from pet owners or veterinarians regarding Premium Edge Cat Food except from the Rochester, NY area (location of Dr. Susan Hubbard, Stone Ridge Veterinary Hospital).  Premium Edge contacted all retail outlets asking them to pull the product from the store shelves.  The retailers were also asked to contact their customers via email or telephone requesting them to check the date code of the food.

Although it was recommended to the company spokesman (from me), no press release information has been posted on Premium Edge website as of the writing of this article.  The affected date codes are RAF0501A22X 18lb., RAF0501A2X 6 lb., RAH0501A22X 18 lb., RAH0501A2X 6lb.  If you or anyone you know has these date codes of Premium Edge cat food, please return them to your retailer for a full refund.  http://www.premiumedgepetfood.com/

[Bonkers]

They now have a statement posted on their website but you kinda have to look around for it on the home page and they have it listed under promotions. 

http://www.premiumedgepetfood.com/promotions/66/

So this is another case of a premix that was not manufactured properly?
I wonder if their premix's come from Trouw???

[Hannie]

Bonkers:

It probably is Trouw.  I'm sure they make up vitamin premix for most of the manufacturers.  I don't know that for sure but I don't think there are a zillion suppliers of vitamins for pf.  I know who mixes the vitamins for my dog's food:  me.  That makes me feel a lot more secure than leaving it in the hands of these big, filthy rich corporations who could care less about our pets.

I also want to know how symptoms appeared so rapidly in a thiamine-deficient pf.  I can understand an OD on vitamins showing up right away but it stands to reason (at least to me) that you'd have to be feeding this for a while for symptoms to show.  From what they've said, it appears to be one run.  Amazing how you can feed a few meals from a bag of pf & a thiamine deficiency shows up?  Sorry, don't buy that one.

I wish they'd drop this "voluntary withdrawal" nonsense & call it what we all know it is:  a recall.  Personally, it doesn't make me any less angry when you call it a withdrawal......I'm sure the pfc thinks this verbiage will make it look less threatening to pet parents.  I say BS!

(Edited to change to thiamine.......duh!)