Vitamins from China...

[lacy]

I was looking up Eagle Pack and the pet list information said this..
"Only ingredients from China are glucosamine and taurine (a pet food and human food industry standard).
Vitamins sourced from BASF, a recognized & respected vitamin source. However, even they must buy some vitamins from China, as do the other respected vitamin companies."
Does this worry anyone?? Is this the standard for ALL pet food?? Has anyone found a company that doesnt use China for anything?? Vitamins and all??

[willyagogo]

Lacy:...

I don't know about the vitamins.....but I am trying to find out if there is any thing from China used in the supplement called Missing Link (for dogs).....

If there is......my interest for that product  will quickly vanish!!!!!

[Cindy Nevarez]

I have found 2 so far; Evangers and Merrricks. I'm not saying they are perfect (none are), but they are acceptable for me right now.

[garypen]

BASF is a chemical company, like Dow, DuPont, and Union Carbide. Personally, I would avoid vitamin or food products from any of those companies, regardless of country of origin. Also, I doubt if there's any easy way to know for sure if BASF sources their raw materials from China.

[lacy]

This is so hard and confusing becuase there are so many different vitamins in petfood and in supplements. Who knows where anything REALLY comes from anymore. This whole thing is making me crazy and stressed!! 

Cindy Nevarez- So Merricks and Evangers said they dont use any vitamins from China? That would be great. Im using Merricks! Cant find Evangers ANYWHERE near me.

[Cindy Nevarez]

I ordered mine online directly from the company. The shipping is very reasonable. Also,if you recheck the Pet Food List you'll there are a few more there that state they get their ingredients from the USA. If there are exceptions to that, they state that too. My criteria at the time I decided to buy Evangers and Merricks was 'human grade, US grown, and no outsourcing manufacturing.'

[tahitigirl]

Cindy - I don't want to upset you, but I used to feed my dog Merrick, and have stopped.

Do a little research on a company called Tejas Industries and you will begin to see why.  I called the "plant" telephone number for Tejas Industries and talked to a supervisor working out in the plant.  I asked him if they made pet food and he said yes.  I asked which brands they make and he told me they make both Merrick 5 Star and Beef'n More pet food.  He said they use the same ingredients in both foods.  Beef'n More is a food that sells at Sam's Club for 49 cents for a large can.  Tejas Industries is a rendering plant owned by Garth Merrick.  You do the math.

[garypen]

I just checked the Beef'n More web site, and the ingredients list for their canned food looks great. (On paper, anyway.) Very similar to Merrick. It has that same stew look, as well.

For a variety of reasons, I'm gonna stick with Merrick canned food for my cats, for now.

tahitigirl - You should post your experience with Merrick in the Merrick sub-forum. It would do more good there.

[Geff]

I was looking up Eagle Pack and the pet list information said this..
"Only ingredients from China are glucosamine and taurine (a pet food and human food industry standard).
Vitamins sourced from BASF, a recognized & respected vitamin source. However, even they must buy some vitamins from China, as do the other respected vitamin companies."
Does this worry anyone?? Is this the standard for ALL pet food?? Has anyone found a company that doesnt use China for anything?? Vitamins and all??

The taurine coming from China really bothers me. Most of the hq foods have this ingredient. I don't think I wanted to know that. I've been reading that just about all the "experts" who are not on the home cooked &/or raw food bandwagons seem to believe that taurine is essential.

I'm feeling reminded of an ecology class i took in college (MANY years ago!). The course's theme was that throughout the history of our planet, us human's have done just about everything we could to harm ourselves & the planet. I think we're really getting a crash course in that at the moment.

[Cindy Nevarez]

It bothers me.

But here's the thing; taurine is in muscle meat. If the manufacturers were using enough real muscle meat in the food...they wouldn't need to add extra in...right?

[garypen]

The consensus that cats need taurine in their diet is pretty much unanimous. But, I can't imagine that China is the only source for this nutrient. It may be the cheapest source. But, it can't be the only source.

[2cats2dogs]

California Natural and Canidae don't use any products from China.  At this point, I'm checking my own food labels, too-- I don't want to eat anything from China or feed it to anyone in my family after all of this.

[ancona]

I wondered about, in fact, I posted about China and Vitamins , especially Vit C imports, and then the vitamins are made in this country for some companies.

I am now having real concerns about Nupro??  It has taurine, Ester C and other minerals.  So, I wonder, since I am cooking and adding Nupro, if I am still causing harm via contaminated ingredients.

[Beowulf]

Mike from Back to Basics here, and before I start... no, we do not use any ingredients from China...

I'm noticing a worrying pattern on these forums, and while I certainly sympathize and understand where it's coming from, it bothers me a bit to hear China being generalized as an entirely untrustworthy country.

Ingredients all coming from the same source in China have been found to be contaminated... this source should be dealt with just as the US companies who have added RPC to foods without the knowledge of the brand company should be dealt with. The "source" however is not China, it's a company IN China!

Yes, our testing should be more rigorous and there are definitely fingers to be pointing in this debacle, but I am seeing WAY too much generalization about China to feel comfortable... China has NOTHING to gain by doing something like this with harm intended and EVERYTHING to lose (as is being well voiced).

Melamine appears to have been added to these ingredients to increase the protein percentage thus making the ingredients more valuable... this is no different than the corner-cutting tricks the US pulls all the time in pet food... and big surprise, when you mess with an ingredient too much something bad is bound to happen (my condolences to all those affected). I guarantee that this "plastic" that had been added to up protein would have been a HUGE success with our US companies had it not proven to be physically harmful. For the same exact reason that the US allows companies to fill your pet food bags with beaks, talons, viscera and feathers (they all read positive on the protein meter) are companies trying to dig even lower and cheaper to increase the same intended effect.

For christ's sake, there are pet foods out there that cannot guarantee that they do not contain OTHER PETS!!!! Seriously, it's legal to use rendered roadkill, etc. in pet food so long as it's marked as a meat by-product...

Getting deep into pet food is a scary place, and there are a lot of things down here that will make you question every food purchase you ever make again... but let's not be so quick to point the finger at an entire country... it's just silly. I was on the paranoid bandwagon when this first hit as well, but as soon as other countries started being affected I knew that the harm was not intentional... stupid, wrong, wildly irresponsible...yes, but not intentional.

There is nothing wrong with vitamins from China... period. I'd stay away from animal ingredients from another country only because of the transport time... but to swear off anything from an entire country because one bad thing came from there is nonsensical to me.

From a capitalistic view, these irrational ravings will only harm everyone.
BUT... if you wanna stop getting their junk because they're a bunch of communists.. THAT I can understand

[Cindy Nevarez]