Update from Wellness website about testing

[himimom1254]

I found this post on their website today:

May 23, 2007

Dear Pet Parents,

We are pleased to reassure you that NO Wellness, Old Mother Hubbard or Neura products have been affected in any way by the recent pet food industry recalls.
We say this to you with confidence after having completed extensive testing on products and ingredients…this includes testing for melamine and other contaminants.  Going forward, we have added melamine testing to our already extensive testing protocol. 

Our Mission
Wellness Natural Food and Treats for pets was created a decade ago as consumers increasingly questioned the purity of the food they eat, and increasingly paid more attention to proper diets and healthy lifestyles for themselves. We saw this need for our animal companions, and made it our mission to create natural products with healthy ingredients that pet parents can feed with confidence.

Human Food Standards
Because there are no specific pet food safety standards, we use human food standards qualified by a human food auditing firm (Cook and Thurber). It has always been part of our mission to develop, test and produce our pet foods and treats to meet human food standards. We believe we may be the only company that conducts human food audits.  And because of the comprehensive nature of our Quality Assurance Program, we can assure you that our products remain of the highest quality and meet the same standards as the food you yourself eat.

About Our Comprehensive Quality Assurance Program
Wellness has a dedicated staff of experts working every day to ensure the quality of our products. All are produced according to our proprietary, thoughtfully balanced recipes, with our specified ingredients, and must meet our human food quality standards. We can assure you that they are met because we insist the following requirements are met on every food product bearing our company name.

    * Ingredient selection and sourcing - We require that our suppliers prove that their ingredients are free of contaminants and meet our exacting standards.
    * Manufacturing and supply chain security - Our employees monitor the quality control processes with our manufacturing partners.
    * Quality Assurance - Our facilities are audited by Cook & Thurber, a HUMAN FOOD auditing firm, which utilizes over 600 checks to ensure the correct systems are in place to build safety and quality into all steps in the process.
    * Our facilities must also employ HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) standards that measure for potential risks and mitigate them along the way.  This includes tests for physical, chemical and microbiological hazards, just as is required for human food.
    * Continuous quality checks are performed throughout the entire manufacturing process.
    * We require a complete cleaning and sanitation between each product run to help ensure the purity of our products.
    * The final product is double-checked for adherence to our strict specifications at both the Wellness Quality Assurance lab and an independent third-party laboratory.
    * Continuous Improvement – In addition to always expanding our quality assurance procedures to incorporate tests and processes that ensure the safety of your pets’ food, we welcome and encourage feedback about our products from Wellness consumers and their pets. This is perhaps the most important step in our Quality Assurance Program.

We believe that nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our pets.  The events of the past two months confirm the critical importance of our comprehensive Quality Assurance standards to ensure the quality and safety of your pets’ food.

We welcome any questions you might have. You can reach us at 1-800-225-0904.


Jim Scott
Chief Executive Officer
   
Deborah Ellinger
President

[jenny]

I'm glad they finally updated their web page.  I've been checking for quite some time.  Hopefully they add cynuric acid to their testing too.  I had taken my cats off this for a short while when one of them abruptly turned their nose up at it (I also didn't like the form letter I received as a response from the company - the food smelled odd).   However, I tried it again (different flavor) and they are eating it. 

[lesliek]

I called Wellness today. Wanted to know if they would put on their site that the plants had had no recalls. They said no,some of the dry is made at ANI.They say they have an employee there to make sure the equip is cleaned;but seems to me I've heard that before. Usually right before a cross contamination recall. Oh well;another 1 down. Running out of options !

[KimS]

Here's the newest update from Wellness. 

7/12/07

Dear Pet Parents,

We wanted to share with you the comprehensive quality assurance program we have had in place to ensure the safety and quality of all Wellness and Old Mother Hubbard products.

Wellness Natural Food and Treats for pets was created a decade ago as consumers increasingly questioned the purity of the food they eat, and increasingly paid more attention to proper diets and healthy lifestyles for themselves. We saw this need for our animal companions, and made it our mission to create natural products with healthy ingredients that pet parents can feed with confidence.

Human Food Standards
Because there are no specific pet food safety standards, we use human food standards qualified by a human food auditing firm (Cook and Thurber). It has always been part of our mission to develop, test and produce our pet foods and treats to meet human food standards. We believe we may be the only company that conducts human food audits.  And because of the comprehensive nature of our Quality Assurance Program, we can assure you that our products remain of the highest quality and meet the same standards as the food you yourself eat.

About Our Comprehensive Quality Assurance Program
Wellness has a dedicated staff of experts working every day to ensure the quality of our products. All are produced according to our proprietary, thoughtfully balanced recipes, with our specified ingredients, and must meet our human food quality standards. We can assure you that they are met because we insist the following requirements are met on every food product bearing our company name.

Ingredient selection and sourcing - We require that our suppliers prove that their ingredients are free of contaminants and meet our exacting standards.
Manufacturing and supply chain security - Our employees monitor the quality control processes with our manufacturing partners.
Quality Assurance - Our facilities are audited by Cook & Thurber, a HUMAN FOOD auditing firm, which utilizes over 600 checks to ensure the correct systems are in place to build safety and quality into all steps in the process.
Our facilities must also employ HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) standards that measure for potential risks and mitigate them along the way.  This includes tests for physical, chemical and microbiological hazards, just as is required for human food.
Continuous quality checks are performed throughout the entire manufacturing process.
We require a complete cleaning and sanitation between each product run to help ensure the purity of our products.
The final product is double-checked for adherence to our strict specifications at both the Wellness Quality Assurance lab and an independent third-party laboratory.
Continuous Improvement – In addition to always expanding our quality assurance procedures to incorporate tests and processes that ensure the safety of your pets’ food, we welcome and encourage feedback about our products from Wellness consumers and their pets. This is perhaps the most important step in our Quality Assurance Program.
We believe that nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our pets. We are confident our comprehensive Quality Assurance standards ensures the quality and safety of your pets’ food.

We welcome any questions you might have. You can reach us at 1-800-225-0904.



Deborah Ellinger
CEO