Nutro recalls puppy food that may contain melted plastic
By Christie Keith
http://www.petconnection.com/blog/20...elted-plastic/

September 29, 2009

It started out as a rumor, but one of Nutro’s “Ambassadors” just
confirmed it on her Twitter feed: Nutro is “voluntarily withdrawing” —
or, in plain English, recalling — some puppy food sold through PetSmart
and Petco stores:

EdnaAtNutro @cvec Hi! I’m with Nutro. plastic-During a maint.
shutdown, a bump cap inadvertently made its way into our mfg. process
equipment….

EdnaAtNutro @cvec Nutro audited 3000 bags of potentially affected
finished product that never left our mfg site.

EdnaAtNutro @cvec Out of abundance of caution, Nutro voluntarily
retrieved pot. affected product in a small number of PS/PC stores.

EdnaAtNutro @cvec Consumers who have purchased pot. affected
product should return it to their retailer or contact Nutro’s Consumer
Care @ 800- 833-5330

My favorite question for Edna, and one I’d like to see an answer to from
the company:

kittymadgrrrr @EdnaAtNutro perhaps Nutro should post this at their website?

Indeed.

One of our readers emailed PetSmart about the recall, and received this
reply:

Thank you for contacting PetSmart. Nutro has done a voluntary
product withdrawal. This was done by the company for certain Nutro
products and size. The affected items were Nutro Ultra Puppy 4.5 lb bags
and Nutro Natural Choice Chicken, Rice and Oatmeal Puppy Small Bites in
5lb bags. While we have not been notified of any injury or illness
related to these products, Pet Parents who have purchased these products
should immediately stop feeding the food to their pets.

Because the withdrawal of these items only affects certain sized
packages, you can return these to your nearest PetSmart to exchange the
affected product for an alternate-sized package of the same food or a
full refund.

If you have any more questions about this withdrawal, please
contact Nutro customer service at 1-800-833-5330 or visit
www.nutroproducts.com.

Again, we would like to reiterate that this is a voluntary Nutro
product withdrawl.

I find the whole “voluntary.. withdrawal” thing so aggravating. Since
FDA does not have the authority to order pet food recalls (or human
ones, for that matter), all recalls are voluntary.

Including the ones that get spun into “withdrawals.”

Long story short: Companies, stop parsing words. Announce clearly and
early, and don’t fantasize that you’ll be able to bring this in under
the radar. You won’t. It just makes you look like you have something to
hide, and erodes consumer confidence.