Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

We do feed the guinea pig organic dandelion

I have been keeping a close eye on the pet food recalls, and feeling increasingly disturbed.

We haven't used any of the implicated foods, and early on I double-checked all the pet food and treats for gluten. My logic was, if gluten was contaminated, I'm considering any gluten suspect and I'm taking no chances. I see that the manufacturers are using a similar line of reasoning: watch the voluntary recall list grow to include anything with gluten from the Chinese company Menu Foods used.

Gluten isn't disturbing me. Well, not true, I feel terrible for people who lost their pets. If that had been my dog, I expect I'd be inconsolable.

But what really concerns me is that this will be like liquid on airplanes, too narrow a focus. Stricter tests to make sure gluten doesn't have melamine! I'm not convinced that the broader issue of making sure that imported ingredients meet any health standards and good manufacturing practices will be addressed.

(Come to think of it, I'm not entirely sure that the issue of good manufacturing and safety is adequately addressed for domestic food either. People or pets.)

And now that I think about that, I'm not super-comfortable with dog food. And I wonder about the processed convience food I'm eating...where's the plant where those ingredients came from? (E. coli and salmonella don't bother me as much as a chemical contaminant from processing, but that's because I have a functioning immune system. I'm not being flip. If I or someone in my family were immunocompromised, I'd worry about the organic nasties too.)

Ironically, you know what the safest food in our house probably is? Rat blocks. Seriously. The food for the rats comes from a huge lab supply company, the same place where drug companies and the like buy the food for the rodent studies. Because the (very expensive) studies can't be screwed up because of the food, you know exactly what's in those blocks to the ppm level, and because the studies last two years, the food is exactly the same from batch to batch to batch. The facility where the food is made is inspected and certified six ways from Sunday. The raw materials are tested before anybody starts mixing anything together.

It is rather bland, however.

Posted by Nic at April 5, 2007 04:40 PM | TrackBack