Natural Balance believes rice protein concentrate may be contaminated with melamine and is the source of the problems with the Venison products in their recall. Those products are:
- Venison & Brown Rice Wet Dog Food and Dry Dog Food
- Venison & Brown Rice Dog Treats
- Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Food
These varieties do not contain wheat gluten, but rice protein was just added recently. So now one of the questions is what brands also used rice protein concentrate? The company that sold the rice protein concentrate sold it to five pet food companies. Only Diamond Pet Foods, who does the packing for some of Natural Balance’s products, was revealed as one of those five companies. (Diamond Pet Foods own products do not contain rice protein concentrate.) I’d sure like to know who the other four companies were that bought the same rice protein concentrate.
You can find out much more on the recall on my Pet Food Recall Archive Page.
Why are we bothering to pay extra for these so called premium cat foods, when they are just doing the same as the mass markets brands and stuffing their food full of Chinese fillers?
I would like all these high end brands to start stating the sources of their ingredients. I think companies that take this initiative will have an advantage in the market. I certainly would prefer a brand that stated all ingredients come from North America (or Europe if I lived there).
Some companies have been transparent about their ingredients for a while and more are beginning to be due to the recall. You can check out this post to find out more. In particular, Canidae/Felidae, Wellness, Solid Gold, and Newman’s Own Organic Pet Food are good about stating where they source their ingredients.
And just a note, wheat gluten isn’t a filler. It’s a dough conditioner and a binding agent. Rice protein has a low risk for being an allergen and the Natural Balance Venison Foods were designed to be allergen free. My understanding from researching this topic, is that wheat gluten is not being used as a protein source, but rather as binding agents and dough conditioners. The rice protein is probably used as a non-allergen protein source. The meat products provide most of the protein.
A lot of these companies are still using “weasel words” such as “we only use North American suppliers” instead of all our ingredients are grown/created in North America or New Zealand or wherever.
I have been feeding mainly Fromm, Wellness, Natural Balance and Eagle Pack, but am not sure who to trust anymore. Some of these companies get items made by Menu Foods, or worse, in China… http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/
The rice protein is fourth on the Venision & Pea cat food ingredient list, right after the peas and venison. So, whatever its purpose, perhaps it is an even more significant portion of the food than the earlier recalls?
On the itchmo site someone mentioned some Wellness as also containing rice protein… http://www.itchmo.com/read/natural-balance-pulling-venison-dry-dog-formula_20070415
This does not mean it is one of the five companies, but until we find out the other four, maybe people should check the ingredients lists.
People should definitely check the ingredients list. I think rice protein is more likely to show up in foods that are for dogs and cats with food allergies/sensitivities, so be especially careful checking these. I wouldn’t feed my pets anything with rice protein at this time.
My cats dry food is Evolve. It contains brown rice. Is that the same thing as rice protein?
Darlene, brown rice is brown rice. Rice protein concentrate has been extracted from rice and concentrated. So they’re different. It can be pretty confusing.