Response from Eagle Pack

After reading where 5 more foods were to be named, I was concerned as we feed Eagle Pack Holistic to 3 dogs. This is the reply I received today from John Marsman, Nutritionist, E.P."

Hi Pat,

...and sorry for the delay. I was at an industry meeting reviewing the ways to safeguard pet foods. There was an expert there from the University Of Kansas. His biggest point was "KNOW YOUR SUPPLIERS." We do not use wheat gluten in anything we make. One Prism item had rice gluten but it has been removed and the new label will reflect that and it is not in any of our foods. Holistic Transition uses it as a carrier. If any ingredient is in our food it is definitely on our label. We don't use wheat gluten.

I am glad you asked we be upfront and we make a point of that. There is no excuse for a manufacturer not knowing country of origin for ALL ingredients. Either they are not doing their homework or they are by design avoiding the answer. We use glucosamine and most glucosamine comes from China. Our vitamins come from BASF, the leading U.S. vitamin manufacturer, but even they must buy some from China. Any vitamin blend you buy for yourself or that is included in pet food most likely some of the vitamins come from China. The bottom line is know your source and we do. We are EU Certified and among other stringent rules you must have an ingredient sourcing trail. We do. Feel free to post this.

Please feel free to pass on your thoughts and anything you hear out there.

John

Have you also asked them about rice protein concentrate now?

And, I find it scary that most vitamins come from China. :eek:

or rice gluten - it's the same ingredient with a fancier name :eek: :frustrated:

Yeah, that's right and I think it is the term more commonly used in ingredients.

My equiry to E.P. was re rice protein concentrate (rice gluten) and you will notice John referenced it in the third line. They had one product in one line which contained it and no longer does. We feed the Holistic products and have for some time with great success for a Bernese Mountain Dog, a Leonberger and a Golden. Google the 10 top rice producing countries in the world, and you will see China is #1.

As far as vitamins coming from China, just check now many items you have in your house with labels and guess where they come from? Pretty scary, but I bet it isn't going to change.

One Prism item had rice gluten but it has been removed and the new label will reflect that and it is not in any of our foods.When? Yesterday or months ago? Big difference, right?

I was not enquiring about the Prism line, and was not even aware of it. It looks like it is the low end of E.P. If anyone uses this product, I would suggest they contact E.P. My main concern was the Holistic which we feed, and also have friends who feed the Natural. The following is an article posted on Eagle Pack's site now:http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/recall_stmt.html

I think the onus is on each of us to contact our supplier and ask the questions relative to the food we are concerned about, and I have emailed all my cyber friends and suggested they do so.

Just checked the Prism line, and it is the Lamb Meal & Rice which contains rice gluten which is being removed BUT this was not rice gluten purchased from the supplier(s) in question so it is not a matter of them removing a contaminated ingredient.

I feed Eagle Pack and my cats love it, so far I've fed the chicken and brown rice and the multi-cat formula, which is low fat. According to their site, none of the dry cat foods are affected by the recall.
And I feed canned, Friskies, I know pretty crappy, but they don't get much. When I run out and they don't get their morning fix, it can get quite frosty around here :)

Goldengal,

thanks for posting - we started Gomez on EP Holistic about a month ago and he is doing very on it, first the chicken and now the fish - I'm glad we are in the clear!

It is one of the better foods available in Australia, so very happy with it -

thanks again for doing the leg work