Blue Buffalo Pet Food Caught In A Lie!
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- By Dr. Jill Tack
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With the recent media circus surrounding the lawsuit against Blue Buffalo, Nestlé Purina seems to have emerged as the victor. Nestlé Purina filed the lawsuit on May 6, 2014 claiming false advertising against Blue Buffalo after a third-party test on Blue Buffalo foods by Windsor Laboratories found poultry by-product meal, rice hulls (in grain-free foods), and corn. This came as a big hit to Blue Buffalo who spends around $50 million annually on marketing campaigns claiming that they never use chicken or poultry by-product meal, corn, wheat, or soy.
With the recent media circus surrounding the lawsuit against Blue Buffalo, Nestlé Purina seems to have emerged as the victor. Nestlé Purina filed the lawsuit on May 6, 2014 claiming false advertising against Blue Buffalo after a third-party test on Blue Buffalo foods by Windsor Laboratories found poultry by-product meal, rice hulls (in grain-free foods), and corn. This came as a big hit to Blue Buffalo who spends around $50 million annually on marketing campaigns claiming that they never use chicken or poultry by-product meal, corn, wheat, or soy.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Nestlé Purina started a website called PetFoodHonesty.com that follows the lawsuit from beginning to end, as well as news articles and the full laboratory test results from Windsor Laboratories. Nestlé Purina claims that:
“By-Products Are A Safe And Nutritious Ingredient in Pet Food. This case is not about the nutritional value of by-products and by-product meal, nutrient-rich ingredients that we proudly use in many of our pet food products. Truth-in-labeling and advertising is the issue.”
Testing found that nine out of 10 Blue Buffalo foods tested were found to have poultry by-product meal.
What Does 'By-Product Meal' Even Mean?
According to AAFCO definitions:
“Animal By-Product Meal is the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. It shall not contain extraneous materials not provided for by this definition. This ingredient definition is intended to cover those individual rendered animal tissues that cannot meet the criteria as set forth elsewhere in this section. This ingredient is not intended to be used to label a mixture of animal tissue products.
May consist of whole carcasses, but often includes by-products in excess of what would normally be found in "meat meal" and "meat and bone meal."
“Poultry By-Product Meal consists of the ground, rendered clean parts of the carcasses of slaughtered poultry such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.….{the definition goes on to include the required mineral specifications and required nutrient guarantees}….. If the product bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.”
What Blue Buffalo is Saying
The first statement released by Blue Buffalo’s Founder and Chairman Bill Bishop Stated that:
“Unlike Nestlé Purina:
- Blue Buffalo does not use chicken by-product meal or poultry by-product meal in any of our products
- Blue Buffalo does not use ground corn in any of our products
- Blue Buffalo does not use artificial preservatives in any of our products
We will prove these and other matters in the court with good reliable evidence, and we look forward to disproving the voodoo science that Nestlé Purina relied on to support their outrageous allegations.”
After a question about a supplier mislabeling product was brought to light in May 2014, an email was sent from supplier to supplier stating that working together they could “band-aid” the situation.
The email further stated:
“If you are going to fill these contracts for any reason, then I’m going to have to go to Blue Buffalo to address the breach of contract and undoubtedly divulge the details of what was shipped and the possibility that Rosser’s material is the smoking gun for their problems. That I do not want to do. If the finger is pointed in that direction and then later verified to have been the cause, then Diversified and Wilbur will both have to answer to this in litigation with Blue. The liabilities in this could be enormous. You are talking about massive product recalls, potential market share loss, etc. That would undoubtedly be in the several million dollar range.”
Bill Bishop then wrote on September 19, 2014:
“Blue Buffalo had never been dishonest about its ingredients. Our formulas never included the chicken by-product meal, corn or artificial preservatives that Nestle Purina claims to have found in our products and we never purchased even one ounce of those ingredients.”
They then go on to say Nestlé Purina used “Junk Science” from a non-reputable laboratory.
On October 14, 2014 Blue Buffalo admitted to some of their foods containing by-products, stating that their supplier had mislabeled the chicken meal and it was actually chicken by-product meal. You can read the whole letter here.
In a statement released on their website, Blue Buffalo addressed concerned owners with the following statement on May 9, 2015:
Dear Pet Parents:
We fully understand your concern with this topic, but you should know that the recent press release by Nestlé Purina is simply the latest attack in their year-long smear campaign against Blue Buffalo.
In October of last year, we informed you that a supplier of ingredients to us and many other well-known brands of pet foods had sent chicken meal to some of their customers that contained poultry by-product meal. We said at the time that, as a result, some of our food could include this mislabeled ingredient, that we had stopped buying ingredients from this facility and that we had reached out to the FDA.
Just recently, this former supplier made additional disclosures in legal proceedings that showed that a substantial proportion of its shipments to our contract manufacturing facilities prior to May 2014 were, in fact, mislabeled.
In view of this new information, this past Wednesday, May 6, 2015 we informed the Court of our conclusion that a material amount of our dry foods manufactured with mislabeled ingredients shipped prior to May 2014 had been impacted, and requested permission to bring a claim against this former supplier and others involved for intentionally mislabeling ingredients and unjustly enriching themselves. The Court immediately granted our request.
Yours sincerely,
Blue Buffalo
What’s Blue to Do?
With a year spent in court, and Blue Buffalo finally admitting to unlabeled ingredients making their way into pet foods there have been NO recalls issued for mislabeled food and NO apologies for the consumers. Given that Blue Buffalo had wind of mislabeled products since October of last year at the latest, it would be fair to ask for higher quality control.
Independently-Owned Companies are Better!
With the recent information brought to light, it is becoming more and more important for pet parents to really trust their companies. Here at The Pet Beastro, we diligently research and talk with every company before bringing them into our store, putting them on our shelves, and offering them to our customer family. Some questions we ask are:
- Is your meat grass-fed and free-range or cage-free?
- Do you use GMO ingredients?
- Where are your supplements sourced?
- Are fish wild caught or farmed?
- If they are wild caught -- If you use nets, how do you assure no by-catch?
- Are fish tested for mercury?
- Where is your manufacturing facility?
- Where is your cannery? (if applicable)
- Does your company follow the EU standards of processing?
- What is the grade of animal meal being used?
- Does your company offer facility and or farm tours?
- Does your company use any nitrates or synthetics?
Our companies are known to be very transparent when it comes to suppliers, manufacturing, and sourcing. Working with independent companies, I have never been told that ingredients or sourcing was proprietary information. Questions are welcomed and easily answered. Pet food products sold here at The Pet Beastro use local, fresh, and trusted ingredients, making it easy for pet parents to trust that what is on the package is actually what is in the bag.
How to Say Goodbye to Blue Buffalo:
We offer individual one-on-one Food Assessments and Nutrition Consults that can help you find the best food and overall diet for your specific pet's health needs. Call the store at 248.548.3448 to schedule your appointment with one of our educated pet nutrition specialists.
Resources:
www.AAFCO.org/Consumers/What-is-in-Pet-Food
BlueBuffalo.com/about-us/whats-new-at-blue/nestle-purina-lawsuit-response-5/
BlueBuffalo.com/purinas-junk-science/
TruthAboutPetFood.com/surprising-statement-from-blue-buffalo-pet-food/
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