Critical Comsumer Pat Sidley
AN old gag asks why dogs lick themselves. The answer: “So they can get rid of the taste of Epol.” This month, Weekly Mail & Gardian pet lovers may have noticed a lot of dog- licking.
Epol Tender Chunks, a product which is cereal-based and beef-flavoured, has appeared in several packets with a mouldy growth on the chunks.
Although Epol has tried to withdraw the product from the shelves of supermarkets, this fact appears to have bypassed the attention of several outlets. As a result, large stacks of the mouldy food waste space — and consumer money — on their shelves.
It’s also a problem which the upper echelons of Premier’s Pet Foods division had not been informed of and so this Critical Consumer’s query was initially bounced.
However, Philip Tissiman, the product manager at Premier Pet Foods, later confirmed that there was a problem with the Tender Chunks. He said the product had a high moisture content and, as a result of a heat wave experienced around the country recently, the chunks had effectively sweated, encouraging a mouldy growth.
This, he said, usually happened if the product had not been handled correctly during transportation. When this happened, the usual procedure was to fire the transport company.
According to Tissiman, Premier was in the process of trying to track down the exact cause of the mouldy dog food. He said Premier was also investigating its manufacturing process in an attempt to prevent the problems created by hot weather.
Dog lovers will be happy to know that the mould is not harmful to dogs; it merely tastes awful. Tissiman should know this as he has to taste the Tender Chunks regularly.
Consumers may not have noticed that the chunks are a “high moisture” product. Like margarine manufacturers and chicken producers, dog food manufacturers are unlikely to boast about the amount of non-nutritive moisture packed into their product. All this is going to change, however.
According to Tissiman — and this was confirmed by the Department of Agriculture — regulations regarding the labels on pet food cans and packets should be made a good deal more informative before the year is out. This was another item stalled by the elections, but the process is currently under way.
The law which governs the labelling on pet food is Act 36 of 1947, which regulates fertilisers, farm feeds, agricultural remedies and stock remedies. The regulations are upgraded every now and then. Among the present problems is the fact that manufacturers are not compelled to list all the ingredients. This can have severe problems for an animal sensitive to certain ingredients (as one cat lover who reads the WM&G discovered). And it also means that unscrupulous pet food manufacturers can get away with murder — or slaughter.
The Department of Agriculture said it was aware of several “fly-by-night” dog food manufacturers who operate perfectly legally at the moment. Without a change in the law, the department said, these people could continue to sell their products. The envisaged changes to the Act should stop this.
Tissiman said he believed that the upgraded regulations would protect consumers — and their pets. He would like to see all ingredients and their nutritional values listed on the labels of products.
According to both Tissiman and the department, any pet food claiming to be completely balanced must be able to back up this claim with scientifically verifiable data.
It would be nice to believe the pet owner could rely on this. The proposed changes may help avoid the situation this Critical Consumer and a couple of distressed readers have found themselves in when their pets reacted badly to something in canned food and they had no way of knowing what caused their pets to become ill.
Meanwhile, supermarket owners may need to be reminded that they ought to take mouldy packets of Epol’s Tender Chunks off their shelves. Failing which, if your dog has consumed some of the food, you may observe it licking itself frantically to get rid of the taste.
And before the licking gets out of hand, contact Premier Pet Foods, who will replace any problem food bought and will deal sympathetically with any complaints relating to expenses incurred.