Blue Buffalo Admits To Using Bi-Product Meal

Silaria · May 8, 2015

As you may or may not be aware, Purina sued Blue Buffalo last year (2014) for false advertising, claiming they didn't use by-product meal in their foods.

On May 6, Blue Buffalo admitted in court to using by-product meal (emphasis mine):

ST. LOUIS, May 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Purina issued the following response to Blue Buffalo's admission in court yesterday that a "substantial" and "material" portion of Blue Buffalo pet food sold to consumers contained poultry by-product meal, despite pervasive advertising claims to the contrary. Blue Buffalo asked the Court for additional time to file an Amended Complaint in the litigation, naming its ingredient suppliers as Defendants.

"Despite this admission, Blue Buffalo still has not informed consumers of the presence of poultry by-product meal in Blue Buffalo pet food, refuses to accept responsibility for the product it sold, and is instead blaming its suppliers," said Keith Schopp, a spokesperson for Nestlé Purina Petcare.

The full article is here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...rial-portion-of-their-pet-food-300079805.html

Just further proof that its impossible to trust a pet food company.

tesslynn · May 9, 2015

Silaria said:
As you may or may not be aware, Purina sued Blue Buffalo last year (2014) for false advertising, claiming they didn't use by-product meal in their foods.

On May 6, Blue Buffalo admitted in court to using by-product meal (emphasis mine):

The full article is here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...rial-portion-of-their-pet-food-300079805.html

Just further proof that its impossible to trust a pet food company.

WOW-makes you wonder where their sense of ethics ARE...you are paying for a "premium" dog food brand with this label and yet they are not truthful. As the consumer-who does one trust anymore????

Emmasmom · May 10, 2015

I had Liam on Blue and after a while, he just wasn't doing good. The food just seems to go right through him. He couldn't gain weight, couldn't keep it on, 4 or 5 BMs per day. I switched him after a major illness at Christmas to another food and he has done well. I used to recommend Blue but stopped when I had all the issues in the last year. You just never know - dishonesty is rampant I guess but to deny and then blame it on other suppliers. I am sorry - as a manufacturer, you need to know your products and supplies.

SheepOfBlue · May 10, 2015

Sounds like a lot of those in our government now. The buck no longer stops here but should be passed down and around :lol:

FWIW we only did Blue Buffalo once when I forgot food on the way to a flyball tournament

. Spitfire had a terrible allergic reaction to it (unrelated to this I am sure). So no BB here regardless of Sca the iron belly tolerating anything :lol:

Mignarda · May 10, 2015

Blue Buffalo is claiming that they (and other pet food suppliers) received shipments of chicken meal from a well-known supplier that had been mislabeled. Who knows? I use dog food primarily as a source of fiber and whatever vitamins it contains. The rest of Dickens's diet is meat, both raw and cooked. Which, incidentally, is much cheaper than some of those designer dog foods that I suspect are marketed more on the basis of snob appeal than nutrition.

RikyR · May 10, 2015

There is a very fine line between meat meal and meat by-product meal. And I bet that there is a big cost savings to go with the lower quality products. Until there is some type of regulations with teeth, pet food manufacturers and their suppliers will alway put profit before quality. In spite of what they say, to most of them, they are "just dogs".

tesslynn · May 11, 2015

Mignarda said:
Blue Buffalo is claiming that they (and other pet food suppliers) received shipments of chicken meal from a well-known supplier that had been mislabeled. Who knows? I use dog food primarily as a source of fiber and whatever vitamins it contains. The rest of Dickens's diet is meat, both raw and cooked. Which, incidentally, is much cheaper than some of those designer dog foods that I suspect are marketed more on the basis of snob appeal than nutrition.

advertising is BIG biz, and the dog food manufacturers KNOW this, and USE it, but quality control is secondary, just look at the recalls that have happened. There is truly a disconnect in what they advertise and production. It is cheaper and imho WAY healthier to find QUALITY ingredients to give your pet. At least you have knowledge of what they are ingesting. With most kibble, expensive or cheap you can only trust a label so far, the fact is that they aren't scrutinizing those sources/suppliers enough. So a label is just words, not always fact of content. Follow the greed and the balance sheets and that is the true representation...

The majority of chickens are pumped full of all kinds of stuff to maintain their "quality & health" and given a cage to live in, in huge warehouses and fed mostly corn/soy that is altered as well which grows great but has inferior nutritional content/value, unless they are range animals, which is TOO expensive for mass manufacturing purposes, then it is pumped full of water (sodium solution) to add weight in the packaging/production process-volume = price, so what kind of quality really is in chicken meat overall is my concern. I think you are better off not giving anything a processed chicken, meal or otherwise, unless you have SEEN how it is raised. I guess it is a choice between pay up front, or pay for medical care later-not pretty but the absolute truth.

Silaria · May 11, 2015

I use to feed Blue Buffalo years ago, before they started advertising on TV. Edan and CJ did very well on it at the time but I switched foods because I wanted a non-poultry single protein source food after Edan had his gallbladder removed. Blue simply didn't make what I was looking for.

I remember thinking when I started seeing Blue commercials on TV that it didn't bode well for the brand. Advertising costs so much money that something had to give somewhere. Unfortunately they, apparently secretively, started using the cheaper meat by-product meal while continuing to advertise they didn't use it.

Wasn't Blue purchased by one of the big pet food conglomerates out there? That could also be behind some of these "wonderful" changes.

SheepOfBlue · May 11, 2015

Mignarda said:
Blue Buffalo is claiming that they (and other pet food suppliers) received shipments of chicken meal from a well-known supplier that had been mislabeled. Who knows? I use dog food primarily as a source of fiber and whatever vitamins it contains. The rest of Dickens's diet is meat, both raw and cooked. Which, incidentally, is much cheaper than some of those designer dog foods that I suspect are marketed more on the basis of snob appeal than nutrition.

I doubt that is the case here. After all a competitor has found an occurance and proven it. Kind of hard to do on a one off error that was mislabled. Seems like they are lying to me.

sable · May 15, 2015

By doing what they did, sure hurts the integrity of the company.
Oh sure people are going to run and buy this food??? Sad!