FDA has found that the processing procedures at Evanger's Dog & Cat Food Company, Inc. in Wheeling, IL leave something to be desired. The agency has issued a notice to the company that it must obtain an emergency permit from FDA before it can sell its canned pet foods interstate.Evanger's canned pet food is all-meat, grain-free, and even kosher. It has received the approval of the Chicago Rabbinical Council, but not of the FDA, which answers to a different authority.
According to the FDA order, Evanger's processing documentation has been inadequate, leading to the possibility that Clostridium botulinum might be able to survive in the canned pet foods. While the types of botulism toxin that are dangerous to humans – A, B, and E – usually don't affect dogs or cats, types C and D can be dangerous to both cats and dogs.
Simply handling contaminated pet food that contains Clostridium botulinum or its toxin may also be risky. The microbe can infect open sores, producing "wound botulism". Or, a miniscule amount of toxin may be transferred onto the handler's skin and, inadvertently, be ingested. It takes very little toxin to make someone ill.
FDA appears to be of the opinion that the product does not present any immediate risk. Nevertheless, it is requiring the company to bring its documentation and processing practices into line with federal requirements. Otherwise, Evanger's will not be permitted to sell their products outside of the state of Illinois.
Posts
The FDA news release is highly inaccurate and misleading. Evanger's Dog and Cat Food Company is not under emergency permit and is currently manufacturing and distributing its products worldwide with FDA approval. There have been no allegations for unsafe product or recalls. Please go to evangersdogfood.com for company statement.
ReplyDeleteHolly Sher
President of Evanger's Dog and Cat Food Co, Inc.
I called Evangers 4/28/08. Left a message on voice mail asking Holly to return my call. Holly DID return my call today 4/29/08. What I get as the bottom line from talking to Holly is that this is a 'formality' and the verbage used in the FDA letter is 'standard'. This is the FIRST inspection for Evangers in 6 years! How's THAT for FDA accountability? The 'violations' were technicalities - ie. "no paperwork for the specks on the ventilation system...documentation wrong...example: start a canning process at 11:00pm 4/3/08 - completes 2:00am on 4/04/08 - found to be in error for labeling cans produced 4/3/08 rather than 4/04/08." What I gather from talking to Holly is that this is basically the usual bureaucratic technical BS. There has been "NOTHING DEEMED WRONG WITH THE PRODUCT"...it's apparently all a paperwork issue to satisfy FDA. I was also told Evangers hired a third party to check the products and NOTHING was found unsafe. I also asked about why some of the cans of chuncky chicken casserole give such a LOUD pop when opened. The food is packed in the cans raw, often overfilled and this is only a vacuum issue - nothing wrong with the product.
ReplyDeleteHi Deb in Maryland,
ReplyDeletePlease check my April 26th follow-up post (http://efoodalert.blogspot.com/2008/04/evangers-dog-and-cat-food-company.html) for the Company's reply.
Thanks for reading. Hope you visit again soon.
Phyllis
eFoodAlert.blogspot.com
I wonder why more people arent asking FDA what their side of the story is. I am grateful to FDA for visiting and finding this problem at Evangers and I am skeptical that the release FDA put out is a routine or blanket statement as Evangers implies. Ive read alot of FDA notices and they dont sound like this. While there have been no allegations as to unsafe product, it appears to me that FDA might have helped prevent that very thing from happening. If FDA says their "significant deviations from prescribed documentation of processes, equipment and recordkeeping could result in under-processed food which could result in Clostridium,why does anyone have any reason to doubt what they say is true? Who has more to lose here, certainly not FDA. Shouldnt Evangers be thankful that FDA is helping them become a safer pet food company? Dont we want FDA checking pet food companies as well as human food companies to ensure a safe product? Why is Evangers so disdainful towards FDA? Think about it folks, there are 2 sides to every story.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way to Deb in Maryland, food that is over-filled in cans causing a vacuum issue can be dangerous especially if the seal fails.
Thank you for posting this perspective, Anonymous. Overfilling can, indeed, be a safety issue. Inadequate vacuum can allow growth of other food-poisoning microbes, such as Staphylococcus aureus.
ReplyDeletePhyllis
Last night, I fed my two 10-lb Poms half a can each of their food. 20 minutes later we were rushing to the veterinarian. They are now in the emergency animal clinic; my little guy is almost comatose. My little girl is pulling through, although she cannot yet stand up. My roommate just called Evangers; they hung up on her!! I am now working with FDA. I dont want anyone else to suffer the heartbreak we are; watching your dogs lose total muscle control, go blind, and struggle to breathe and survive. This is a living nightmare, and I keep hoping I will wake up.
ReplyDeleteDear cinammon&thunder:
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to you and your poms. Thank you for bringing this to FDA's attention in the midst of your crisis. I hope both your babies pull through.
Phyllis
Can you tell me if Evanger's has remedied the problem?
ReplyDeleteI've been a long time customer of Evanger's and had been feeding my two Yorkshire Terriers
the super premium duck canned food for several years. However, I noticed a major formula change in January 2008. The smell, texture and color had changed. The product was very oily and rich. My sensitive Yorkie began vomitting when I fed him
food from the January 2008 batch so I stopped. After a few months when I ran low on the pre-January 2008cans, I contacted
Evanger's to see if maybe I just hit a bad batch in January. I was told by one of the owner's that the formula had not changed but they had installed new equipment in January so that may have had something to do with the formula appearing different. It was suggested that I water down the food and microwave it to weaken it if it was too rich. Evanger's sent me two more cases, which was nice of them. However, the formula was still different from the pre-January 2008 batch. Again, it was causing my dog to be sick. I stopped feeding my dogs the canned food from Evanger's all together. I am sure glad I did after learning about the FDA's discovery regarding Evanger's wet food processing practices. Evanger's obviously thought they could do as they pleased. Thank Goodness the FDA stepped. Hopefully they are back on track, but I don't like how they blew off the FDA's concern.
I haven't seen any updated news items on this issue. I have, this morning, sent an email to the FDA and to the President of Evanger's asking for updated information. I shall post whatever information I receive from either or both sources.
ReplyDeleteUpdated info on Evangers.
ReplyDeleteThe company is in full compliance with FDA requirements. Please see my post dated December 2nd (http://efoodalert.blogspot.com/2008/12/evangers-update.html).
Phyllis
Opened a can of Evanger's chicken cassarole dinner, and it exploded. This is the second time something unusual happened with their food. Threw out a can of chicken drumsticks last year that had black residue under the lid.
ReplyDeleteI have a picky Peke rescue and after several hundred dollars in a month wasted on food she refuses eat. I tried them all practically. Evanger's saved the day. Only thing she will eat. She likes so far the 100% chicken and the Chicken thighs w/bone. The ingredients are better than anything else I have seen, the best.
ReplyDeleteBlack Residue? Great...
Why on earth would you throw the can away without sending it in for testing?
Update on Cinammon and Thunder: for those who think the problem at Evangers is 'solved". Cinammon is home, well, back to 100%. Her brother has had seizures, and is on a wide variety of medications to combat the ravages of the toxins in that horrible food. He has been through hell, as have we, and although Evangers finally spoke with my roommate, they've not offered to assist us in any manner. We have a critical care veterinarian-Thunder almost died--and even she called Evangers. I was mortified when she told us what was said to her and how she was treated when she called! We've filed complaints with the attorney generals of our state and IL and with the consumer affairs of IL, and have already been contacted by that office. I myself sent four emails to Evangers and never received the courtesy of a response until I copied and pasted joel sher's 'rebuttal' on another board. It seems Evangers has a lot of time to search web sites, post baloney, but not ever respond to calls and emails from concerned individuals. I contacted the FDA right away; as soon as the testing lab is finished, they want the can. This isnt over, nor should it be. We should be able to feel safe when we feed our beloved pets.
ReplyDeletePS to my above comments. Despite MANY people writing to many boards about problems with this food, the party line seems to be 'well there has been no recall, or we are in compliance with FDA". This is what I term the pinto defense..Nobody's died yet-that we're aware of, so...Thats just pathetic to me. There are problems, its evident; they need to do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - Thanks for posting the update. I hope that you'll continue to press FDA on this, and continue to keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteAs I've determined in the past, FDA has a policy of not commenting on an on-going investigation. Please let us know the results of the lab tests. If you have any difficulty interpreting the lab report, I might be able to help.
Phyllis
I just bought a few cans of evangers duck and sweet potato and I gave my dogs half a can each, but I am scared now and I am taking the rest of the cans back. I noticed the cans have rust on the botom, so that just doesn't see right. I will go back to innova canned since my dogs have done great on that for years. Thanks for the info I hope my corgis are gonna be ok.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe cinnamon and thunder. I have fed evangers for over a year now. My dogs do great. Why are their so many crack pots that want to hurt good companies?? I remeber someone on you tube trying to say that wellness had fish bones in their food. Utter nonsense.
ReplyDeleteDont believe everything you read!!!
A friend & I have had some problems with evangers wet food - bought it in different stores at diff. times, outside and good-'til dates were okay, but inside was spoiled, so had to toss it. My dog can't eat just kibble, I did lots of research after the recall disaster, tried all the best brands, really liked evangers - so NOW what?
ReplyDeleteThere are other high quality brands of "wet" dog food than Evanger's. I hesitate to make specific recommendations on this board, especially as we only use dry food for our dog.
ReplyDeletePlease people do your research. I have been feeding my dogs Evangers for over 5 years now after switching from pedigree. Once I did that I noticed my fluffy having more energy and a real real nice coat. I also have seen other post like mine about Evangers so i am with them all the way and hope that everyone stops the panic, proceed with caution until you are satisfied with them again.
ReplyDeleteI also had a problem with Evangers food making my dogs sick and was contacted yesterday by the OCI [office of criminal investigations for the FDA].They are very interested in speaking to anyone who had a problem with any food made by Evangers,especially if you have test results on it or for your animals. You can contact them at their office[they didn't want names & phone #'s listed publically] or send me a message at www.Itchmoforums.com & I can give you the contact info or you can give me yours to pass on.
ReplyDeleteLesliek, had you previously submitted a complaint about Evangers food? Is that why you were contacted by OCI?
ReplyDeleteUnless criminal activity is suspected, the arm of FDA that typically investigates food or feed production facilities is the Office of Regulatory Affairs. There is a contact link for the OCI on their website (http://www.fda.gov/oci/investigations.html).
Individuals who wish to submit a complaint about an FDA regulated product are directed to the FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator for their area (http://www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/complain.html).
Phyllis
Wow! So this is all very disturbing! I have been feeding Evangers Organic Chicken to my dogs for several years now and for the most part I have been happy. However, I too have had cans with black mold that I had to throw away. I called the company about this and must say was treated VERY poorly. The man was rude and treated me as if I was being ridiculous. I was surprised as I thought I was being polite to bring something like this to their attention.
ReplyDeleteI have also noticed the quality seems to ebb and flow. Sometimes the cans are packed tight and the contents are solid and sometimes the cans are not packed and the contents are mushy...what is that about? Now I have to question the processing and quality more.
Also, two weeks ago both of my dogs became very sick in the night(they get fed am and pm so could be the night feeding). My one dog recovered after about 12 hours but my other dog became very ill and spent two nights at the Vet in recovery. The vets could not determine the problem other than they both had injested some toxin. I cannot say it was the dog food but I am now questioning if that is possibe. I did not see my dogs get into anything that day and they are house dogs so it is not like I am not with them all day. In fact I feed them fish oil and have been blaming that as the culprate now I am not so sure.
Sadly after reading all of this I feel I am going to have to choose another food. Ugh! What a pain.
I have had multiple cans of food with the black goop in the can and on the actual food. I was told it is fine by Evangers. I was also told that it is on the Hunk of Beef product because the "Inspectors" mark the meat with a grayish black mark to prevent Evangers from selling it to stores as Human Grade food. They said the grayish black is not an issue.
ReplyDeleteI was told by someone else that is it just an enzyme reaction to the plastic coating of the lid of the can. They actually said it was good for the dog.
I DO NOT feel it is safe and after hearing about other dogs getting sick and the FDA issues I AM NOT evger going to buy it again and feel it is my resposibility to tell everyone I can about the disatisfactory way I was treated over the phone.
Remember when the dogs died from the food shiiped from China? Why not be safe rather than sorry?
I was happy with Evangers for the several months I'd been adding a bit to my dogs' food until I got a can of Hunk of Beef with dry, hard beef, unlike the several previous cans I'd had. I wrote to them, giving all details from the can and the label, and heard nothing back from them. Not the kind of response I want from a company!
ReplyDeleteWhy are the same people posting on every single site trying to discredit food companies? I can take you seriously after one or two strong oppositions, but when you begin to oppose ALL pet food companies strongly? I find it hard to believe you keep trying new foods after one after the other has led to problems for you..
ReplyDeleteNot all of us do,a lot of feed homecooked or raw.
ReplyDeletePhyllis-sorry I didn't respond before,never saw the ? Yes I had a problem in 2007 with the Evangers kibble & filed a complaint. It escalated in 2008 when after ignoring me for a year the Evangers co decided the way to respond was accuse me online of extortion.I filed another complaint & notified consumer affairs. Now a B Carlisle is following me about & posting about me on pet websites.This co is currently being sued by former employees for unpaid overtime,has failed reinspections by FDA ,is now under criminal investigation by OCI ,& I believe some of the other people who animals were sickened or killed by IMHO the Evangers food are sueing them too.Guess their strategy is still to try to discredit anyone with a complaint instead of fixing problems & making a safe food product.
Thanks, lesliek for the added information. I hope you'll keep us updated. If you prefer to email me privately, you can find my email address on my profile.
ReplyDeleteTo the poster above who wrote "I dont believe cinammon and thunder", I am the co-owner of Cinammon and Thunder. Everything we posted, and more, was suffered by those two little dogs. Its amazing how someone like you, who wasnt involved at all, didnt see them suffering, hasnt paid over $7K in vet bills, and hasnt been the one praying your dogs would survive, can write such a stupid comment. You sound like one of the many evangers employees, all over the internet, posting your standard party garbage.
ReplyDeleteIn April my dog began shaking at the legs, tucking his tail, and breathing VERY heavily. He has been going to the vet since then, but they attributed it first to full anal glands, then arthritis, then they didn't know what. May 18th I called Evanger's about finding 8 severely dented can in a case. The box it was delivered in was fine, and 5 of the cans were not on the outside of the case. Not only did Stewart at Evanger's tell me that dented cans are ok to eat if they are not punctured, but he refused to replace the cans because he said he would have to pay for it. I never suspected my dog's illness could be the food until yesterday. Today I started him on Hill's Prescription Diet id to see if the breathing settles down. The last two cases seemed different; greasy. Their customer service is the worst. Goodbye, Evanger's.
ReplyDeleteThere are also some other high quality brands of wet dog food than Evanger's if you are not happy with Evanger's.
ReplyDeleteHey Guys please help me....Someone told me that I should be giving a balance of wet dog food and dry dog food each week and not just dry dog food all the time. He told me that too much dry food can cause constipation. Is this true? Also, which brands are considered low grade dog food?
John, here are links to two web sites that you might find helpful as a starting point in your research.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
http://www.consumersearch.com/dog-food/dry-vs-canned
Hope this helps.
Phyllis
Three years ago I was feeding my five cats Evanger's canned cat food. One day I found twisted up pieces of blue-green hard plastic in the cans. I was shocked and grateful that my cats had not eaten it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I called Evanger's Holly Sher was very nonchalant and denied that there could be plastic in the food. She sent me out another case and that too had hard, twisted up pieces of blue-green plastic. When I called her back she was very rude and I could tell she was lying as I began to question her. I switched my cats to Organix by Castor and Pollux.
There were other odd, unprofessional and negligent things about their company but it is upsetting to talkl about because shortly thereafter ALL of my cats stopped eating at the same time and the end result was that they all had to be put to sleep. I attribute their illness and eventual demise to food from Evanger's.
I am continuing what I just posted above. Even though my cats didn't eat the hard plastic in the cans, I very definitely feel that there was something else about the food that killed them. All five.My grief and pain was indescribable. I am still not over it and never will be. Holly and Joel Sher of Evanger's are criminals because they have knowingly lied and covered up their negligence and deceit which has resulted in the illnesses and deaths of who knows how many beloved companions.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to believe.
ReplyDeleteI just bought a case of this food and my cats seemed to like it. No problems at all. I was just researching really just looking to see how their guaranteed analysis stacked up against others. I didn't expect to find problems!
I read through all of the above. If people's animals really did get sick and/or died from the food then I am sorry for your loss. However, I must admit that there is something a little fishy about some of the stories and I can't say I believe them outright.
Bits of plastic in a can once... ok. But to have them deny it, send you another case which undoubtedly would be from a completely different lot and it too has it?? Then they would have to be deliberately inserting plastic into their food and they'd definately know about it because the odds of that happening randomly twice to the same person is astronomical.
Dogs getting severely ill only 20 minutes after injestion? That doesn't seem right either. Food poisoning typically takes 6 to 12 hours (in humans) to develop symptoms and I can't see dogs being that drastically different. Unless it was arsenic or something like that... and maybe it was. I don't know.
I'm not saying you guys are liars. I obviously have no bloody idea at all. But I don't believe everything I read on the Internet especially and I have to look at this with a raised eyebrow.
On the other hand, I'm going to be watching my cats like a hawk now for any signs of a problem.
Just a follow up. I didn't some more looking around and found more blogs with the same king of statements. They sounded very familiar and I'm sure it was the same people making the complaints. I then also found some suggestions that it is the same people and possibly trying to extort money. Something fishy was going on.
ReplyDeleteI called Evanger's and spoke with Joel. First off, he was very nice and polite and contrary to what others wrote was nothing of a jerk. When I mentioned the complaints, he was obviously a bit frustrated having to answer the same questions again, but ultimately accused "the same 3 ladies" of running around posting on the internet and trying to extort money from them.
Now... that's two sides to the same story and both completely different. So how do you tell what's true? At this point obviously I couldn't believe either.
So I phoned the FDA. It took me about an hour and I had to wait until this morning to get a call back to get a person familiar with the case. She told me, "off the record" (her words - and I know I'm violating that by writing this here but I'm not a reporter and I'm not using her name) that there were absolutely no validated complaints regarding their food causing harm to any animals and that her thought is that the extorion angle is probably correct.
IF THAT IS TRUE, you people should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves and should (and probably will be) in jail someday.
IF your animals really did die, then again I am truly sorry for your loss but do not believe you understand the cause.
If its somewhere in between, then I'm sorry that those of you with actual loss are going to be painted with the same brush the fraudsters are.
If someone's animal really does die or get sick and it really is from the food they ate then have it tested and file a lawsuit for damages. If their animal gets sick on their own don't go looking for someone "with pockets" to ease your pain. I really REALLY hate to have the thought that someone out there actually got their animal deliberately sick or dead in hopes of a payout. *shutter*
Wow, sorry for the typos above. Careless.
ReplyDeleteLine 1: "didn't" should have been "did"
Line 2: "king" = "kind"
"validated"
ReplyDeletePhyllis,
ReplyDeleteDo you know if the Evanager's FDA issues have been resolved yet? All I could find on the FDA website is the below, which indicates the issues may still be unresolved.
http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/CVMUpdates/ucm166265.htm
To Steven, what I wrote about the food formula changes is true and it did cause my dog to be sick. As I said, I was a LONG time customer of Evanger's. I trusted Evanager's. But after my own personal experiences with Evanager's owners and customer service as well as seeing the change in my dog, I made My own choice to research and find another product. My dogs now enjoy holistic select oatmeal and duck and are doing very well. THANKFULLY!!!!!!!!
@ Anonymous (Dec 29). I have no further news on Evanger's FDA status. I plan to check again after the New Year's holidays.
ReplyDeletePhyllis
@Anonymous (Dec 29). I have checked with FDA. There has been no further change to Evanger's regulatory status. FDA approves interstate shipment of their canned foods on a batch-by-batch basis.
ReplyDeleteI have been feeding my dog Evangers Dog food since he was 8 weeks old. I am very perticular about what he eats. Evangers is the best dog and cat food co. around. They have been in business for over 35 years and have never been involved in any pet food recalls. Their processing plant is cleaner then some places people food is processed. Their dog food is the closest to human grade that you'll ever find.
ReplyDelete