Pet food distribution plays an important and defining role in pet food quality. This aspect of pet food is usually overlooked. I REALLY want to change that. It’s so important.
After pet foods are manufactured they are turned over to large independently owned distribution warehouses. At this point the manufacturing company effectively loses control of their own products. Different brands from different companies are all housed in one of these large distribution points. This is where detrimental conditions can degrade pet foods. The first detriment to quality is time: too much of it. Nutrients in foods become degraded when products are stored for many months and longer, sometimes for years (YEARS!) before being shipped to retail outlets. Though pet food manufacturers address the necessity of a shelf life for thier perishible products, still, time is not nutrition’s friend.
And there are conditions under which foods are stored that are detrimental as well. Here are two recent examples of warehousing conditions that caused serious degradation to pet foods.
During June of 2008 the Food and Drug Administration seized the pet foods stored at the Midwestern warehouse in Joliet, Illinois, of the pet supply giant Petco due to storage under “filthy and unsanitary” conditions.
From the FDA:
Pet Food Products Seized at PETCO Distribution Center
Consumer Update
On June 19, 2008, U.S. Marshals seized various animal food products stored under unsanitary conditions at the PETCO Animal Supplies Distribution Center in Joliet, Ill. The products were seized at the request of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and pursuant to a warrant issued by the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
U.S. Marshals seized all FDA-regulated animal food susceptible to rodent and pest contamination. The seized products violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because it was alleged in a case filed by the U.S. Attorney that they were being held under unsanitary conditions.
During an FDA inspection of a PETCO distribution center in April 2008, widespread and active rodent and bird infestation was found. Another FDA inspection in May found continuing and widespread infestation.
“We simply will not allow a company to store foods under filthy and unsanitary conditions that occur as a direct result of the company’s failure to adequately control and prevent pests in its facility,” says Margaret O’K. Glavin, FDA’s Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs. “Consumers expect that such safeguards will be in place not only for human food, but for pet food as well.”
The distribution center in Joliet, Ill., provides pet food products and supplies to PETCO retail stores in 16 states: Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
FDA has no reports of pet illness or death from consuming animal food distributed by PETCO, and does not have evidence that the food is unsafe for animals. However, the seized products were in permeable packages and held under conditions that could affect the food’s integrity and quality.
Tips for Consumers
• Consumers who have handled products originating from the PETCO distribution center should thoroughly wash their hands with hot water and soap.
• Any surfaces that came in contact with the product packages also should be washed.
• Products sold in cans and glass containers from PETCO in the 16 affected states should be thoroughly washed.
• If a pet becomes ill after eating these food products, pet owners should contact their veterinarian and report illnesses to FDA’s consumer complaint coordinators for their geographic areas.
This article appears on FDA’s Consumer Health Information Web page2, which features the latest on all FDA-regulated products.
Date Posted: June 23, 2008
More recently, during May-June of 2010, a not uncommon warehouse practice of storing pet foods, including kibble bags, outdoors in semi-truck vans with no climate control was evidenced when two trailer trucks were stolen. The theft occurred at the Summit Pet Product Distributors pet food warehouse in Greensboro, NC.
From Channel WGHP:
Thieves Steal Trailer Containing $28K in Dog Food
Staff Writer – FOX8
12:06 PM EDT, June 4, 2010
GREENSBORO N.C. (WGHP) – A trailer with more than $28,000 in Iams dog food inside was stolen between last Friday and Tuesday, police said.
Officers said the trailer has a Maine license plate tag and was parked near Chimney Rock Road. The trailer is described as white with a large black “O” on the side of it.
The thieves also stole a tan freight liner truck with N.C. license plate tag LX-3299.
Based on this report, the food had been stored for a minimum of four days. The daytime high temperatures in Greensboro, NC, on May 30-June 1, 2010, ranged from 81 degrees up to 84.8 degrees (Weather Wunderground history). I wonder how hot was it inside the semi van. Exposure to extreme heat for four or more days definitively degrades food and has an impact on the nutritional value of pet food. Of course if the trailer hadn’t been stolen the food would have gone onto store shelves and then home and into pets’ bowls. But what vitamins and other nutrients would have been damaged? How rancid might the food have become? How extreme would the degradation be? Would pet parents be able to tell that something was wrong?
There are a few pet food manufacturers who bypass this distribution system, have their own carefully maintained warehouses, and deliver their products directly to customers, guaranteeing safety, freshness, and insuring that nothing like these two inexcusable instances of product neglect ever affects pets. My favorite is Life’s Abundance, the food I sell. Life’s Abundance is stored in our own warehouses in Florida, Illinois, and California. It is kept under controlled conditions for a maximum of eight weeks before delivery direct to customer’s doors by UPS. It is guaranteed safe and fresh.
But if you can’t buy Life’s Abundance or one of the other brands that by-passes big warehouse distribution what do you do? You can protect your own pet and begin to change the pet food industry by voting with your feet!
Here’s how:
Pet food manufacturers are not required to print the date of manufacture on the bag. Because some brands have a shelf life of three years (THREE YEARS!), for your pet’s sake, it’s essential to take control and to be proactive. Make absolutely sure you are feeding a fresh food. Here’s how: while in the store select a food and check the ‘best fed’ date on the bag. This doesn’t tell you when the food was manufactured but the pet food company can use it to look up the date of manufacture. You will also find a toll-free number for Customer Service on the bag. Use your cell phone or the store phone and call the pet food company and find out when the food was made. Do not purchase food that is more that 90 days from manufacture. And let the company and the store know that you will purchase foods that are fresh — exclusively.
When you get the food home and open the bag, inspect it. Look for any abnormalities and sniff the food as well. It should not have a rancid odor, of course. If you have any doubts return it for a refund. Remember, there have been many pet food recalls and you CAN be your pet’s first line of defense.
Keep the food in the house, out of direct sunlight, and in a temperature controlled room. (Not a place lacking temperature control such as a garage, shed or basement.) Cool and dry is good; warm and moist is bad. I know this seems like basic common sense, but I have a story that led to writing this post. Friends were storing their dry dog and cat foods in a shed in upstate New York all year round. I only heard about this because mice got into the food and my friend mentioned that to me and that’s how the choice of a shed as a storage place came to light. Freezing temperatures, heat, and fluxation of temperature harm nutrients in pet foods. Extreme heat can cause rancidity, freezing destroys probiotics, and varying temperatures can cause food to “perspire” and could lead to mold. There is also a generalized degradation of nutrient value.
My favorite pet food and the food I sell, 
