# Heavy metals in dog food



## CaroleG (Aug 13, 2016)

Recently saw on the internet that there is a class action suit against Origen dog food due to high metals in the food. This includes arsenic, cadmium, and other dangerous metals. I called the store where ai buy the food and they say the food is safe. Some on net say this is a frivolous suit aimed at discrimating against Origen which is not sold at Petsmart or a Petco. Anyone know about this? If you feed your dog Origen are you going to switch to another food. I have thought of Zignature, but the nutrition of O Ogden is rated at the top.


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## Pucks104 (Aug 16, 2012)

This past Winter (January, February and part of March) I fed Acana Singles kibble to my dogs. When I read the article about the class action lawsuit, I poured the remaining 1/2 bag over the back fence. Acana is made by the same company as Origen. We are in NC and it has been wet, humid and hot. I assumed the kibble would be eaten by some animal (we back up to the woods). Rather it turned gray then set out there for the next 3 1/2 months untouched by even the ants! You have no idea how unusual this was. I have sworn off kibble for any of our animals going forward!


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## Sheri (Oct 11, 2008)

Wow, that is very interesting!


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

I feed Henry Orijens and fed my previous dog and cat Orijen as well so this is very disturbing.

Here is one article about the lawsuit:

Legitimate lawsuit or not ?

The "Clean Label Project" which supposedly did the metals testing rated Origins one star and Alpo 5 stars.

If you read the lawsuit you'll see that it doesn't say the food contains excessive amounts of heavy metals but that the food contains heavy metals. Most human and pet foods contain heavy metals in varying degrees. The question is at what levels.

Here is Champion Foods (makers of Orijen and Acana foods) response:

And here is an article that Nestle is looking to buy Champion Foods. 

this is all so disheartening.


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

Henry&Kate said:


> I feed Henry Orijens and fed my previous dog and cat Orijen as well so this is very disturbing.
> 
> Here is one article about the lawsuit:
> 
> ...


Thank you for posting Champion's response. Their metal values are way below the minimum safe level, and they are correct that everyone needs some metals in our diet
to order to remain healthy (iron, zinc and copper come quickly to mind). I have to wonder if this lawsuit was done maliciously by "market manipulators" especially since the lawsuit ONLY states that there are metals, not that there are high levels of metal.

Origen is a product I researched before I started feeding it to my cat, and what I have read about this lawsuit so far does not make me inclined to change my opinion of that product. To do so, I would want someone to produce, at the very least, a scientific study reporting test results from a reputable company that indicates unacceptable high levels of metals in Champion's pet foods.


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

By the way, these are interesting articles on the Clean Label Project. Yes, a couple of the links has to do with baby food instead of pet food, but it points to how unscientific, subjective, and unreliable anything coming from the Clean Label Project is:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kavins...are-us-about-our-childrens-food/#1019dd9571e9

The ?Clean Label Project? is playing dirty. | Chad Hayes, MD

https://www.petfoodindustry.com/blo...-rating-site-misleading-to-pet-food-consumers


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

Thanks for those additional links, Jeanniek. The Clean label project is clearly a very dubious "authority" to rely on. The fact they won't publish their data, offer it for peer review, or even publish a list of foods showing the various levels of metals. Also one of their "independent" labs is owned by the founder and director. 

Looking at what information is available to us as consumers, it looks to me like champion has been caught up in a questionable organization's project and the lawsuits have come out of that. I'd like to see a comparison of heavy metal levels in various foods to be able to judge. But the Clean Label Project doesn't make that available. If they are so concerned with transparency wouldn't they provide that info? Why not?

Over the last 20-30 years we've gotten so used to being lied to by corporations and governments that we distrust everything. I remember when if the US government said something was safe we believed it. 

So my rational mind tells me that Champion foods do not have dangerous levels of heavy metals and that what's questionable is the Clean label Project, the source of info for these lawsuits. But of course my worrying mind says but why take a chance? one reason I opted to use Champion products as part of my pets diets is that they have very rigorous standards for their food sources, which are local. Some other highly rated foods do get some or part of their foods from other countries. If I switch am I introducing a different risk?

argghhh....


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

Henry&Kate said:


> one reason I opted to use Champion products as part of my pets diets is that they have very rigorous standards for their food sources, which are local. Some other highly rated foods do get some or part of their foods from other countries. If I switch am I introducing a different risk?


I think you actually answered yourself. You chose Champion products because "they have very rigorous standards. . . and are local". Don't let the people and companies whose standards are sub-standard and who have no transparency mess with your mind. Do you really want to buy foods that come from other countries where you have no idea about their quality control, nor can you go visit the facility to get a feel about it yourself?

That's my 2-cents worth anyhow.


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

If someone wants some other data points - Petcurean, which makes 5 star rated dog foods including Gather and Go!, published an article on heavy metals in dog food and included the data on their own food in the article.

Comparing them to what Champion published. The first numbers are petcurean's, then champions, then the max. Unfortunately my spacing was lost when posted:

arsenic: 0.43 +/-0.46 ; 0.89 std dev 1.05 ; 12.5

cadmium: 0.1 +/- 0.06; 0.09 std dev 0.09; 10.0

Lead: 0.18 +- 0.12; 0.23 std dev 0.15; 10.0

Mercury: 0.01 +- 0.01; 0.02 std dev 0.02; 0.27

this is the petcurean article.

I only picked petcurean because they came up when I googled looking for info on heavy metals in pet food aside from the Clean Label project. And then I checked their rating on dog food advisor and they are 5 star rated.

Both foods are way below the max limit and differ in the individual metals. The lawsuits make it sound as if Champion either had metals that other foods don't have or have excessive levels. But looking at the petcurean numbers that doesn't seem to be the case. And without seeing the levels in different foods it's impossible to judge. And the Clean Label Project assigns star ratings but doesn't tell you what levels are associated with which rating. Is it a difference of 0.01? or is it statistically significant? We just don't know.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Champion has been one of the best and safest food companies out there. I will continue to use them until someone proves them unsafe. Yeah when you are the best ,someone like Nestle or other giants wants to buy you out. Lets hope it doesn't happen.


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

I was trying to find the actual wording of the lawsuit, and ran across this link that was a discussion between customers and the Clean Label Project rep. Interesting info there including definite conflict of interest in their lab and the fact that they use the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Act as a benchmark to determine appropriate levels of metals in the foods.


__
https://www.reddit.com/r/64mpty/we_are_the_clean_label_project_a_nonprofit_that/

A CBS article written in 2017 stated that the reporter asked about using the EPA's Standard for our drinking water as a benchmark: In response, the FDA said, "Relying on the acceptable levels of a substance in drinking water for humans is not a sound approach to determining acceptable levels of that substance in food for dogs and cats. There are multiple reasons this approach is problematic." The agency noted the size difference, life span and physiology of pets, and that humans drink more water.

Henry&Kate, I was interested in why the big difference in arsenic between Petcurean and the Champion food. I googled but couldn't find any good reason to have arsenic in dog food. Though the levels are below minimums, Champion's level is double compared to Petcurean's. I may have to go check out that Petcurean food! Thanks for providing that information.


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

According to Champion's white paper, sea plants and fish are the primary sources of arsenic in pet food. So presumably it's a question of how much of that is each food. They also point out and I saw in other articles that there are two types of arsenic -organic and nonorganic. It is the nonorganic that is really toxic. Most arsenic in pet food is of the organic type. 

I also looked at Honest Kitchen. They say they test for heavy metals in their foods and use various different limits to measure against, including EU limits. They publish a report but unfortunately they don't publish any numbers. Just say they passed for each one, meaning they were under the limits they used. Not too transparent since we don't know which limit they're using for which metal and can't compare it to other foods. 

This Clean label project makes me really angry. They're not providing any useful information to help us make informed decisions about pet food safety but instead are just scaring us and making us doubtful about anything. 

And I agree Dave, Champion has been making food for 25 years, they have an excellent reputation. I too hope Nestle fails in their takeover.


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

That was good information! Thank you!!


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

Does anyone know if, for the suit, there has been an independent test of the metals level? Forgive me for being cynical but, while I know that the lawsuit can be frivolous, in the face of a lawsuit, self reported numbers from the company are not enough. 

I was thinking of switching to Orijen in December (some day switching every 6 months will stop!) The testing provided with the lawsuit shows that "the levels found in the Champion Pet Food appear be be below that what authorities recognize as a ‘Maximum Tolerable Level of Minerals in Feed’." though seem a lot higher than the figures listed above. So, it sounds like the lawsuit is more because they didn't disclose levels on their packaging??


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

Melissa Brill said:


> Does anyone know if, for the suit, there has been an independent test of the metals level? Forgive me for being cynical but, while I know that the lawsuit can be frivolous, in the face of a lawsuit, self reported numbers from the company are not enough.
> 
> I was thinking of switching to Orijen in December (some day switching every 6 months will stop!) The testing provided with the lawsuit shows that "the levels found in the Champion Pet Food appear be be below that what authorities recognize as a 'Maximum Tolerable Level of Minerals in Feed'." though seem a lot higher than the figures listed above. So, it sounds like the lawsuit is more because they didn't disclose levels on their packaging??


Asking for independent testing from Champion is a good point. They do say that they use 2 third party laboratories though I couldnt find who those labs are.

What Champion wrote:
For your peace of mind we want you to understand that monitoring heavy metal levels is an important control point for us, and has always been a part of Champion's food safety and HACCP program. We systematically test ORIJEN and ACANA products for heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury) at two third party laboratories using the Official Methods of Analysis by Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC).


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

> Does anyone know if, for the suit, there has been an independent test of the metals level? Forgive me for being cynical but, while I know that the lawsuit can be frivolous, in the face of a lawsuit, self reported numbers from the company are not enough.


The only numbers I can find are the numbers published by Champion. The Clean Label Project won't publish their numbers because ironically they're afraid of being sued.

The case that seems farthest along is the one in WI because the judge has already ruled on Champion's motion to dismiss the case in June. There were 5 counts brought against Champion, the judge dismissed 2-5. But count 1 is the heart of it. It's interesting because the woman suing is relying on Champion's published numbers. Her case is that Champion says they're the worlds' best pet food and using ingredients fit for human consumption. But that the levels of heavy metals they published are above what the FDA has published as being present in eggs, fish and chickens in humans diets.

It all gets pretty legally technical about when documents can be introduced and relied upon etc but the judge ruled that the facts of whether or not Champion foods have unsafe levels is a matter for a court to decide. Part of the problem is that there is no FDA or legal standard. So both the plaintiff and Champion agree on Champion's numbers. What they don't agree on is whether or not those number are excessive. As the judge says they disagree on the conclusion one should draw from those numbers.

I'm less concerned about Champion's published numbers being off because they have submitted to those in court etc. than whether or not their numbers are higher than what you would find in any other quality food. And since it's hard to get any numbers from the other producers we don't know that answer. One way I'm looking at it is that we do now know what Champion's numbers are and they are low as compared to the only standard being used. If I switch to another food how will I know their numbers aren't even higher? I won't. Champion does test for heavy metals both before and after production. From what I read testing after production is important because heat can change the numbers.

At this moment I'm not going to switch Henry's diet which includes Orijens. I don't know that switching to another kibble will give me any better or safer product. One reason I didn't want to go to 100% home prepared food is because i worry about making sure he has a properly balanced diet with vitamins minerals etc. I am going to think again and do more research about the type of food I use and decide what makes sense and works for us going forward.


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

The Clean label Project did their testing at Ellipse Analytics, a lab that the director of CLP worked for. Here is a an article about some history of these people.

CEO of Ellipse Analytics has a history of claims and class action suits. His previous company claimed CA wines had arsenic:



> BeverageGrades made a lot of very alarming sounding claims about the wine with a lot of similar sounding issues with their methods: they claimed that a number of low-cost California wines had dangerous level of arsenic. Similar to the current CLP claims, they chose to compare their findings against the EPA's drinking water guidelines, which really doesn't make sense, since most people aren't drinking several liters of wine a day, and if you are arsenic really should be on the back burner of problems you're addressing. Once again they list all their findings in parts per billion despite the fact that parts per million is often the standard way of reporting them. Alarmingly this report was paired with a press release from BeverageGrades offering to provide winemakers with "independent testing certifying safety", which sounds suspiciously like the mob offering you protection.
> Then the biggest red flag; Doris Charles v. The Wine Group LLC. After the controversial report that BeverageGrades released there was a class-action lawsuit filed against The Wine Group LLC, a Livermore, CA based company that describes themselves as the world's second largest wine-producer by volumes. They own some of the popular brands like flipflop (spelling theirs), Cupcake, and Franzia. The class-action suit alleges that the The Wine Group misrepresented their wines as safe, and its primary source of evidence is the report brought forth by BeverageGrades.


Ellipse Analytics/Kevin Hicks

The wine case was dismissed in March 2016. And an appeals court affirmed the dismissal in May 2016.

Now we not only need to worry about what corporations may be doing to food we need to worry about the people claiming to act as overseers.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

more from Sabine ... "The first and foremost thing you need to keep in mind is that when looking at heavy metals, anything that has a significant amount of animal parts in it is going to be higher in them than something majority plant based.

It is also likely that animals slaughtered later (lambs and pigs typically 6 months, cattle around 36 months unless they are spent dairy cows) will run higher than chickens, which typically are slaughtered at 8 weeks old. With wild caught fish it depends on the species as well.

This is simple math from what they absorb while being fed and over which time frame. Feed quality is of course also an issue.

So that's a dilemma between a more species appropriate food vs. ingredients with less potential for contamination - and something that applies to everyone, including you and me, not just pets eating kibble. Fresh food ingredients are exactly the same.

Second, you don't know how trustworthy the lab was. First of all, CLP does not publish their methodology or results of tests, which is a huge red flag.

Humboldt Pet supply has a good article" https://humboldtpetsupply.com/blogs/news/our-look-into-the-champion-petfoods-lawsuit


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

There are a lot of red flags on CLP and Ellipse Analytics. They also will "certify" a company's product as "safe" for a fee. I don't believe these people have animal welfare as their priority at all.

There are some additional numbers in that Humbodlt article from a different lawsuit.



> he first and foremost thing you need to keep in mind is that when looking at heavy metals, anything that has a significant amount of animal parts in it is going to be higher in them than something majority plant based.


i wondered about this because many cheap dog foods like Alpo got high ratings from CLP and many of the better quality foods got low ratings. Alpo lists its first ingredient as cornmeal.


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

Henry&Kate said:


> i wondered about this because many cheap dog foods like Alpo got high ratings from CLP and many of the better quality foods got low ratings. Alpo lists its first ingredient as cornmeal.


Yuck!


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

*grains versus meat*



Henry&Kate said:


> ... i wondered about this because many cheap dog foods like Alpo got high ratings from CLP and many of the better quality foods got low ratings. Alpo lists its first ingredient as cornmeal.


You have to keep in mind that they were only measuring metals - not the quality of the food - and foods with meat as their main ingredient will have higher metals than grains - so it stands to reason that foods with grains as their main ingredients would get higher ratings than meat based foods in this regard. It doesn't speak at all about the quality.


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

Y


> ou have to keep in mind that they were only measuring metals - not the quality of the food


Actually originally they were giving one rating to encompass both - metals and quality. But there was quite an uproar and they broke them out.

The Humboldt link posted by Dave (thank you) has two sets of numbers. The first is the metals levels in Champion foods broken down by variety. I think these numbers came from the CLP. Without knowing anything about their methodology or how many samples etc we can't be certain how reliable these numbers are. That being said there is one pattern that is apparent -- varieties that contain fish as their primary protein source, e.g. Six Fish and Acana Wild Fish, have much higher metal numbers especially in Arsenic. We don't know what type of arsenic it is, organic or inorganic. Those two foods have readings of about 3200 ppb vs around 300 for Acana Ranch and Meadowlands. Champion's own average of their foods from their white paper is around 900. The Max Limit for Arsenic is 12,500.

I would imagine that the high levels in Champion fish based foods are probably similar to what would be found in other fish based foods. So if you are really worried about arsenic at least, avoid fishy foods. Of course it makes me wonder what we're eating when we have fish for dinner.

The second set of numbers are those published by the FDA in 2011 when the tested 58 pet foods. They aren't named and included dog and cat food and presumably included supermarket and premium food. But they publish the average levels they found and the maximum level they found.

Arsenic: avg: 175 max 524 champ. avg 900 max limit 12,500

Cadmium: avg: 85 Max 306 champ avg 90 max limit 10,000

Mercury: avg: 13 Max 174 Champ avg 20 max limit 267

Lead: avg 299 Max 6716 Champ avg 230 max limit 10,000

What did I learn from all this? All dog foods (and human foods) contain heavy metals. Dog foods with higher nutritional quality are likely to have higher levels of metals because of the ingredients used; meat and especially fish are going to have levels of arsenic in particular vs plant foods . Fish based foods have much higher levels of arsenic but still well below the max limit set.

Why has this bothered me so much? I've found the number of foods on offer and how and what to feed overwhelming. I did research into the type of food and made a decision. To have an organization come along (with highly suspect methods and motives, at least in my mind) and not help clarify our choices but to muddy the waters further has made me really angry.


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

*great summary*



Henry&Kate said:


> Y
> 
> Actually originally they were giving one rating to encompass both - metals and quality. But there was quite an uproar and they broke them out.
> 
> ...


Really great summary. So basically it looks like the Champ. numbers are around the average - except for Arsenic which can be because of the fish varieties (so, like you said, if you're worried avoid the fish).

One interesting point in one of the articles someone published was that the law suit is more about whether the numbers are too high -- I believe I read that the plaintiff in one of the states agreed to use the champion numbers, so maybe we can trust those numbers even though we haven't seen the independent lab results?

I'm much less worried about possibly switching to Orijen later this year... will see where the best place to get it might be since Chewy.com doesn't seem to have it. Amazon does - but good grief, while I expect the 4.5 lb bag to be more expensive per pound than the bigger bags, I don't expect it to be double.


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## Henry&Kate (Mar 29, 2017)

Champion has a policy of only selling to independent retailers. Chewy's did sell it but when Chewy's was sold to Petsmart, they pulled their products. another company did the same thing. I had my golden then and bought the very large bag and liked buying from Chewy's because I didn't have to handle it so much. It was annoying when I couldn't buy from them anymore.

Orijen does provide on their website a list of authorized online retailers. Do you have it shipped to Uganda?


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

*Orijen sellers*



Henry&Kate said:


> Champion has a policy of only selling to independent retailers. Chewy's did sell it but when Chewy's was sold to Petsmart, they pulled their products. another company did the same thing. I had my golden then and bought the very large bag and liked buying from Chewy's because I didn't have to handle it so much. It was annoying when I couldn't buy from them anymore.
> 
> Orijen does provide on their website a list of authorized online retailers. Do you have it shipped to Uganda?


I'm sure I'll find it - but getting it online is so much less stress than trying to find it when I'm home. My go-to for this sort of stuff (an independent that carries Fromm and Stella/ Chewy etc) doesn't carry Orijen. I did check the website and strangely they do have a chain (though maybe it's a local/ independent chain?) but when I go to the websites of a few they list they have other foods but don't show orijen, so I'm still looking.

No, I don't have it shipped to Uganda - I pick it up when I'm in the US.


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

Melissa, I started to buy the Orijen online (free shipping in the US) through Crate and Marrow. I just placed an order which also included the Stellar and Chewy puppy freeze dried food (brand new, just came in. Not on the website yet. I am glad I gave him a call to get his advice on something else). They've been very easy to deal with.


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