? Discolouration in fancy feast cod, sole and shrimp cans

This is the last straw with fancy feast foods. Sometimes they smell off so I throw them out. Other times I have found things in them like small bits of plastic and tonight the cod, sole and shrimp looks like this inside the can. Could it be too much food dye? The pink colour seems to be embedded in the lining of the can. I thought it smelt a little strong when I opened the can but it wasn't an off smell so I fed it to Lucy and tonight when I fed her the rest of the food in the can I noticed the colour of the lining of the can. The colour does not rub off. So now I am sitting here past midnight worried sick that I might have fed my precious Lucy some tainted food. Here are the photos. I also opened some whitefish and tuna and savoury salmon and the only thing saving my sanity right now is that those cans have some discolouration of the lining too. Here are the photos and I will call the company first thing in the morning. I pray my Lucy will be alright and thank you for reading my message. Has anyone encountered anything similar with this food? I opened the second can to see if it was the same and it was.

 

I found this comment by someone on the fancy feast Canada facebook page. "the cod sole and shrimp has artificial colour. found the red colour in 3 cans n the last 4 weeks. gross. not healthy for the cat." The comment was made last year.

 

I never noticed any problem with it when I was feeding FF. Prayers that your sweet Lucy isn't harmed by the dye!

 

Thank you Lucy. I am sitting here worried sick. I pray my Lucy will be alright.

 

It does seem as if there was too much dye put in the food as the savoury salmon and the whitefish and tuna varieties have discolouration in the cans too which is brown and not red as you can see in the second photo.

 

I did notice some brown staining when I used FF, but never thought anything about it. If I had seen that red staining it would have worried me, too. After a month or so of feeding FF I started using only Turkey and Giblets because that was the only one my IBD kitty could tolerate, and those cans always had that brown staining. I never saw any other staining in any of the other flavors.

How does Lucy seem now?

 

Lucy seems fine so far thank God and I fed half the can earlier in the day and this afternoon and tonight the rest of the can. The other cans I emptied and threw the food out as I wanted to see if there was the same colour in the cans. I contacted the company and sent the photo and batch numbers to them too.

 

I have noticed the brown staining too but thought it was just food sticking to the bottom of the can but tonight when I washed the cans out there was brown staining in the cans in the other flavour varieties. But the red colour was so obvious and it looks very worrying too. What also troubles me is the stronger smell and now I am starting to think it smells like paint.

 

Paint - that makes me think "chemicals." Not what we want to find in our pet food!!! I hope they get back to you soon! Would you mind sharing what they tell you? I would like to know, as well, if any of that dye is harmful!

 

Yes I will let you know when I find out more.

 

Thanks, and let me know how Lucy fares!

 

My Lucy seems fine this morning thank God and she ate her breakfast with gusto and wanted more. I didn't feed her the full amount of breakfast as I wanted to get a fasting glucose level this morning and I will feed her the rest of her breakfast when it is time for her insulin this morning. Needless to say I did not feed Lucy any fancy feast this morning. I changed to Whiskas low carb pouches and Lucy's glucose levels are better on that food than on the fancy feast classics varieties but I feed the fancy feast occasionally too. I think I will stick to the Whiskas from now on and some other foods we have here in Australia such as Dine and Snappy Tom which have low carb options too. Thank you again Lucy and I will keep you posted for sure. I will call the company in about an hour when they open for business.

 

I spoke to a woman at the company and they want me to post the cans to them for investigation and she will also make further enquiries in the meantime.

 

Apparently there have been no other reports of issues with the cans. I am going to buy some more cod, sole and shrimp cans with various use by dates and batches and she see what the colour of the lining of the can is. But I won't feed any more fancy feast to my Lucy as I am still concerned about the lingering odour in the can.

 

I just bought some cod sole and shrimp ff I hope there isn't any red stuff in mine.i have noticed brown staining before in the ff cans though.

 

There seems to be brown staining in every other flavour variety I have opened since last night. But I noticed the pink because it was so obviously different to the colour of the food.

 

How is Lucy? Please keep us updated about what the company says about it, thanks!

Lucy

 

Hi Lucy. Thank you so much for your support. My Lucy seems fine with no obvious symptoms from eating the food. I will definitely keep you posted about what the company says. I emailed our vet who was very curious also as to what it could be and she suggested maybe it was colouring used in food fed to factory farmed fish and possibly the company had sourced the fish from another supplier for this batch of food. She said she once worked at a salmon farm and the fish were fed colour to make the salmon bright in colour to resemble the colour of wild salmon and when I researched factory farmed fish I read that wild salmon ate shrimp and that gave them their colour and that the compound in shrimp that gives salmon their colour is also present in what pink flamingos eat too. So maybe this batch of cod, sole and shrimp had more colour from shrimp. Who knows. I went to the supermarket looking to buy some tins of the food with a different use date just to satisfy my curiosity on this theory but they only had the one use by date. I bought another can with same use by date but a different time of production on the same day and it also was pink on the inside lining of the can. Needless to say I will never feed this food to my Lucy again and I just bought the can to check the colour of the lining of the can.

 

I just found a can like yours pink dye on inside of can instead of brown stain.it is same kind cod sole and shrimp flavor

 

Very interesting. What is the use by date and batch number on your can?

 

Date best by October 2017 number under date is 52741160L21330810 and icp # is 50000 42894

 

The cans I had with the red colouring were a different use by date and batch number and the company said they would investigate and then let me know what they find. They wanted the cans to examine them so I posted two of them to them so I will let you know what they say when I hear back from them. I did a little research and it might be the shrimp causing the colouring in the can. But I have not noticed this colouring before in the cod, sole and shrimp cans.

 

This is the first time for me seeing it too.i usually see brown stains.it must be the shrimp or a dye they put in the food.they put dye in everything it seems even steak and hamburger have dye in them.