Sundae surprise: How a puppy has tested my trust in certain brands

This weekend, I had my own personal revelation about my inherent trust in the safety of the U.S. food supply, and the very real feelings and beliefs that come from that trust being challenged. This epic story revolves not around the humans living in our house and their food, but instead around our beloved family dog, Sundae.

Sundae at roughly five months old

Sundae just turned eight months old on Jan. 25. We rescued him from an organization when he was just two months old, back in August. Sundae has been your typical nose-oriented puppy: sniffing around, rambunctious, curious, vocal, stubborn, and super-quick at picking things up, running away from us and eating them. Sundae has been on a figurative (and frequently literal) short leash because of his puppy mischievousness.

Last Thursday evening, Sundae started to show signs of lethargy and his eyelids looked a little puffy — I thought he was having a small allergic episode to a new treat I gave him that morning (more on that below) or maybe was developing a “doggie cold,” so I began monitoring him. His condition was worsening, so I took him to our veterinarian Saturday morning. By then, he was drooling and shivering a bit, and vomited at the vet’s office. The vet took a blood test, and then told me Sundae needed to go to the emergency vet’s office, as his liver enzyme levels were as much as nine times higher than they should have been.

After a stressful weekend with Sundae hospitalized (made worse by COVID preventing us from being able to see him), I can tell you that Sundae is much better today; his liver values have crept back down; and we will be able to bring him home today. He’ll still be working whatever it is out of his system, but we’ve at least ruled out a foreign body and much more serious diseases.

Some of you smart readers will have already figured out where I’m going with this. Sundae’s ordeal has basically been settled to: “It was something he ate.” That’s where my trust has been tested, and I have responded in what I would call a “typical consumer” fashion.

I didn’t suspect his dog food, made by a major-brand manufacturer. My default belief was, “I will check, but I bet it isn’t the food. They’re a legacy company with a good record.” Even the vet said to me what I was thinking: That manufacturer does a great job and has a great, clean history, but let’s check just in case. All that based on the brand alone.

We moved to the treats, focused on one particular bag of treats, because it was the only new type of treat he’d received in the last month or two. The brand? Don’t know that brand from Adam — I’d never heard of it, and I’d only bought the treats because Sundae seemed to love them during our puppy training sessions weeks ago.

I dug around for recall information, and so did the vet, and we didn’t see anything.

On request from my colleague here at We R Food Safety!, I sent photos of the packaging and treats to him, and he had issues with the labeling, description of the treats, and the actual formulation of the treats as well. Upon looking at the package myself, I was able to find some confusing wording, some misleading phrases and such — things that I didn’t notice when I bought them because I trusted the store that sold them to me.

And here’s the revelation. Despite 15 years around this industry, I’ve reacted as a standard consumer might. Here are some “typical” feelings and beliefs I’ve gone through this weekend:

1. I trust the heck out of that major international dog food brand, because I’ve never had or heard of an issue with them before.
2. I don’t know that treat manufacturer’s brand, so I suspect them as the issue, since they’re the newest experience I’ve had.
3. I had doubts about the actual treats, so now I’m going to take it out on that entire treat segment for the potential outcome of one experience.
4. I also had doubts about the big-box retailer who sold me those treats, and I will likely avoid shopping at that big-box retailer for the time being, whenever possible.
5. Even if I should be able to somehow prove that Sundae maybe picked up a wayward pill or piece of chocolate or sugar-free gum, I’m still down on those treats and that brand. The damage is done and will be difficult to repair.

Are these feelings and beliefs fair? Nope, many of them likely are not.

However, they are REAL, and they are likely a very good example of what any consumer goes through when their inherent trust is challenged or broken.

Our food supply is the safest in the world because of processors and producers like you.  You legitimately care and take the time to keep it safe. Whether you’re a big, multi-national brand or a small-town shop, you have dedicated customers who trust you and your brand. Don’t ever do anything to jeopardize that trust!

I recommend that you take it a step further and let your customers know what you are doing around food safety that helps assure them and their families that you are selling them safe and wholesome food.

While you may not have a lot of time on your schedule to do these types of things it is critical to make time to communicate with your customers about how you are keeping them safe.  If you don’t, you may find yourself in a spot where you have nothing but free time because you have a shuttered business.

— Andy Hanacek, vice president of Communications, andyh@werfoodsafety.com