Motivated by the discovery of melamine contaminants in dog and cat food earlier this year, Natural Balance Pet Foods Inc. (Pacoima, Calif.) recently launched its Consumer Buy With Confidence Program to allow consumers to check the safety of each Natural Balance product.

“We spent a great deal of time and money building a new safety testing lab, which now tests every batch of food before it reaches the consumer. Our customers can, from their own homes, easily see the full test results of every product, and rest assured that they are giving their pet the safest food possible,” said Joey Herrick, president of Natural Balance Pet Foods.

Under the company’s standard testing protocol, NB Labs screens samples of pet food for melamine, cyanuric acid, aflatoxin and deoxynivalenol (vomitoxin). It then posts test results, listed according to “Best By” date codes, on the company’s Web site.

For more information on Natural Balance’s safety screening process, visit www.naturalbalanceinc.com/petfoodscreening.tpl. [December 2007 PET AGE]