Natural Balance dog food is having no luck with their manufacturers. They were also included in the Great Wheat/Rice Gluten Scare of Ought-seven. Dick Van Patten needs to find some more reliable companies to make his Hobo Chili.

3.5) Inform the store manager, so the product can be removed immediately!

Shouldn't one of the steps be to notify management so they can remove it from the shelf before anyone else has a chance to serve it for dinner?

Shouldn't step five be "Find a store manager and get the recalled stuff off the shelf"?

I did that when Complete was recalled. I spotted it still on the shelf at a local Safeway (the recall had just hit the news the night before) and I informed an employee. When I stopped in later that night for something, I noted that it had all been pulled.

I thought there were like "human grade food" and "pet food"

but I guess its all one in the same :-P

Why not add a step saying to notify the store manager that's carrying the stuff?

This is the first food recall that has come close to what I would normally have in my pantry. And that's too close. I guess we should all start vegetable gardens learn how to can.

I don't think anyone has any idea about the scope of brands affected by this botulism recall, so before anyone skips this story thinking it's just cans that say "Castleberry's", here's a preview of the brands:

* Austex, Best Yet, Big Y, Black Rock, Bloom, Bryan, Bunker Hill, Castleberry's, Cattle Drive, Firefighters, Food Club, Goldstar, Great Value, Kroger, Lowes Foods, Meijer, Morton House, Paramount, Piggly Wiggly, Prudence, Southern Home, Steak N Shake, Thrifty Maid, Triple Bar, Value Time.

That is just a phenomenally long list. I had no idea the nation's chili supply was so damn centralized!

Q: If someone were to eat 2-3 cans of Castleberry, Piggly Wiggly, Thrifty Maid, or Value Time chili sauce in one sitting, would the effects on your digestive system the following day be any different whether the cans contained botulism or not?

Wal Mart keeps 'em on the shelf next to the Nazi t-shirts.

@Consumer-X: Very good point.

Just go to the nearest Grocery Outlet...they alway shave Castleberry Chilli and Brunswick Stew.

We call it the weird food store.

At my next lunch time shopping trip I shall check.

@DJShay: I guarantee that the number of cases of botulism and such would soar if people started canning their own veggies and meat. That shit is really hard to do right.

If the can is really infected, you wouldn't need to eat that much. A tiny amount of the toxin is all you need to get killed pretty dead.

Isn't botulism a great word?

"Wal-Mart" doesn't have an S at the end of its name.

They make dog food and chili.Thats strange.I wonder if they mis labeled the dog food and are worried that a bunch of mutts will have gas.

Here's a tip for you, consumerist: there's no apostrophe in "days" the way you used it.

Here's another tip: it's not cool to use the misfortune of others to draw traffic to your site.

@swalve: it's not cool to use the misfortune of others to draw traffic to your site.

So says you! While you're on this particular crusade, you might want to let, oh, I don't know, every news outlet in the country know how very wrong they are for doing what they do.

The fact that the site places embarrassing the store manager above the health of other consumers is frightening! If you're going to go through all this trouble, the least you could do is remove the product yourself. If it really is dangerous, you owe it to others to pick up the ball when the grocer drops it. Especially since you're already going through all this trouble.

If someone gets botulism by consuming the product and they purchased it after you take the photo of it, write down the UPC, etc, won't you feel the least bit guilty? I hope you would.

@notallcompaniesarebad: It's not about "embarrassing" the store manager. It's about letting other people know before the manager has a chance to cover it up.