Salmon dog treats made by Plato and sold by Amazon.com found to contain alarmingly high levels of toxic mercury: Immediate recall urged

Tuesday, October 04, 2016
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Tags: salmon dog treats, Plato, mercury

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(NaturalNews) An ICP-MS analysis of Plato brand dog treats in my laboratory, CWC Labs, found alarmingly high levels of toxic mercury in salmon flavored products.

For the analysis, we tested 31 salmon and fish products sold as pet food or pet treats by the online retailer Amazon.com. No mercury was found in 29 out of the 31 products. Plato brand, however, showed alarmingly high mercury for two products:

• Salmon Strips Dog Treats (Plato)
• Thinkers Pacific Salmon Dog Treats (Plato)

Three isotopes of mercury were analyzed: 200, 201 and 202. All three confirm near-identical concentration results. The Plato Salmon Strips Dog Treats tested showed mercury at over 120 ppb, and the Plato Thinkers Pacific Salmon Dog Treats tested revealed mercury at over 190 ppb.

These findings deny the flowery language that's usually found on products found to contain high heavy metals. "We call these treats THINKERS because we know that you put a lot of thought into what you feed your pet," says the label. "We encourage you to read all of our product labels because we are proud of the ingredients we use to make our treats. We use only the best all-natural and organic ingredients that will assist in your pets nutritional needs..." and so on.

"We've also included natural DHA to help support brain function in your dog," the label continues, oblivious to the fact that Plato's "Thinkers" product contains alarmingly high mercury, a toxic heavy metals that damages brain function in dogs and cats.

Plato products, by the way, are manufactured by KDR Pet Treats, LLC in Fresno, California. The web address is PlatoPetTreats.com. Their phone number is 559.485.4316 and their email is [email protected].

Rarely have I seen such high mercury in any food product

Mercury is an extremely toxic heavy metal with a well document profile of neurological damage in mammals. In the same way that mercury damages human brains, it also damages the brains of dogs, cats and other mammals that might consume it.

No "safe" level of mercury consumption has ever been established. All mercury should be avoided in all forms (ethyl, methyl, organic, inorganic, elemental) and from all sources (food, tattoo ink, vaccine preservatives, etc.). (Yes, some tattoo inks are also very high in mercury.)

My #1 bestselling science book, Food Forensics, lists heavy metals analysis results for over 800 foods, supplements, spices and pet foods. It's also available on Amazon.com, which, ironically, also sells contaminated pet food products containing high levels of mercury.

Plato's FAQ web page says they ethically source all their ingredients from "trusted sourcing partners." It reads:

With the exception of some of our natural preservatives & duck (which we import from Europe), all ingredients used in Plato treats are farmed from North America. Our Organic Chicken is sourced from an Organic Certified Farm up the street from us in California. We do our best to source wild caught Pacific Salmon however in the times we are unable to have a good fishing day we source from responsible farm raised Salmon on the West Coast. We can directly trace all of our ingredients back to our trusted sourcing partners.

Apparently, none of these "trusted sourcing partners" ever bothered to analyze their product for mercury. How trusted can they really be if they don't test their own materials, I wonder...

That same FAQ page asks "Are Plato Pet Treats quality-assurance tested?" The answer, according to Plato, is:

Rest assured, we have a full quality assurance laboratory where staff scientists and technicians test our treats daily and randomly to make sure that they meet our strict quality standards. This means every bag of Plato treats meets our high levels of quality -- and always tastes great.

Wow, really? What kind of "full quality assurance laboratory" staffed by "scientists and technicians" can't even detect mercury?

Higher arsenic than other brands, too

In addition to showing the highest mercury of all products tested, these Plato branded salmon treats also showed far higher arsenic than other brands.

Plato's Salmon Strips was found to contain 3134 ppb of arsenic, and Plato's Thinkers Pacific Salmon dog treats was found to contain 2964 ppb of arsenic.

"Diet is a greater source of human exposure to mercury than drinking water, although mercury gets into the food chain first through the water. As with all heavy metal contaminants, pollution prevention is the most effective long-term approach to reducing exposure to mercury. Even so, bacteria in underwater sediments can transform mercury to its organic form. The primary health effects of mercury intake are damage to the central nervous system (and associated neurological diseases) and brain damage."
- The Sierra Club Guide to Safe Drinking Water by Scott Alan Lewis

Amazon.com will gladly sell you products that contain very high mercury and other toxic substances

One of the alarming realizations in all this is that Amazon.com does not conduct product composition testing before selling products to the public.

As a result, Amazon.com will gladly sell heavily contaminated, even extremely dangerous, products to the public. Unlike the Health Ranger Store, where we test everything before offering it for sale, Amazon.com and other retailers make no effort whatsoever to analyze the composition of the products they sell to the public.

As a result, retailers like Amazon can (and do) contribute to the mass poisoning of the public through unsafe, contaminated foods, supplements, protein powders and other contaminated products.

Pet food / pet treat brands that showed NO mercury

The following products were tested and found to contain zero detectable mercury:
96% Grain Free Real Chicken (Merrick)
96% Grain Free Real Duck (Merrick)
Grain Free Farm Raised Chicken + Salmon (Iams)
Braised Salmon Medley with Quinoa (Hill's Ideal Balance)
Venison & Salmon Stew (Wellness Trufood)
Tasty Pairings with Carrots Salmon & Cod (Wellness Trufood)
Backcountry Grain Free Hearty Salmon Stew (Merrick)
Grain Free Braised Salmon Recipe (Hill's Ideal Balance)
Whitefish & Salmon Recipe (Wellness Core)
Grain Free Wild Salmon & Chicken (Tiki Dog)
Grain Free Wild Salmon (Evanger's)
Spot's Stew Succulent Salmon Recipe (Halo)
Wild Bites Salmon Recipe (Blue Wilderness)
Hearty Salmon Stew (Whole Earth Farms)
Whitefish, Salmon, & Herring Formula (Wellness Core)
Salmon & Potato Recipe (Blue)
Jammin' Salmon with Chicken & Salmon in Pumkin Soup (Weruva)
96% Grain Free Real Texas Beef (Merrick)
95% Salmon (Wellness Trufood)
Alaskan Salmon Jerky (Blue Ridge Naturals)
Pacific Stream Canine Formula with Salmon in Gravy (Taste of the Wild)
Limited Ingredient Diet Grain Free Real Salmon Recipe (Merrick)
Salmon & Vegetable Entree (Hill's Science Diet)
Salmon & Chicken Grill (Blue)
Grain Free Pure Salmon & Mackerel Formula in Fish Broth (Canidae)
Grain Free Salmon & Sweet Potato Recipe Ground Entree (Purina Beyond)
96% Grain Free Real Beef, Lamb, Buffalo (Merrick)
100% Fish Protein 0% Plant Protein Salmon (Hound & Gatos)
Grain Free Nutrition Salmon Formula (Nature's Variety)

Plato should recall its salmon dog treats

In the interests of public safety, I am urging Plato to recall its salmon line of dog treats due to high mercury composition.

All retailers carrying Plato's salmon dog treats should immediately remove those products from retail shelves and return them to Plato.



The Plato company needs to initiate quality control testing of its final products to analyze mercury concentrations before shipping products to retailers.

Consumers who have already purchased Plato's salmon dog treats should immediately halt the use of such products and maintain possession of those products for proof of composition. (I recommend freezing the remaining product and attaching a clear label that says, "HIGH MERCURY DO NOT CONSUME.")



"We may not see the damage in adults in as short a period of time, but subtle cellular damage from mercury can be a contributory factor, in combination with other negative influences, that leads to the development of brain diseases seen later in life. It is not just youngsters who are at risk of brain damage from mercury. No fish is completely free of mercury and other pollutants. If you eat generous portions of fish regularly, your body is undoubtedly high in mercury."
- The End of Heart Disease - The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

Pet hair analysis

For consumers concerned about the possible mercury poisoning of their pets, they may send pet hair samples to CWC Labs for ICP-MS analysis, which analyzes mercury and 19 other elements in hair samples.

Acquire the heavy metals hair analysis kit from the Health Ranger Store, which gives you elemental analysis of all these elements: Al, Mg, Fe, Hg, K, Zn, Ag, As, Cd, Cr, Cs, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr,U, and V.

(This includes mercury, cadmium, arsenic and lead.)

High mercury consumption in pet food always appears in pet hair, just as it does in humans. This is obviously because hair is manufactured by the body using the materials the body has consumed. (Hair doesn't grow by magic. It's chemistry.)

Thus, high mercury in hair is an irrefutable indicator of mercury exposure.

I have personally tested the hair of many wild animals (rabbits and deer) in Central Texas. I have found near-zero mercury in all wild animals hair samples. However, I have also tested hair samples from dozens of people, and I have found high mercury in nearly all human hair samples.

To test your own hair using accredited science, pick up a heavy metals hair analysis kit.

"Organic mercury (mercury compounds which contain carbon): The two main forms of organic mercury that humans are exposed to are methylmercury, found predominantly in contaminated fish; and ethyl mercury, a component of the preservative thimerosal - which is still used in some vaccines and medical products, as well as mascara. Both thimerosal and methyl mercury can easily cross the blood-brain barrier. Approximately 95 percent of methylmercury ingested is absorbed into the bloodstream, and a significant proportion enters the brain."
- Mercury Poisoning - The Undiagnosed Epidemic by David Hammond

Accredited laboratory analysis

For those who don't yet know, the laboratory I founded is ISO-17025 accredited, meaning it has achieved the highest level of international accreditation known to the world of analytical science.

The instrumentation used for this analysis run is an Agilent ICP-MS, with quantitation accuracy well below 1 ppb and a limit of detection for Hg that's near 20 parts per trillion. All standards used in the analysis are NIST-traceable standards, and all analysis data produced in our laboratory are accepted as admissible evidence in any court of law.

Our multi-isotopic approach to mercury analysis is absolute confirmation of the presence of mercury. Our quantitation standards curves have near-perfect linearity (greater than 0.999).

"Additionally, some mercury reacts with saliva and is dissolved. This is then swallowed. Eighty percent of the inhaled mercury and about 10% of the dissolved inorganic mercury is absorbed into the bloodstream and thereafter deposited into organs. It has also been shown that oral bacteria can convert inorganic mercury in saliva into methyl mercury. Ninety five percent of this methyl mercury is absorbed adding an estimated 2 to 3 micrograms of mercury per day to the body burden. This elemental mercury easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and the placenta."
- Mercury Poisoning - The Undiagnosed Epidemic by David Hammond

Where to get products tested for mercury and other metals or minerals

CWC Labs offers high-end analytical testing of foods, superfoods, dietary supplements, soils, water and hair samples for toxic heavy metals, minerals and elements. See our complete list of services here.

We also created a breakthrough mass spec time-of-flight analysis method for quantitation of CBD in hemp extracts. This breakthrough method is already being used commercially by numerous hemp product manufacturers.