What was recalled
On April 17, 2007, Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc. issued a voluntary recall of its Venison and Brown Rice canned dog food, dry dog food, and dry cat food, plus Venison and Green Pea dry cat food. The recall covered product manufactured between January and April 2007. The trigger was Natural Balance’s own in-house testing program, which flagged a rice protein concentrate shipment received from the U.S. distributor ChemNutra. ChemNutra had imported the concentrate from a Chinese supplier (Binzhou Futian Biological Technology) later indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Natural Balance was not a Menu Foods co-manufacturing customer; the brand operated its own production line. The contamination reached the brand because the contaminated rice protein had passed through a U.S. distributor and into multiple manufacturers’ supply chains.
The FDA’s consolidated 2007 recall archive lists the specific Natural Balance products and lot codes at the 2007 Pet Food Recall page. Affected product was distributed nationally through pet specialty retailers including PetSmart, Petco, and independent pet stores.
Why it was recalled
The recalled rice protein concentrate was adulterated with melamine and cyanuric acid — the same contamination pattern identified in the Menu Foods wheat gluten cases. The contaminant was added by a Chinese supplier to inflate apparent protein content on nitrogen-based testing. When melamine and cyanuric acid combine in the renal system, they form insoluble crystals that cause acute kidney injury. Natural Balance’s detection came from in-house testing that ran melamine-specific assay protocols on incoming protein concentrates — testing that was uncommon in the pet food industry at the time. The company subsequently published its supplier qualification protocol as part of its post-recall transparency stance. The full chemistry and supplier-traceback documentation is in the FDA’s melamine FAQ archive.
Health risks for your pet
Pets exposed to melamine-cyanuric-acid contaminated product showed the same acute renal failure pattern documented across the broader Menu Foods event: loss of appetite, vomiting, lethargy, polyuria progressing to oliguria or anuria, and blood in the urine. Bloodwork showed elevated BUN, creatinine, and phosphorus. The American Veterinary Medical Association’s JAVMA coverage noted that pets in the Natural Balance subset who consumed the affected Venison and Brown Rice formulas were generally identified earlier than the broader Menu Foods cases because Natural Balance customers tended to be sensitivity-driven feeders already watching their dogs closely. Natural Balance reported zero confirmed deaths attributed specifically to its recalled products, though the company did process refund claims and supplemental veterinary cost reimbursements for affected customers.
What to do if you bought affected product
Affected Best By dates have long since expired and no household pantry should still contain recalled product. If you previously fed Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice or Venison and Green Pea formulas in early 2007 to a dog or cat who developed unexplained kidney issues during that window, the timing aligns with this event. Natural Balance processed reimbursement claims through 2009 under the recall settlement; the window has now closed. Owners concerned about ingredient sourcing should note that Natural Balance has, in the years since, published its supplier qualification and incoming-ingredient testing protocols, including melamine-specific assays on imported protein concentrates — a quality-systems standard the brand adopted in direct response to this event.
How this affects KibbleIQ’s grade
Our current rubric (v15) scores Natural Balance on its current ingredient list per our published methodology; we do not deduct points for a brand’s participation in a 2007 industry-wide supplier-adulteration event. Natural Balance’s response to this event — particularly the in-house detection that drove the recall and the subsequent public protocol publication — is a quality-systems credit, not a debit. The brand currently scores in the B range for limited-ingredient formulas and B/C range for standard lines; full details in our current Natural Balance review. Recall-history scoring is on our roadmap for methodology v2; this 2007 event will weigh as a supplier-driven incident with documented corrective action, not as a pattern-of-recall debit. For now, our recommendation: read both our current Natural Balance review AND this recall page when evaluating the brand.