The Blue Buffalo Company Ltd. has responded to a lawsuit filed by Nestle Purina PetCare Company, claiming that the lawsuit's allegations are false. Blue Buffalo said that it intends to "aggressively defend the integrity of our brand and our products," and that the first phase of its response will be a lawsuit against Nestle Purina.
"It is an easy thing to make unsubstantiated claims, put them in a lawsuit and then publish them all over the web to disparage and defame a company," said Blue Buffalo. "It is quite another thing to prove those allegations." Nestle Purina's lawsuit claims that several of Blue Buffalo's products do in fact contain poultry by-product meal, corn and rice hulls, despite Blue Buffalo's marketing to the contrary. Blue Buffalo reiterated in its response that the company does not use chicken by-product meal or poultry by-product meal in any of its products; does not use ground corn in any of its products; and does not use artificial preservatives in any of its products.
"We’re disappointed to see one of the largest food companies in the world, with over US$100 billion in sales, launching such a baseless lawsuit against a family-run company and attempting to prosecute it on the Internet," said Blue Buffalo Founder and Chairman Bill Bishop. "My sons and I founded Blue Buffalo with the mission of bringing transparency to petfoods, and made the True Blue Promise to our pet parents. Clearly, some of our major competitors, who have built their business using lower cost ingredients, are upset. We will always stand behind our promise and our products."
