I recently had the opportunity of picking up the better part of a 30lb bag of Blue Wilderness ... then I looked at the web and see that Blue has had several recalls since 2007.

In 2007 they had a recall of some treats.
In 2010 the had a recall because there were potentially toxic levels of Vitamin D in the food line.
In Oct 2014 they had a recall based on content - some chicken meal was actually chicken by-product meal.

Blue isn't rated too highly by dog food advisor (3.5 of 5) but my two love it. I'm using it with Avalanche to see if I can put some weight on him, mixing the normal Purina and Blue about 50/50 and he's pretty much cleaning the bowl.
Sasha's not getting much since she's already overweight and I'll keep her on a limited diet. She'll eat anything that isn't tied down or doesn't try to eat her first!
Off the cuff, I've fed Purina dog chow to most of the animals I've had, it's by far not the best but it's affordable and they both do eat it and stools are good.

I notice here that it's not recommended too strongly but there are people who swear by it.

So my quandary ... given that the dogs like it and people seem to, that's all to the good; given that they've had several recalls I have more than just a bit of concern - I don't want to kill my dogs while trying to get them healthier.

Your comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Al, I understand your problem, Where you and I live there are limited resources available and our budgets dictate what we feed. i started on purina puppy chow, didn't realize how much dog food had evolved over the last 20 or so years. Then I figured Miya was corn intolerant. So I tried the Blue, lady at petsmart sold me on it, again, didn't know about the recalls, but Miya still had loose stools and no corn to blame. There are not many products that have not been recalled, most are Canadian based or off the top of my head Fromm, Wysong, and the top end products of Merrick, and a newer food Nutri Life, which is made at the Fromm factory, Acana, and Orijen(think those last 2 are Canadian). It makes it difficult on a tight budget indeed. I don't feed Miya a lot of kibble, no more than 1.5 cups a day, normally a cup, because I feed RMB's, and some type of meat daily. Miya has done quite well on Taste of the Wild, however, and until recently didn't realize, that it's a Diamond product, which has had numerous recalls too. Let me tell you Diamond produces most of the top line easy accessible dog foods, Canidea(spelling) and Wellness are 2 others I did not know about. Now jenniferbealer, a forum member, and I probably didn't spell that right, recommended natural balance LID, I have not looked into the price, ingredients, ranking, availability, so I don't know.

It's very frustrating, and daunting to say the least. I stay up on product recalls, I buy small bags, with Tractor supply and True Value being my only sources, unless i go the online route, I'm strongly thinking of going the Nutri Life route, slightly cheaper than TOTW, at $10.99 a 5 pound bag and I can get it at True Value, which is closer to me than Tractor Supply. I've been wanting to make the switch for over a month now, I just don't want to upset Miya's belly since she's finally doing great on eating and has been slowly putting on weight, I finally can't feel her ribs and hip bones, I prefer to feel them with slight pressure vs feel them and see them, if that makes sense, she's a lean girl, but was about 10 pounds underweight. I would say she's right about the right weight maybe 5 under, I can live with that.

I forgot to mention that Earthborn (had a post here about a month or so ago similar to this, and I think it was Earthborn that was also mentioned) seems to be a good product, Ericbeasto, mentioned it. On the Diamond foods list is 4health Tractor Supply, actually had samples of that and Miya walked away, lol.

Dog food advisor almost pans Natural Balance LID giving it a 2.5 which is lower than the 3.5 for Purina (argh!) - seems as if the top ingredients are vegetables (shades of another discussion!!)

Actually - after a phone call, I placed an order for Fromm, surprisingly their prices, while not as cheap as Purina, are reasonable.
Ordered it from PetFlow.com - whose prices were lower than Chewy.com

Since going the online route, I would see if they offer frequent buyer, as in every 10 bags get the 11th free. It reduces the overall price that way.

I buy 75% or better on line. Wal-Mart and I are old friends. They're one of the few places on line I can get Folger's Black Silk for a relatively reasonable price and I normally order enough (coffee, peanut butter, ramen, chili, stew) at one time to get free shipping and some of that stuff builds up the weight pretty quickly. That just leases me with the perishables to buy locally - I can't really blame the stores (both of them) for their prices, we're 150 miles off the freeway and everything has to be trucked in ... so local prices are 25% or more higher than "regular retail".

Wilderness from what ive heard WAS a product from Diamond but theyre not anymore...supposedly

Hey Al, we got Klaus back in December so not too long ago, and we went through the whole food thing. Honestly it took me like a month to try and decide on a food. We did end up going with Blue Wilderness. I know you said on Dog Food Advisor it's 3.5 - that's for normal Blue Buffalo. Blue Wilderness is ranked with a 5/5. The recalls always make me nervous as well and I feel like even if you go with one that hasn't have a recall it could still possibly happen. No matter which one it's best to stay on top of recalls. But if it makes you feel better I also recommend Earthborn or Merrick. Both have great ingredients and I haven't really found much for recalls on them. I think Merrick had one on treats. Ultimately we wanted Merrick for Klaus but it's extremely expensive by us. About 60 dollars for the large bag. Blue Wilderness is costing us 40-50 depending on the sale. For the most part Klaus does great on his food. When we first got him he had very mushy stool, his breeder had him on Diamond Large Puppy formula. He stool became near perfect on Wilderness. However we've been having stool problems on and off now but I'm pretty sure it's due to treats because when I cut him down to nothing but the Blue Wilderness food he does great! And he loves it. Licks the bowl clean.

Of course this is just my experience and opinion on it

My GSD LOVES Blue Wilderness but my Husky is a little less interested in it.