# Blue Buffalo under fire ...



## T&T (Feb 28, 2008)

Sharing 

Blue Buffalo Under Fire for Alleged False Advertising, Misleading Consumers | The Dogington Post

http://truthaboutpetfood.com/purina-sues-blue-buffalo


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

I always laugh when I see their commercials that say "....feed them like family....". I, for one, do not feed my family kibble!


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## OutWest (Oct 6, 2011)

I just read the press release from Purina about this. It must have taken a LOT to get Purina to sue them. If the allegations about false claims and mislabeling are true, BB will have antagonized a lot of pet owners who chose BB because they were very picky about what their pets eat. This will be interesting to watch. 

Press release is here.


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

I feed both my girls BB. I am still awaiting for a statement from BB. It is also interesting that Purina is suing! 
Personally I would never feed anything made by Purina to any of my pets (stray cats included). 

oops - here is the response from BB:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/blue-...-172700658.html;_ylt=AwrBJSDgi2pT3nYAgX_QtDMD


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

I use to feed my two BB, they started having problems with it. Their coats got real dry and they had loose stools. Talked to my Vet about BB, she said BB has so many ingredients in it, that a lot of dogs don't do well on it. 

I switched them to Purina Pro Plan for Sensitive Skin and Stomach after many members here recommended it. They've been eating it three years now, both doing great on it.


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## OutWest (Oct 6, 2011)

AHA! Dueling press releases. This from BB is intriguing:
_We will prove these and other matters in the court with good reliable evidence, and we look forward to disproving the voodoo science that Nestle Purina relied on to support their outrageous allegations._

I have only good things to report about my experiences with Purina (although I don't feed it to my two anymore). It's a fairly conservative company, and I can't imagine them using "voodoo science"! BB has a good reputation at stake here...This will be interesting to watch in the coming weeks...


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## pb2b (Nov 8, 2013)

hotel4dogs said:


> I always laugh when I see their commercials that say "....feed them like family....". I, for one, do not feed my family kibble!



My husband has tasted all the treats and dog food we have for Henry. He says he wants to know what his boy is eating.

Interesting article. I guess Samsung and Apple aren't the only ones at war. What a colossal waste of money. I'm sure Nestle is always 100% honest in its marketing efforts. :/


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## Eowyn (Aug 29, 2013)

hotel4dogs said:


> I always laugh when I see their commercials that say "....feed them like family....". I, for one, do not feed my family kibble!


Ha ha ha!!!!! That is too funny!!!!!


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

I'm very curious about this, too. It just strikes me as odd that one dog food company would sue another dog food company. Would Texaco sue Shell?
I feed Max Blue Buffalo and he's done well on it.


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

Not many people here know Darcy's history. She was on some stupid vet diet. GThe same vet that kept her crated 12+ hours a day with a bark collar on her and on anti-depression meds for 4 years.

When we got her she was 53 lbs. We immediately transitioned her to BB and worked on her muscle tone. She is now 58 lbs. She has done absolutely great. Her coat was abysmal at best and now it is shinning and slick and wonderful. 
We feed BB Wilderness Salmon formula. I do also mix in the BB canned food during the morning feeding and homemade beef and rice with turmeric with the evening meal. 

For what is worth I do not get any chicken, turkey or duck.


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## pb2b (Nov 8, 2013)

laprincessa said:


> I'm very curious about this, too. It just strikes me as odd that one dog food company would sue another dog food company. Would Texaco sue Shell?
> I feed Max Blue Buffalo and he's done well on it.



They are trying to bury BB in expensive litigation. Not that uncommon but a really crappy way to do business. 


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## DanaRuns (Sep 29, 2012)

Claudia M said:


> Not many people here know Darcy's history. She was on some stupid vet diet. GThe same vet that kept her crated 12+ hours a day with a bark collar on her and on anti-depression meds for 4 years.
> 
> When we got her she was 53 lbs. We immediately transitioned her to BB and worked on her muscle tone. She is now 58 lbs.


FWIW, thank you for giving Darcy a better life!


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

DanaRuns said:


> FWIW, thank you for giving Darcy a better life!


Thank you Dana. She is happy now, has completed basic obedience class, is in advanced obedience class, we are doing conformation and beginer field. Plus she has a wonderful sister to help her with the separation anxiety. Once we get her hips, elbows and heart we will consider agility.


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

pb2b said:


> They are trying to bury BB in expensive litigation. Not that uncommon but a really crappy way to do business.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


I hadn't thought of that, which is surprising because I'm pretty cynical about big business. I agree, crappy way to do business


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## T&T (Feb 28, 2008)

Yeah ... Nestle .... the corporation that's spending MILLIONS fighting GMO labelling ... as they don't believe consumers have the right to know what's really in their food. They wouldn't want pet owners to know that the corn & soy in that bag of pet food is Monsanto's toxic GMOs


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## OutWest (Oct 6, 2011)

pb2b said:


> They are trying to bury BB in expensive litigation. Not that uncommon but a really crappy way to do business.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


I object! In a friendly way, mind you. When I look at the two press releases and look at both sides, I have to ask why an international company would bother suing a smaller family-owned company, realizing it would look like David versus Goliath? I think that BBs product promotion may have been over the top and at fault. If they are making claims and hurting another company's product, and that company does analysis and finds the smaller company is lying...I would think the big company might want to act on that information. Nestlé Purina does not have a reputation for trying to squash competition through lawsuits. There really are times in life when Goliath is in the right, so condemning Purina out of hand seems unfair. I, for one, will wait to see how this all plays out.


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## PrincessDaisy (Dec 20, 2011)

Purina had a protein processing plant here locally. I know many people that worked there. There is very little nutrition in their processed protein like by product meal food stuff. But it is cheap and has a long shelf life.

Ivory ate nothing but Purina One until she was diagnosed with cancer. That news will cause you to research food and environment. The last thing you want to do is feed your dog "beef" flavored dog food. Recycled beef by products and cannibalism is all I'll say.

Purina is suing because BB is making inroads into their reputation, and their market share. Just 1 or 2% would be millions in lost gross sales. But the important loss is the reputation and trust that generations of Americans have placed in Purina products. A little loss could turn into an avalanche. Who remembers Schlitz and Pabst Blue Ribbon being the #1 and #2 beers in America? That changed in less than 5 years.

Daisy has been on BB for 3 years as of Memorial Day. It took 5 months to find the correct kibble for her, but it was worth the effort. (BB Freedom Chicken) She is healthy, happy, and beautiful.

Max (the human, not the dog)


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## Golden999 (Jun 29, 2010)

PrincessDaisy said:


> Purina is sueing because BB is making inroads into their reputation, and their market share. Just 1 or 2% would be millions in lost gross sales. But the important loss is the reputation and trust that generations of Americans have placed in Purina products. A little loss could turn into an avilanch.


If Purina's claims are true, regardless of motive, they are doing a public service by bringing this law suit. If Blue Buffalo is essentially just Purina with false labeling, they are stealing a lot of money from pet owners via fraud, who could save a ton of money by buying Purina, or who could use the same amount of money and buy a food that actually is what Blue Buffalo claims to be.

Say what you want about Purina, but the ingredients are, as they say on their press release, right on the bag, and companies like Purina, Pedigree, etc. allow people to feed dogs a reasonable diet that lets their dogs lead decent lives for a price they can afford instead of forcing people to resort to using random assortments of table scraps as dog food or something. These less expensive dog foods may not be nutritionally perfect, but there are certainly dogs who eat them and lead long healthy lives by dog standards. And those companies aren't hiding anything from anyone. People who can afford foods with a set of ingredients that are considered better, and want those foods, can look at the Purina bag and know that Purina is not what they're looking for. If the allegations against Blue Buffalo are true, they are defrauding people by providing a product that isn't as claimed at all, and is not nutritionally any better than the less expensive foods.

Image the desperate owners sacrificing to buy a premium food because they are worried about allergies and such and testing for them, and getting bewildered about why nothing works, because companies like Blue Buffalo lie about what they don't have in them. If the allegations are true, what Blue Buffalo is doing is wrong on a number of levels.

Now, if the allegations prove false than, yeah, Purina would be in the wrong. But I don't think they are. How many times have we read threads here where someone switches to Blue Buffalo and their dogs have severe stomach issues as a result? Something is up with that. Blue Buffalo shouldn't be allowed to get rich via false representation, if that's what's going on. If it's not what's going on, they'll have cause to sue Purina for libel. We'll see.


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

Golden999 said:


> If Purina's claims are true, regardless of motive, they are doing a public service by bringing this law suit. If Blue Buffalo is essentially just Purina with false labeling, they are stealing a lot of money from pet owners via fraud, who could save a ton of money by buying Purina, or who could use the same amount of money and buy a food that actually is what Blue Buffalo claims to be.
> 
> Say what you want about Purina, but the ingredients are, as they say on their press release, right on the bag, and companies like Purina, Pedigree, etc. allow people to feed dogs a reasonable diet that lets their dogs lead decent lives for a price they can afford instead of forcing people to resort to using random assortments of table scraps as dog food or something. These less expensive dog foods may not be nutritionally perfect, but there are certainly dogs who eat them and lead long healthy lives by dog standards. And those companies aren't hiding anything from anyone. People who can afford foods with a set of ingredients that are considered better, and want those foods, can look at the Purina bag and know that Purina is not what they're looking for. If the allegations against Blue Buffalo are true, they are defrauding people by providing a product that isn't as claimed at all, and is not nutritionally any better than the less expensive foods.
> 
> ...


Everything you're saying can be said about nearly every dog food out there. Some dogs do well on one, and some do well on another. I tried several supposedly high quality foods and every single one of them (don't ask me brands now, it's been 6 years ago) gave him the runs. 
Other dogs eat the same food and have no problems at all.
Please don't turn this into yet another "my food is better than yours" thread


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

Golden999 said:


> How many times have we read threads here where someone switches to Blue Buffalo and their dogs have severe stomach issues as a result? Something is up with that. Blue Buffalo shouldn't be allowed to get rich via false representation, if that's what's going on. If it's not what's going on, they'll have cause to sue Purina for libel. We'll see.


Other than this forum I have honestly never heard from any dog owner I know that they had any problems with BB. I have many clients who feed BB to their dogs, many friends including breeders who feed BB to their dogs. And these are dogs of all types and sizes. 
We started Rose as a puppy on it with no issues and transitioned Darcy asap with no issues.


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## pb2b (Nov 8, 2013)

OutWest said:


> I object! In a friendly way, mind you. When I look at the two press releases and look at both sides, I have to ask why an international company would bother suing a smaller family-owned company, realizing it would look like David versus Goliath? I think that BBs product promotion may have been over the top and at fault. If they are making claims and hurting another company's product, and that company does analysis and finds the smaller company is lying...I would think the big company might want to act on that information. Nestlé Purina does not have a reputation for trying to squash competition through lawsuits. There really are times in life when Goliath is in the right, so condemning Purina out of hand seems unfair. I, for one, will wait to see how this all plays out.



I'm not saying BB isn't exaggerating their marketing message. I work in marketing, so I have a very deep understanding of how the game is played. However, I do not believe that Nestle's motives have anything to do with stopping BB from misleading consumers. This is the same company that makes Hot Pockets and claims to use "quality" food in them. Plus, Nestle has been sued more than once for false advertising tied to their water bottles.

Why would Goliath go after David? Because they can and it will cost them a lot less than it will BB. There is more going on here.

For the record, I don't use either one of these products and I'm not trying to stick up for BB. I just don't like it when companies go after each other like this. Put those resources into improving and selling your own products. There are enough dollars to go around. 





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## Reese9 (Jan 11, 2012)

Personally, I would NEVER feed Blue Buffalo nor Purina to my dog. Google "Blue Buffalo complaints & Purina dog food complaints" and I guarantee you never would either.


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

Reese9 said:


> Personally, I would NEVER feed Blue Buffalo nor Purina to my dog. Google "Blue Buffalo complaints & Purina dog food complaints" and I guarantee you never would either.


and again I ask, please don't turn this into another "my food is better than your food" thread


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## Golden999 (Jun 29, 2010)

pb2b said:


> However, I do not believe that Nestle's motives have anything to do with stopping BB from misleading consumers.


I am not disagreeing with you as it regards motives. Unfortunately, big corporations tend to take their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders extremely literally and forget their responsibilities to their customers and the general public. However, even assuming bad motives here, it's still a good lawsuit for consumers in the sense that if what is alleged is true, Blue Buffalo is perpetuating a massive fraud that is siphoning needed money from the pockets of poor and middle class consumers, and potentially even harming the health of dogs who are allergic to chicken or corn who either are put on this food long term, or who's owners try this food and see that an allergic reaction is still present and say "Must not be a chicken or corn allergy".

Ideally, regulatory agencies would be better funded, undertake more frequent and more extensive inspections, and have greater enforcement powers; so that they could handle stuff like this themselves more often. Unfortunately, they've been hit on all levels since at least the beginning of the Reagan administration- deregulation, reduction in mandate and funding, etc.. We don't even really inspect human food the way we need to anymore (Look at all the salmanilla outbreaks and product recalls).

So, if what it takes is one corporation suing another to reveal the truth, I'll take it rather than just see a company be allowed to misrepresent it's product until the end of time. If it's not the truth, that's a different kettle of wax, of course. But if it is the truth, than Blue Buffalo owes everyone who's ever bought a bag of their food a refund for the difference between the price of what they thought they were getting and the market value of what they were actually getting, at minimum. I don't feel sorry for BB at all if this stuff is true. If it isn't true, then of course BB should be able to collect massive damages against Purina instead.


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## pb2b (Nov 8, 2013)

Golden999 said:


> So, if what it takes is one corporation suing another to reveal the truth, I'll take it rather than just see a company be allowed to misrepresent it's product until the end of time. If it's not the truth, that's a different kettle of wax, of course. But if it is the truth, than Blue Buffalo owes everyone who's ever bought a bag of their food a refund for the difference between the price of what they thought they were getting and the market value of what they were actually getting, at minimum. I don't feel sorry for BB at all if this stuff is true. If it isn't true, then of course BB should be able to collect massive damages against Purina instead.



Agreed.  


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## Tennyson (Mar 26, 2011)

pb2b said:


> They are trying to bury BB in expensive litigation. Not that uncommon but a really crappy way to do business.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


 You might want to rethink that statement:

Surprising Statement from Blue Buffalo Pet Food

Yesterday (October 14, 2014) Blue Buffalo announced some of their pet foods did contain by-products, with blame pointed towards an ingredient supplier. Blue stated a supplier “mislabeled” some ingredients selling numerous pet food brands including Blue Buffalo a chicken meal that was actually a by-product chicken meal. 

In the midst of a major lawsuit (Purina suing Blue Buffalo claiming Blue used by-products in their foods), Blue Buffalo made a surprising statement. 

“Blue Buffalo has recently learned from Wilbur-Ellis, a major U.S. Company that supplies ingredients to us and many other well-known brands of pet foods, that a Texas pet food ingredient processing plant they own had mislabeled some of the ingredients they shipped to their customers. So while their customers were ordering and paying for 100% chicken meal, at times they were receiving shipments that contained poultry by-product meal.” 

“Since this Wilbur-Ellis plant was the source of some of our chicken meal, we may have received some of these mislabeled shipments, and there likely are numerous other pet food companies who also received these mislabeled ingredients. The FDA has been informed of this situation, and you may rest assured that this mislabeling poses no health, safety or nutrition issue. And while this is comforting, since the health and well-being of our dogs and cats comes before anything else, the fact that any Blue Buffalo food could include a mislabeled ingredient is totally unacceptable. As a result, we have stopped doing business with this plant.” 

Purina’s ‘beef’ with Blue has been the company advertised no use of by-products in their foods when Purina’s testing confirmed the use of by-products. With this surprising statement from Blue, it appears Blue is admitting some of their products did indeed contain by-products – though they are declaring it is no fault of their own. Blue is passing ‘the by-product buck’ on to the ingredient supplier Wilbur-Ellis.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

actually I found out thru all of this that BB is owned by a HUGE HUGE company. David vs. Goliath it is not.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

Tennyson said:


> You might want to rethink that statement:
> 
> Surprising Statement from Blue Buffalo Pet Food
> 
> ...


And apparently BB did not do quality testing on their sourced ingredients.


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## OutWest (Oct 6, 2011)

I saw BB's statement also. Whether it's David vs. Goliath, or Goliath vs. Goliath, or David vs. David, the science of the test results is what matters. Bet the people at Purina did a little dance about this. It sure took BB long enough to conduct their own tests and come out with a statement.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

BB is not a food manufacturer. They are a marketing company that outsources everything to other manufacturers who produce foods for them that they then put a lable on. 

Because the ingredient source suppliers are known to the other food manufacturers, they just got fed up with the blatant false advertising that BB was getting away with. Nestle Purina was a large enough company to take them to task on it. 

This is another good example of why the ratings by the online food rating sites are bogus.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Swampcollie said:


> BB is not a food manufacturer. They are a marketing company that outsources everything to other manufacturers who produce foods for them that they then put a lable on.
> 
> Because the ingredient source suppliers are known to the other food manufacturers, they just got fed up with the blatant false advertising that BB was getting away with. Nestle Purina was a large enough company to take them to task on it.
> 
> This is another good example of why the ratings by the online food rating sites are bogus.


Exactly!:appl::appl:


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

hotel4dogs said:


> actually I found out thru all of this that BB is owned by a HUGE HUGE company. David vs. Goliath it is not.


I did a search and as far as I can tell Blue Buffalo is owned by an investment group that is about to launch an IPO on it. Invus group. Is this the information you got too?

The bottom line is Blue Buffalo engaged in false advertising. They can blame their supplier; however, they should have had safeguards in place to test what they were selling in light of their claims. 

My vet called BB up to see if she could tour their manufacturing plant. She was told there are over 20 plants processing their food throughout the country and she was denied, of course. 20 plants??? It's difficult to have good quality assurance when your manufacturing is spread out so much.


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## T&T (Feb 28, 2008)

And now they're being bought ...
Rumor Is…Mars Petcare to Buy Blue Buffalo Pet Food | Truth about Pet Food


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## SunnynSey (Jan 17, 2015)

I have always felt that BB were geniuses at marketing, but the actual results were less than stellar with all the BB fed dogs at the vet hospital I work at so I am not surprised to see they were using low quality ingredients and not disclosing it.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

yes, that's the company that owns them. They have plenty of money to go up against Purina if the claims had been false.



Dallas Gold said:


> I did a search and as far as I can tell Blue Buffalo is owned by an investment group that is about to launch an IPO on it. Invus group. Is this the information you got too?
> 
> The bottom line is Blue Buffalo engaged in false advertising. They can blame their supplier; however, they should have had safeguards in place to test what they were selling in light of their claims.
> 
> My vet called BB up to see if she could tour their manufacturing plant. She was told there are over 20 plants processing their food throughout the country and she was denied, of course. 20 plants??? It's difficult to have good quality assurance when your manufacturing is spread out so much.


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## GoldenCamper (Dec 21, 2009)

Bothers me how the majority of dog food brands are owned by a few big players.


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

Does anyone know the best source for finding out which co-packers produce which product lines? I am specifically asking in reference to Diamond Foods as they produce all of the Kirkland and Natures Domain foods sold by Costco. These foods are currently under fire for causing severe illness and deaths in animals, starting in November 2014. Many are switching food and my concern is they are switching to another brand co packed by Diamond.


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## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

No idea if it is also made by Diamond or connected to Diamond somehow. But that is an interesting thought. 

When I was taking Ben off his puppy food my vet said, whatever you switch to - DON'T feed Blue Buffalo. He and other vets see a lot of GI problems with BB.


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## T&T (Feb 28, 2008)

Dallas Gold said:


> Does anyone know the best source for finding out which co-packers produce which product lines? I am specifically asking in reference to Diamond Foods as they produce all of the Kirkland and Natures Domain foods sold by Costco. These foods are currently under fire for causing severe illness and deaths in animals, starting in November 2014. Many are switching food and my concern is they are switching to another brand co packed by Diamond.


Was just searching the other day ... 

Who Makes What in Pet Food | Truth about Pet Food


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## GoldenCamper (Dec 21, 2009)

T&T said:


> Was just searching the other day ...
> 
> Who Makes What in Pet Food | Truth about Pet Food


Not surprised Diamond has the longest list.


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