I know this is long but thought many would benefit -
1. Keep Your Clear Of The Next Pet Food Recall
By Susan Thixton
Last year turned out to be the worst in history for pet food recalls.
While there is no way to be 100% certain that a pet food is not
tainted or will be recalled, there are some red flags to look for
when selecting your dog's or cat's food. Avoiding these common pet
food ingredients can greatly improve your odds in purchasing a
healthy, safe pet food.
Judging the safety or the nutritional value of a pet food starts by
ignoring the advertising, the price of the pet food, and ignoring the
front of the bag. The real signs to the safety of a dog food or cat
food lie on the back or side of the bag or can in the 'Ingredient
Listing'. Regardless of what marketing terms ('choice', 'premium',
and so on) are on the front of the bag or can of pet food, a pet
owner cannot determine the quality or how safe the food is unless
they look at the ingredients.
With dry foods there can be 90 different ingredients (or more), with
canned foods there can be 50 or more different ingredients. But don't
panic...you don't have to understand hundreds of different pet food
ingredients! You just need to be aware of a few key ingredients...pet
food ingredients that you do NOT want to see in a dog food or cat
food (or treats).
'Wheat Gluten', 'Corn Gluten', or 'Rice Gluten'. These three
ingredients were the bad boy pet food ingredients of 2007. Tainted
glutens were found to be the cause of thousands of dogs and cats
becoming ill and dying. It is not that glutens themselves are toxic
to pets - these ingredients have been used in pet foods for years.
The problem was the source or manufacturer of the glutens - imported
from countries with far less quality standards than in the US. (The
majority of glutens used in the US pet foods are from imported
sources.) These imported glutens contained added chemicals that
caused crystals to form in the kidneys of dogs and cats.
Not only is it important to avoid dog foods and cat foods (and dog
and cat treats) that contain glutens because of the possibility of
dangerous added chemicals, it is important because they add no real
quality nutrition to the food. Glutens are used as a thickener AND as
a source of protein in pet food. Adult maintenance dog foods must
provide a minimum of 18% protein, adult maintenance cat foods must
provide a minimum of 26% protein.
If the meat source of the pet food does not provide enough protein,
glutens are often added to boost the protein level of the pet food.
The best nutrition for your pet comes from a meat protein pet food
not from a gluten protein. Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats)
that contain 'corn gluten', 'wheat gluten', or 'soy gluten'.
'By Products'. By-products have never been the cause of a pet food
recall, but they are definitely ingredients you want to avoid feeding
your pet. To give you an understanding of by-products, I'd like to
compare this pet food ingredient to pies - you know, the dessert! How
many different types of pies you can think of? There are apple pies,
cherry pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, pie
in math, cow pies (yuck!) - I think you get my point. Now imagine if
you purchased yourself a prepared ravioli dinner at the grocery and
you looked at the ingredients and you see 'pie' listed as the first
ingredient in your dinner.
Hmmm, pie in ravioli - what kind of pie? You wouldn't know if it was
apple pie or mud pie or even cow pie. All you would know is that your
dinner contained 'pie'. Considering 'pie' could be anything from
apple pie to cow pie - my guess is that you wouldn't be having
ravioli for dinner. Same thing with by-products in pet food.
AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials, the
organization responsible for all animal feed manufacturing rules and
regulations) defines by-products as "meat by-products is the non-
rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered
mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys,
brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty
tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does
not include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be suitable for
use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must
correspond thereto."
So, with respect to pet food, a by-product is a catch-all ingredient
name. All left over meat materials from the human food industry are
clumped into one ingredient name - by-product. There is NO certainty
of what you are feeding - one batch of pet food might be more
intestine by-products while the next batch of pet food might be more
liver or bone by-products.
There is NO way of knowing what is actually contained in the pet food
ingredient by-product (the pet food manufacturers themselves couldn't
tell you exactly). Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that
contain By-products of any kind...Chicken By-Products, Beef By-
Products, Chicken By-Product Meal, Beef By-Product Meal, and so
forth.
'Meat Meal', 'Meat and Bone Meal', or 'Animal Digest'. These three
ingredients are similar to by-products. AAFCO defines Meat and Bone
Meal as "the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone,
exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings,
manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may
occur unavoidably to good processing practices."
Again, a catch all ingredient name for the left-over parts of animals
used for human food. No consistency to what is contained in these
ingredients (all three of these pet food ingredient definitions are
similar) - no way of knowing what is actually in your pet's food.
Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain 'meat
meal', 'meat and bone meal', or 'animal digest'.
'Animal Fat'. In 2002 the FDA tested many different brands of dog
food (cat food was not tested) for the presence of the drug
pentobarbital. Many brands of dog food tested positive to contain the
drug. Pentobarbital is the drug used to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle,
and horses.
How can the drug that is used to euthanize animals be found in pet
food? The answer - euthanized animals are rendered (cooked) and the
end ingredients are placed in pet food. It has long been rumored that
euthanized dogs and cats (from animal shelters and veterinarian
offices) is the major source of the pentobarbital in pet food.
However no one has been able to prove or disprove this rumor to date.
The FDA/CVM (Center for Veterinary Management) developed testing
methods on two separate occasions to determine the species source of
the drug. No results have ever been determined.
The pet food manufacturers adamantly deny they use rendered dogs or
cats - but NO clinical evidence has ever been released to confirm the
pentobarbital is from euthanized cattle and horses in pet food as
they claim.
However, the one thing the FDA/CVM has determined through their
testing is the pet food ingredient 'animal fat' is the most common
ingredient to contain pentobarbital. In other words, if you are
feeding a dog food or cat food (or treats) with the
ingredient 'animal fat' in the ingredient listing - you are (more
than likely) feeding your pet euthanized animals.
Not every batch of pet food tested that contained the
ingredient 'animal fat' has proved to contain pentobarbital - but why
would any pet owner want to take the chance? Avoid dog foods, cat
foods, and dog and cat treats that contain the ingredient 'animal
fat'.
'BHA', 'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin'. These pet food ingredients
are chemical preservatives and you might have to look through the
entire ingredient list to find them. It is worth the look because
there is plenty of clinical evidence to associate all four of these
chemical preservatives with cancer and tumors (simply do a Google
search on any one of these chemicals).
All four of these chemical preservatives are rarely used to preserve
human food and if so, are used in quantities far less than what is
allowed in pet food. Avoid any dog food, cat food, or dog and cat
treat that contains 'BHA', 'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin' on the
label.
'Corn', 'Wheat', 'Soy'. While there is no scientific evidence that
proves these ingredients are dangerous to pets - they are potentially
dangerous ingredients associated with recalls in the past (1995,
1999, and 2005).
These grains are highly prone to a deadly mold (aflatoxin). It is
suggested (by AAFCO) that all pet food manufacturers test grains for
the mold, but as recalls of the past have proven - that doesn't
always happen. I do not think these ingredients are as risky as
others mentioned above, but they are ingredients I avoid for my own
pets.
There is more to selecting a true healthy pet food for your dog or
cat than avoiding the above mentioned ingredients. This is just a
start - based on pet food history, AAFCO ingredient definitions,
science and opinion of many pet food experts including myself.
There are many quality pet foods available that do NOT use the above
ingredients and that add health promoting ingredients to their foods
and treats. Continue to learn as much as you can about what you are
feeding your pet and ALWAYS read the labels!
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Susan Thixton has worked in the pet industry for over 20 years
helping thousands of pet owners to enjoy their pets. She's produced
an internationally distributed dog training video, authored the tell
all book Truth About Pet Food, and recently has begun publication of
a one-of-a-kind pet owning consumer report Petsumer Report. For more
information please visit http://www.TruthAboutPetFood.com
