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Keep your Pet Clear of the Next Pet Food Recall
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!
NOTE: This article is for information only. See your veterinarian
for medical advice.
About the author: Susan Thixton has been studying the
pet food industry for over 15 years since her veterinarian
told her the cancer death of her eight year old dog was
caused from chemical preservatives in pet food. Today
she shares her pet food industry knowledge with pet owners
worldwide. For more information please visit http://www.TruthAboutPetFood.com
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