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Pet Food Ingredients

Why then?

Some dog foods and cat foods use ingredients many consider to be risk ingredients. Furthermore, those that use what many consider risk ingredients in dog foods and cat foods, defend their use vigorously. If these ingredients are so safe, why then have so many other pet food companies stopped using them?

Some dog foods and cat foods use ingredients many consider to be risk ingredients.  Furthermore, those that use what many consider risk ingredients in dog foods and cat foods, defend their use vigorously.  If these ingredients are so safe, why then have so many other pet food companies stopped using them?

Thirty years ago, a pet owner would have been laughed out of the pet store asking for a pet food that was preserved with mixed tocopherols (natural preservative).  Today, almost all pet food manufacturers preserve naturally.  Years ago, probiotics weren’t even a possibility as a pet food ingredient; same goes for chelated minerals and many other health promoting ingredients.

The ‘change’ happened when one or two conscientious pet food makers decided they couldn’t just go along like everyone else.  The ‘change’ they envisioned in pet food might not have even had any dog or cat related scientific research attached to it (yet they probably had human scientific research).  I’d have to guess these trail blazing pet food makers used what science they had and just went with their ‘gut’ feeling; utilizing safer, healthier ingredients in pet foods.

So…once a healthier, safer ingredient is bravely introduced to pet food world, feeding trials prove its quality, why then don’t other pet food manufacturers utilize the safer and/or healthier ingredient?  Are they stubborn?  Cheap?  Stuck in their ‘ways’?

As an example, pet foods using chemical preservatives versus natural preservatives.  Again, thirty years ago a pet owner would be laughed out of the pet store asking for a dog food or cat food that used mixed tocopherols.  Thirty years later, there are only a handful of pet food makers that still use BHA/BHT, ethoxyquin, and or TBHQ (all chemical preservatives linked to serious illnesses) as a preservative for their foods.  That ‘handful’ of pet food makers vigorously defends the chemicals through a variety of messages to pet owners.  But I can’t help from thinking…if these ingredients are as safe as they claim, why then have the majority stopped using them?

Another example would be the ingredient Animal Fat.  The FDA website states the pet food ingredient Animal Fat is one of four pet food ingredients likely to contain pentobarbital (a euthanizing drug) and thus Animal Fat is likely to contain the remains of a euthanized animal.  http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/CVM/CVMFOIAElectronicReadingRoom/ucm129134.htm  While some pet food makers use Animal Fat in dog foods and cat foods, most others use Chicken Fat or Poultry Fat.  If so many pet food makers use Chicken Fat, why then would others continue to use a fat source ingredient that the FDA says is probable to contain a lethal drug and a euthanized animal?

This ‘why then’ doesn’t imply that every pet food maker should copy what their competitor is doing.  However those that are stuck (or cheap or stubborn) using one particular ingredient when safer, healthier alternatives are available just doesn’t make sense.

Below is a list of pet food ingredients; row one is the perhaps riskier ingredient, row two is the perhaps safer alternative.

Risk/Inferior Ingredient?                              Safer/Premium Ingredient
Animal Fat                                                                    Chicken Fat, Poultry Fat
BHA/BHT or TBHQ                                                    Mixed tocopherols, Vitamin E
Ethoxyquin                                                                   Mixed tocopherols, Vitamin E
Menidione Sodium Bisulfate                                  Alfalfa
Sodium Selenite                                                          Selenium yeast (only approved in dog food)

There are many other ingredients that separate pet foods, however when it comes to a safer ingredient used by the majority, why then are some still using what the majority believes to be risk?

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
PetsumerReport.com

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3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Se-won Kim

    April 27, 2015 at 1:10 am

    Hello, Ms. Thixton.
    My name is Se-won Kim, and I live in Seoul, South Korea.
    Honestly, I want to question someone.
    In Korea, several cats ate some organic cat food, named , but they are getting the urinary disease after one year later. However, company said that it is not related their cat food.
    but I take care of one domestic cat, so I am really nervous.
    would you answered this question that the organic cat food is related this pet’s disease?

    • Susan Thixton

      April 27, 2015 at 9:04 am

      I am not a veterinarian – so I am not the best one to decide if the pet food is the cause. But I believe it certainly could be a cause. If the food is manufactured in the U.S. – please encourage each cat owner to report the issue to FDA. Here is a link to do that online: http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ReportaProblem/ucm182403.htm Make sure everyone submits veterinary records to FDA as well. Also if there is a veterinarian you visit that is willing, collect copies of all the of health records and pet food history of each cat and ask this one vet to go over all the records to try to figure out if there is a link to the pet food. Having one veterinarian look over all the records could help – and then this veterinarian could also submit a report to FDA. Please keep me posted.

  2. Se-won Kim

    April 29, 2015 at 4:54 am

    Thank you very much for your answer, Ms. Thixton.
    it’s very useful for me.

    Sadly, and I am truly sorry for you,
    when I confirmed the pet food after I wrote this mention yesterday, it is manufactured from South Korea.
    They were only confirmed to USDA about their organic ingredient.

    But I had a hint about this problem for your answer. Thank you.
    So I will concern to submit this report for Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in South Korea.

    Thank you for your help and have a nice day!

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