Comparing pet foods is a challenging task for any pet owner. Although regulations don’t allow pet food manufacturers to provide pet owners with much quality information, we still want to know. So we ask you, pet food manufacturers…Who makes the better meatloaf?
Two cooks prepare dinner, we’re having meatloaf. Cook Number One heads to the Natural Food Store and purchases all the required meatloaf ingredients. She buys antibiotic/steroid free, free range, fresh, low fat ground beef. Cook Number One also purchases fresh breadcrumbs, fresh spices, and all the other necessary ingredients fresh; all free of dyes, preservatives, and chemicals. She heads home to the kitchen and prepares her meatloaf dinner, cooking it at a medium temperature in a chemical free glass pan.
Cook Number Two happens to have everything he needs to make meatloaf in the freezer and in his cupboard. He’s very money conscious, and frequently purchases outdated meats and throws them in the freezer until he needs them. He also tends to purchase spices and cookware at discount stores (saving money is important to him). Cook Number Two finds some frozen hamburger in his freezer; it’s a little freezer burnt, but since it’s going in meatloaf, he thinks its fine. He digs around and finds a few more frozen ingredients for the meatloaf; he’s not sure how long they’ve been in there, however Cook Two feels just so he doesn’t have to spend much money on the meatloaf, these frozen ingredients will be fine. Next, he digs around in the cabinet and manages to find a few spices and breadcrumbs; he doesn’t know how old they are, he doesn’t know if they contain any risky chemicals, he doesn’t care. Cook number two throws all these ingredients into a plastic pan (it contains BPA), and throws it into the microwave for ten minutes (yes, some BPA leeches into our meatloaf).
Without knowing the exact steps that each of our cooks took to prepare the meatloaf dinner, when you look at the two meals side by side, they basically look the same. Both contain the exact same ingredients, different quality for sure, but word for word each meatloaf contains exactly the same ingredients.
Now…here’s the important part every quality minded pet food manufacturer needs to notice…this is EXACTLY what pet owners are up against. Pet Food Manufacturer Number One (just like Cook Number One) uses all healthy, premium, fresh, safe ingredients; they are very careful and cautious of ingredients they select for their pet foods. Pet Food Manufacturer Two (just like Cook Number Two) uses the exact same ingredients, however the ingredients are the same in name only; the quality of ingredients are vastly different. Attention all pet food manufacturers that fall into the Cook Number One category…how in the world do you expect pet owners to KNOW you use all healthy, premium, fresh, safe ingredients? How can we know that you were very careful and cautious of the ingredients that you selected for your pet foods? You might know, but we don’t. Remember, the ingredient names are the same, the two meatloaf’s look almost identical. Put yourself in our shoes; we can’t ‘see’ a difference and we really want to.
Pet owners have been burned countless times; the reality is that our beloved pets have died because we trusted far too many Cook Number Two’s. They told us it was meatloaf, just like all the other meatloaf’s, some even told us their meatloaf was better; and our pets died. If you REALLY want us to believe you are a Cook Number One type, prove it. Figure out a way.
Pet owners don’t care how you do this, how many regulations are in your way; we want to feed our dogs and cats the very best meatloaf we can afford. It’s shouldn’t be our job to spend countless hours of investigative work trying to figure out if you are a Number One or a Number Two; recalls have forced us to become pet food detectives. Please, all Number One category Pet Food manufacturers, provide us with all the solid proof we so desperately want, and we honestly deserve to know. Provide us with unquestionable evidence that you carefully and cautiously selected every single ingredient in your pet foods. For those that take the time and efforts to do this, we’ll probably buy lots of your meatloaf.
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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