It is a minor step forward, but it is a step forward. Some suppliers of the pet food ingredient salmon meal plan to participate in a 3rd party independent testing program to verify that consumers are getting what they pay for.
A common problem in pet food (and human food) has been ingredient verification. The pet food label claims it contains beef or chicken or salmon, but recent study after study has shown that the actual pet food doesn’t always contain the ingredients the label claims.
Law requires a pet food to state all ingredients on the label (in the ingredient panel). If a pet food lists – as example – chicken meal on the label and chicken is not found in the pet food, the pet food would be considered ‘mislabeled’ and ‘adulterated’ (due to the mislabeling). Mislabeling could occur at a manufacturing level, manufacturers trying to cut corners with a less expensive meat or meat meal knowing there is little chance of getting caught. Or the mislabeling could occur at the ingredient supplier level, a supplier selling a pet food manufacturer a cheaper ingredient labeled as (example) chicken meal.
With one pet food ingredient – salmon meal – a Norwegian company is providing independent testing to verify the pet food ingredient and several salmon meal ingredient suppliers have signed up to have their pet food ingredients verified. “Biomega and Marine Harvest from Norway, and Fiordo Austral from Chile, are now offering authenticity tested salmon meal to their pet food customers. The authenticity has been verified by the Norwegian laboratory company ORIVO (previously named OmegaVeritas), through a independent 3rd party authenticity testing program.”
“The test, which is the first of its kind, is based on the already established test for salmon oil and other omega-3 oils, and is able to verify species and geographic origin.”
And the lab – ORIVO – has plans to add verification programs for other pet food ingredients in the near future.
One small step forward. Thanks to ORIVO for this verification program and thanks to the current salmon meal producers that volunteered to have their ingredients authenticity tested.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
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Regina
April 6, 2017 at 1:22 pm
Will this verification be accessible to consumers? Will it be on the label, or website, or easy to find?
Will you be able to let us know what brands of pet food are using the verification? I doubt the likes of Purina or Mars, or Procter&Gamble will be bothering with it, but I’d love to know what smaller brands might be participating, and how we might know about it.
Thank you, Susan, for continuing to spread this information to those of us who care!
Jane Democracy
April 8, 2017 at 2:28 pm
I think you could probably phone and ask the company if they verify using Orivo. I doubt very many smaller brands would participate due to cost. Fish meal is often used as salmon meal and the excuse (in my experience) has been … that it is difficult to get certain specific meals all year round or it is just labelled fish meal because that is what it has to be labelled for use in agrifeeds it actually contains salmon. Uggh. Poultry meal is often used (I would probably say most often) for chicken or turkey meal… again because it is difficult/expensive to get pure chicken meal/ turkey meal throughout the year. I am so sick of lies and work-arounds I just can’t stand it.
Sharon Bilotta-Testa
April 6, 2017 at 1:43 pm
What does it even matter sure maybe they (say) they will I ain’t buying into that and I thought we should avoid all fish because of the mercury levels…NO THANKS I’ll stay with raw and some meats from the butcher as I know what it really contains!
Kathryn Smith
April 6, 2017 at 4:42 pm
I agree with Regina… I want to know the details!
Batzion
April 6, 2017 at 7:06 pm
One of the biggest coverups of all time is the blowback from the Fukushima incident in 2011. The radiation contamination has spread into Alaska. Avoid Alaskan salmon for yourself and your pets. Avoid fish from the Pacific: http://enenews.com/nuclear-engineer-fukushima-is-worst-industrial-cataclysm-in-the-history-of-the-world-its-about-as-close-to-hell-as-i-could-imagine-the-nuclear-cores-have-disappeared-contami?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
And http://enenews.com/massive-die-offs-reported-in-pacific-ocean-officials-theres-no-fish-out-there-anywhere-over-a-very-large-area-what-is-happening-where-is-their-food-alarming-frightening?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
And http://enenews.com/report-hundreds-of-millions-of-pacific-salmon-missing-presumed-dead-govt-issues-emergency-order-along-us-west-coast-japan-suffering-historic-collapse-fish-starving-to-death-all-forms-of?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
And while I’m at it, farmed Scottish and Norwegian salmon are infested with sea lice: https://qz.com/888169/the-price-of-salmon-is-rising-because-of-a-massive-sea-lice-epidemic/?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email
Sandy
April 7, 2017 at 3:23 am
I suggest you read current reports on testing for the effects of the disaster on fish and reports that are more accurate. There’s a good roundup on Snopes. Quote: “In other words, the cesium-134 in this single salmon almost certainly came from the Fukushima disaster, but eating it would be no more or less dangerous than consuming any fish on Earth.” Please note it was found in one salmon. There are plenty enough substantiated fears and concerns about commercial pet food without exaggerating others. Could the pet food industry benefit from such fear-mongering, so that consumers lose trust even in positive steps, such as the salmon meal testing? Is it hoping that the consumer movement will just implode under the weight of fear and frustration? I hope that doesn’t happen. The information provided by this site is real. The power of that information is to effect a change.
Batzion
April 7, 2017 at 8:29 am
I suggest you learn more about the scum behind Snopes: http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/265226/facebook-relying-snopes-fact-check-site-run-daniel-greenfield
And http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/whos-behind-snopes-facebook-fact-checkers/
And http://foodbabe.com/2017/02/24/do-you-trust-snopes-you-wont-after-reading-how-they-work-with-monsanto-operatives/
I wouldn’t trust Snopes for the time of day.
T Allen
April 11, 2017 at 8:22 pm
Just an FYI, Snopes is not a reputable source of info anymore. They are fine at debunking Urban myths but I have seen several outright lies propagated by Big Pet Food etc. I absolutely do not trust anything Snopes says anymore. 🙁
Adriana
April 11, 2017 at 1:40 am
I’m in Mexico and where I live I just find Purina, Dog Chow, pro plan, nupec and all those brands.. im vegan so we don’t buy meat, so should I go to the meat store and just buy chicken and meat for my dog? What about my cats? I hate give them sea food I mean if they were free they wouldn’t be fishing tuna right?
Cheryl Bond
April 16, 2017 at 1:56 pm
Adriana, You can buy the basic meat at your grocery store for both your dog & cat, but you need to follow a recipe because added foods/supplements need to be added in order to assure proper nutritional balance. Also, a canine’s diet will be different from a feline diet. Feline’s are absolutely obligate carnivores, meaning they really do not do well on ANY grains whatsoever. They also MUST have the appropriate amount of taurine in their daily diet.
Susan sells books here on this site teaching how to formulate a homeade raw food diet.
If you can’t always make homeade, or just don’t choose to, for whatever reason, you can order online raw frozen (shipped in dry ice) to you for your dog & cat. A great reputable brand is “Darwin’s”. They have great customer service & are more than happy to answer any of a your questions. Some pet food stores do carry raw frozen pet food, although I don’t know if you have any in your area. Primal is a good commercial frozen raw brand. Again, I don’t know what the availability is in your area. Some people for convience sake also choose to feed (whether always, or on occasion if they can’t always make homeade raw food diet) a commercial dehydrated raw food (where you add the water to it & mix it) Primal is a good brand for that as well. You can order online if you do not have any stores nearby selling what you need. Chewy.com is a well known site w/ excellent customer service & really fast shipping.
The most important thing to do, if you are going to attempt to make homeade food for your pets, is to fully educate yourself on the proper formulation, this is imperative, or your pets will have nutritional deficiency’s. It’s a good idea to connect online to different pet blog’s by reputable people who have years of experience doing this sort of thing. They can help you past any pitfalls, learning from their trials & tribulations.
Many pets will take immediately to the new diet, but some won’t, therefore having the support of people who have gone through all of this is invaluable. They can help you through with ideas to make the change more gradual, if a particular pet is resisting change. This can be particularly challenging for cats that are addicted to dry food. The change might have to start much slower in that instance. Sometimes the transition might need to be from dry, to starting to add more quality canned food, & gradually less & less dry & then slowly w/ added small increments of raw & slowly adjusting to an eventual all raw food diet. Just know, you are not alone & you will find a very supportive community of people out there that will help you get through any obstacles you may face.
Good luck! Thank you for being an open-minded truth-seeking person looking to better their pets health & longevity.
Be well,
Cheryl
Priyanka dhelja
May 13, 2017 at 3:15 am
Hi , I am from India and we are vegetarians .
I did happen to chat with a few animal activist who have guided me over my Cat , simba ‘s illness on not feeding dry food products .We did vet visits to 5 of the best ones we could find in India they suggested strictly Royal Canine or Hills KD for kidney food .
While I happened to stumble upon the documentary pet fooled on Netflix , It reinforced the faith in using actual food products for feeding . I would need some help from the community here due to poor knowledge about pet food , Cos it scares me to go against multiple doctors recommendations and needs courage to not follow their instructions . Is it fine to give my Cat raw meet that we find in super market or should be cook it , in terms of boiling it .Or we continue with the dry food of Hill s KD .
What is my Cat suffering from and how old is she would be your questions before answering this further – Simba is a India street Cat , 2 years old with polysistic Kidney disorder by Birth .And has one kidney small and other one larger . His urea and keterine levels are extremely high and we are treating him with Drips twice a day 100 ML and chicken tablets for dogs and he is on strict Hills KD dry food diet .With low hemoglobin .
My question after acquiring all this knowledge is , Am I putting simba in a loop where we are not able to cure the root cause for kidney disjunction by feeding him dry food every time .Is it advisable to move to mean natural sources .If yes , Then in raw or cooked form is suitable for consumption and being a vegetarian we have lack on knowledge on mean .What kind of mean should we feed . Can it be boiled chicken in water like a soup or raw chicken from butcher store or sausages packed in super markets or fish from the butcher store and if fish then which variety ?
Thanks Looking forward to positive response .
ownedbymycats
May 17, 2017 at 5:43 pm
Raw meat is the very best you can feed. Cats’ digestive systems are designed for it. I wouldn’t recommend sausages, as those are very high in sodium, and not balanced for a feline’s dietary needs. There are some very good recipes on felinenutrition.net. It’s super important to make sure the meals are balanced. Dry food is very hard on the kidneys, and leaves kitty in a constant state of dehydration. (Cats are not big water drinkers.) Hope this helps!
Priyanka dhelja
May 21, 2017 at 5:01 am
Thanks , let me try meat . I’ll get back to you with reviews in case my car accepts it as his food .