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Avoid The Next Pet Food Recall - Here's Some Tips
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 important things to look for - and to avoid when selecting your dog's or cat's food - to greatly improve your odds in purchasing a healthy, safe pet food.
Begin by looking for the Ingredient Listing on your pet food. Some pet foods can contain 90 or more ingredients, but we are going to focus on just a few ingredients that have the potential to be risky.
'Wheat Gluten', 'Corn Gluten', or 'Rice Gluten'. These ingredients were the tainted ingredients that caused the pet food recall of March 2007. Glutens themselves are not toxic to pets. The problem occurred when inferior quality glutens were imported for U.S. pet foods that contained added chemicals to boost the protein levels.
As well, glutens provide little nutritional value to a pet food. They can be used as a thickener and as a protein boost for pet foods. Adult maintenance dog foods must provide a minimum of 18% protein, adult maintenance cat foods must provide a minimum of 26% protein. Often times a pet food does not provide the required percentage of protein from meat ingredients and glutens can be added to boost the protein levels. An optimal pet food protein should be from a meat source.
'By Products'. By-products have never caused a pet food recall. But to give you an understanding of the controversy that surrounds them, I will compare by-products to pies. Yes - the dessert - pies. There are many different types of pies. Apple pies, cherry pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, cow pies (yuck!), and on and on. Imagine if you purchased a pie without knowing what type of pie it was. You might be getting a apple pie - or you might be getting a cow pie. The same unknown applies to 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 kindChicken 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 ingredients are similar to by-products with a similar AAFCO definition. Again, this is a catch-all pet food ingredient using various left over animal tissues from human food processing that does not provide a pet owner with any certainty of what is actually in their pet's food.
'Animal Fat'. The FDA has tested many different pet foods - and released a long list of foods that contain the drug pentobarbital - the drug used to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle, and horses.
Controversy still exists as to how a drug that is used to euthanize animals could be found in pet food. Definitely pentobarbital ends up into pet food from rendered (cooked) euthanized animals - end ingredients from the rendering process are sold to pet food manufacturers. Some pet food safety advocates say that rendered pets - euthanized and removed from animal shelters and veterinarian offices all across the country - is the source of the pentobarbital. Others say that the source is from euthanized cattle and horses. The FDA did develop testing methods in an attempt to find a definitive answer - but to date, no results have ever been released to the public - to confirm or deny the possibility that rendered pets are in pet food.
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 ingredient are chemical preservatives that you will need to scan the entire ingredient list on your pet food to find. All of these chemical preservatives are scientifically linked to tumors and cancer. A Google search of any of these preservatives will provide you with tons of controversy and scientific data. All of these chemicals are rarely used to preserve human food and if used, in far less quantity than is allowed in pet food.
'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!
Article Source: ArticleZones.com
About the Author
Before you feed your pet one more meal, visit TruthAboutPetFood.com to learn how to select the best, safest food for your dog or cat. Make sure you visit the Paws Club library of pet food articles and learn how Petsumer Report provides pet owners with information the pet food label doesn't tell you. pet food, pet food recall, dog food, dog food recall, cat food, cat food recall
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