Reprinted Articles

The pet food recall that began in March of 2007 was the worst in history. No one can tell you for certain that a pet food will not be recalled, but there are things to look for and avoid that can improve your chances to locate a healthy, safe food for your dog or cat.

Start by ignoring the advertising, the price, and the front of the bag of a pet food. The signs to look for are found on the back or side of the bag or can in the Ingredient Listing. Dry foods can contain 90 different ingredients and canned foods can contain 50 or more different ingredients. But don’t despair, you don’t need to learn all of them. Just be aware of a few key ingredients that have the potential to be risky.

‘Wheat Gluten’, ‘Corn Gluten’, or ‘Rice Gluten’. These are the ingredients that were responsible for the pet food recall of 2007. While glutens have been used in some pet foods for years, the problem last year was the source of the products. The tainted ingredients were imported from China - a country with a history of poor quality control. The imported glutens were found to contain added chemicals that caused crystals in the kidneys of pets.

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 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 a pie and you didn’t know what kind of pie it was. You wouldn’t know if it was apple pie or mud pie or even cow pie. All you would know is that you purchased a ‘pie’. The same thing 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.”

By-products are a catch-all pet food ingredient. Any or all left over animal tissue materials from the human food industry are clumped into this one ingredient. A pet owner has no certainty of what is in the pet food. One batch of pet food could contain liver or bone by-products, while the next could contain intestines - there is just no way of knowing for certain what is actually contained in the pet food.

‘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’. In 2002 the FDA released a report with a list of many popular pet foods that contain the drug pentobarbital. This is the drug that is used to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle, and horses.

The FDA’s report confirmed that euthanized animals are rendered (cooked) and end up in some pet foods. However there is no answer to the question if the euthanized animals are rendered dogs and cats removed from animal shelters nationwide or if as the FDA suggests, the pentobarbital comes from rendered euthanized cattle and horses. Animal shelters nationwide - if they do not have a crematory - have euthanized dogs and cats removed by a disposal company and the animals are rendered. The FDA did develop a test in an attempt to solve the mystery - is the pentobarbital from rendered dogs and cats or is it from rendered cattle and horses? Their testing method provided no results - neither dog or cat DNA or cattle or horse DNA was found.

The one piece of information the FDA report does provide pet owners is that the pet food ingredient ‘animal fat’ is the most likely ingredient to contain pentobarbital. If your pet’s food contains the ingredient ‘animal fat’ it is very possible that you are feeding your pet euthanized animals - including the possibility of feeding your dog or cat a euthanized dog or cat. Not every batch of pet food that contained the ingredient animal fat was proved to contain pentobarbital, but many did.

‘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’. There is no scientific evidence that tells pet owners these common pet food ingredients are dangerous to pets. However these ingredients have been associated with pet food recalls in the past (1995, 1999, and 2005). These grains are prone to a deadly mold called aflatoxin. Pet food manufacturers - according to AAFCO regulations - are not required to test all ingredients as recalls of the past has proven.

Of course there is no guarantee to assure you your pet’s food will never be recalled, even though there should be. Avoiding pet food ingredients that have a controversial history and continuing to learn about what your pet eats will greatly improve your odds. And always read the ingredient listing on your pet’s food and treats.

Last 5 posts by Susan Thixton

• Do you still have doubts on the dangers of Chinese imports? - April 21st, 2008
• Pet Food...They Know We Know - April 20th, 2008
• How to compare pet food prices - April 8th, 2008
• Walmart Pet Food Field Trip - April 7th, 2008
• Mad Cow Disease and Pet Food - April 5th, 2008

Tags: Nutrition