Avoid The Next Pet Food Recall - Here's Some Tips
Susan Thixton
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.
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 three ingredients were the bad boy pet food ingredients of 2007. Tainted glutens were found to be the cause of thousands of dogs and cats becoming ill and dying. It is not that glutens themselves are toxic to pets - these ingredients have been used in pet foods for years. The problem was the source or manufacturer of the glutens - imported from countries with far less quality standards than in the US. (The majority of glutens used in the US pet foods are from imported sources.) These imported glutens contained added chemicals that caused crystals to form in the kidneys of dogs and cats.
It is important to avoid dog foods and cat foods that contain imported glutens. And pet owners should be aware that glutens provide no real nutrition to their pet's food. Glutens can be used as a thickener and as a protein boost for a pet food. Adult dog foods must provide a minimum of 18% protein and adult cat foods must provide a minimum of 26% protein. Sometimes, when a pet food does not provide sufficient actual meat in a food - glutens are added to boost the protein to the required percentages. A better protein source for your pet comes from meat - not from glutens.
'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."
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 three ingredients are similar to by-products. AAFCO defines Meat and Bone Meal as "the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably to good processing practices." Again, a catch all ingredient name for the left-over parts of animals used for human food. No consistency to what is contained in these ingredients (all three of these pet food ingredient definitions are similar) - no way of knowing what is actually in your pet's food. Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain 'meat meal', 'meat and bone meal', or 'animal digest'.
'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.
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 pet food ingredients are chemical preservatives and you might have to look through the entire ingredient list to find them. It is worth the look because there is plenty of clinical evidence to associate all four of these chemical preservatives with cancer and tumors (simply do a Google search on any one of these chemicals). All four of these chemical preservatives are rarely used to preserve human food and if so, are used in quantities far less than what is allowed in pet food. Avoid any dog food, cat food, or dog and cat treat that contains 'BHA', 'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin' on the label.
'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.
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 packaging doesn't tell you. http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/ pet food, pet food recall, dog food, dog food recall, cat food, cat food recall
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