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Minimize your pet’s risk when feeding commercial diets and packaged treats
Seek out companies that are transparent about testing for toxins. Make sure they test both ingredients
and finished batches for mycotoxins and bacteria before packaging. If you are concerned
about mercury levels in the salmon in your pet food, ask the company if they test for that too.
Look for products free of synthetic ingredients of any kind. Vitamins from food are hardier than
those made in test tubes. Read the ingredients panel to spot the chemicals usually listed at the end
because these are likely made in unregulated offshore facilities.
Feed products with only table grade food ingredients, i.e., federally inspected for human consumption,
to reduce the risk of bacterial and viral pathogens like salmonella. This applies to all products
including frozen and dehydrated meats.
heat-treated brands as well. Unlike the
USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)
and CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection
Agency) rules governing meat destined
for human consumption (known as
‘table grade’) there is no inspection process
in place in North America to ensure
that animal carcasses destined for pet
food are treated with any particular care.
In other words, your organic chicken can
sit in a bucket in the processing plant for
days, unrefrigerated, waiting for shipment
to the pet food plant. Salmonella,
E. coli and other foodborne pathogens
have a field day in that bucket.
Most manufacturers rely on the high
cooking temperature of extrusion to kill
contaminants, but as evidenced by the
continuing incidences of recalls, this is
not effective enough. Conditions in the
post-cooking stage, when the product
is still warm and moist, are ideal for the
spread of spores, making batch testing
for toxins all the more important. To really
reduce the risk of contamination, the
manufacturer has to start with higher
quality ingredients that are less susceptible
to problems. Like any other endeavor
in life, quality in equals quality out.
With so little protection, and recurring
scary headlines, it’s no wonder that many
pet owners are turning away from typical
commercial packaged foods and either
preparing their own at home or seeking
out the clean alternatives.
Amazingly, it was only 13 months ago
that a federal law was finally enacted to
begin regulating any aspect of pet food
production other than package labeling
in the United States. Previous to January
4, 2011 there were no laws requiring
manufacturers to test for mycotoxins,
pathogens (e.g., salmonella and E. coli),
or toxic heavy metals (e.g., mercury and
arsenic) or any wrongly added ingredient
in their finished product. There is still no
law in Canada, though the US law covers
all goods made and sold there, so it effectively
applies to products imported into
Canada from the US.
Now in the US, there is the FDA’s Food
Safety Modernization Act, which imposes
a number of mandates on individuals and
businesses that produce food, and it covers
food intended for animals as well as
humans. This complex new law provides
a framework for inspections, tracking and
record keeping, but doesn’t actually set
standards for these activities. It merely
charges the various authorities with creating
standards. The law does give the
FDA some teeth, in the form of fines and
recall authority, to enforce the rules. It
remains to be seen what comprehensive
rules will be created by this law and how
diligently it will be enforced.
In the absence of enforced quality standards
and testing requirements, few pet
food companies have undertaken continuous
batch monitoring primarily because
it costs time and money. Some manufacturers
invest these resources for the
safety of their customers and ultimately
as well for the preservation of their company’s
reputation, but the high cost of
testing generally discourages voluntary
compliance. f
Maria Ringo is a homeopathic practitioner,
teacher and co-founder of Carna4
Dog Food, a small ethical company producing
synthetic-free whole foods for
pets. In 1986 she co-founded Sojourner
Farms, one of the first commercially
available raw foods diets for dogs. She
lives in Toronto, Ontario with her family
and may be reached at maria@nthm.ca
DNM Extras
Learn about tripe, the magical
mystery meat. A powerhouse
of vitamins, minerals, probiotics
and digestive enzymes.
Visit www.dogsnaturallymagazine.
com/the-stink-on-tripe/
Dogs Naturally Magazine | May/June2012
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