The-Truth-About-Pet-Foods

year and then find it suitable to eat Hardly. Leaving such things exposed
in this way for even a day is unwise. Real, nutritious foods are fragile, and
easily deteriorate in the presence of oxygen and light.* If something in a
paper bag lasts a year or more on a shelf, is it food or an embalmed food
artifact
Food processors are not magicians. Something must give to make
meat, eggs, milk, etc. last in a paper bag. What gives is nutrition. Health
is, in effect, traded for shelf-life.
Consumers must therefore use the same common sense about how
their pet foods are packaged that they’d use about foods which they,
themselves, consume. To properly preserve fragile nutritional value, foods
must be carefully prepared from fresh whole ingredients preserved with
natural antioxidants, and rapidly packaged in oxygen-free and light barrier
packages. Small portion packing is best (that’s not a fifty-pound sack),
and unused portions should be tightly sealed, then refrigerated or frozen.
THE NUTRITIONAL IMPORTANCE
OF PACKAGING
The Best
Food Package
• Careful
Processing
• Whole
Ingredients
• Oxygen-Free
Atmosphere
• Natural
Antioxidants
A Poorer Choice
• Processed Food
• Food Fractions
• Oxygen
Atmosphere
• Synthetic
Antioxidants
The Worst Choice
• Processed Food
• Food Fractions
• Oxygen
Atmosphere
• “No Preservatives”
(No
Antioxidants)
O 2
light O 2
light
Fig. 34. Healthful food package design must address critical factors,
such as the exclusion of oxygen and light from the packaging.
* Loken JK, The Haccp Food Safety Manual, 1995.
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