Labels Smabels
According to AAFCO’s Official Publication, pet food labels may include “an unqualified” claim. There is no requirement for this type of claim to be backed by any scientific data or proof.
What this means is any pet food can claim to be “premium”, “healthy”, “organic”, or “holistic” without any scientific data or proof to back up that claim. So, they are absolutely meaningless.
When you read any of these terms on your brand of pet food, remember it’s just a marketing term and doesn’t mean that it is necessarily any better quality than any other brand.
But more than that, it is surprising to me that it is actually illegal for the manufacturer of truly high-quality pet food to label its ingredients so as to distinguish it from other lower-quality foods!
If you are looking for a dog (or cat) food that actually uses quality ingredients instead of feed-grade ingredients, you won’t know that by reading the ingredients on the label.
They are allowed to provide that information elsewhere on the label, but to find it you will have to read everything on the whole package. You may even have to visit the manufacturer’s website or call them and ask.
Who Manufactures What?
There are thousands upon thousands of dog food brands sold in the United States and internationally. However, there are only a handful of manufactures that sell these different brands.
The pet food industry has grown tremendously over the past 10 years. According to the American Pet Products Association, $69.51 billion was spent on pets in the United States in 2017. $29.07+ billion of that was spent on pet food alone.
That’s just in the U.S. just imagine what the numbers are internationally!
To put into perspective how much the pet industry has grown, in 1996 Americans spent 21 billion dollars and in 2006 that number was 38.5 billion dollars. Using 2017 figures, that means that more than $12 billion was spent on pet food alone in 1996 and $21 billion was spent in 2006!
As stated above, there is only a handful of pet food manufacturers that manufacture all the different pet food brands. The 15 largest manufactures are:
- Mars PetCare, Inc.
- Nestlé Purina Pet Care
- Big Hearts Brands
- Hill’s Pet Nutrition
- Diamond Pet Foods
- Blue Buffalo
- Spectrum Brands/United Pet Group
- Well Pet
- Sunshine Mills
- Merrick Pet Care
- Ainsworth Pet Nutrition
- Simmons Pet Food
- C.J. Foods
- Tuffy’s Pet Foods
- Natures Variety
Brands that are closer to the top of the 15 listed here are those that are cheaper and are readily available in most supermarkets and pet stores both across the U.S. as well as globally.
Brands that are closer to the bottom of these 15 are more specialized foods that lean toward what they claim their ingredients to be raw, natural, and organic.
Pet Food Recalls
When a pet food manufacturer tells you that a “limited amount” of pet food is being recalled, just how much is that exactly? When a company recalls a brand of pet food it doesn’t give the consumer much information.
On June 30, 2012, Mars Petcare announced a voluntary recall of a “limited range” of Pedigree Weight Management Wet Dog Food.
A limited range couldn’t be much, could it? True there were only three varieties of the brand that was recalled and according to the FDA website that recall amounted to 1,653,276 cans of dog food which by the way came to a whopping 1 million pounds of dog food. This is a typical example of a dog food recall.
When doing research I discovered that there have and continue to be recalled brands from every single pet food company. Not, however, of every brand. See below
Of course, there are bound to be some recalls, just as there are recalls for human foods. It happens. However, the reasons for recalls in the pet food industry are scary. Those that are especially scary are those that cause lifelong health problems and even death.
The reasons for the recalls were varied. Some of the reasons stated were:
- Potentially elevated levels of vitamin D
- Elevated copper levels
- Salmonella contamination
- Presence of Salmonella and listeria monocytogenes
- Possible low levels of thiamine (vitamin B-1)
- Potential elevated levels of non-protein nitrogen
- Monensin contamination
- Potential E. coli risk
- Elevated levels of thyroid hormone
- Presence of chlortetracycline
- Potential risk of botulism poisoning
- Elevated levels of beef thyroid hormone
- Salmonella and Shiga toxin
- Presence of phenobarbital (a euthanasia drug)
Some of these don’t sound so bad. For example, e-coli infection is rather rare in dogs; however, they can and do get it.
But, more importantly, if a dog gets e-C
Especially at risk are the very young and the very old, however, any adult can contract e-C
I know what you are thinking; these were probably cheap grocery store brands. If so, you are only partially right. Among the brands, there were those that claimed to be “premium”, “organic”, and “holistic”. Most were brands that my friends feed their dogs. They are brands that you may feed or have fed your dogs. In other words, these were supposed to be among the best dog foods on the market.
It may surprise you that at the time of this writing there are
Never Been Recalled
So what is a pet parent to do? Well, reading the labels isn’t going to tell you if the food you feed your dog is safe. But according to one
Fromm is a 5th generation family-owned company and you can buy it at PetCo and EntirelyPets.
Life’s Abundance is a privately owned company and you can buy it at Pet Smart and on
Earthborn Holistic is owned by Midwestern Pet Foods founded in 1926. You can buy Earthborn Holistic at PetCo, Pet Smart, Tractor Supply stores, and Chewy.com.
Zignature dog food is made by Pets Global, Inc. You can buy it at PetCo, Pet Smart, Target, and Chewy.com.
Nature’s Logic is a privately owned company founded by Scott Freeman of Texas and was launched in 2006. You can buy it at Walmart and Chewy.com.
You can visit their individual websites to find ingredients and more information.
It is no secret that I do not trust nor do I feed my dogs dry, manufactured dog food. There are lots of reasons besides the ones above.
There are two dog food companies that have never been recalled, they use real human-grade ingredients and, veterinarian nutritionist formulated their recipes. I highly recommend either one of these brands.
Here is another little tidbit that may surprise you. Most veterinarians do not feed their dogs dry, wet, or any type of manufactured dog food. The veterinarians where I work (there are 8) buy and feed their dog real food from companies that make their own human-grade dog food, such as either one of the below companies.
Neither of these brands has ever been recalled.
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HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU FEED YOUR CHIHUAHUA?