Is Your Pet’s Food Safe?

By Haddon Libby
While packaging suggests that your pet is getting the plumpest, juiciest cuts of meat, this is often no more than savvy marketing.
Last week, Natura Pet Foods recalled their dry foods and cat treats with expirations before March 24, 2014 because of the potential for contamination with Salmonella.  This includes Innova, Karma and a few other brands.
This recall comes on the heels of the government of Spain beginning an investigation into the ingredients in the pet food made by a number of international pet food makers.  One of their concerns is that euthanized dogs and cats are ending up in pet food.  Not only is it a gruesome thought that your pet may be eating other house pets but euthanized pets typically have toxic chemicals in their systems.  Meat product from these lower grade meat rendering plants have also been found to have known carcinogens such as PCBs.
This brings up the question – what are you feeding your pet?
Depending on the manufacturer, it can be a stomach turning mix of ingredients that can make your pet sick with diarrhea and sometimes death.  Not only can other house pets be included but items like the styrofoam wrapping of spoiled meats, the roadkill of any species and cows with Mad Cow disease.  This meat product is typically left out in the sun and heat and infested with maggots and bacteria prior to meat rendering.
Want to know if your pet’s food is healthful and safe?  Get out your pets’ food and compare its list of ingredients to those named below.
INGREDIENTS TO AVOID
Avoid any generic meat ingredients like meat, fish, poultry, liver and phrases like by-products, byproduct meal or blood meal.  These products are made from meat found in rendering plants where literally any dead animal can be included in that rendered meat.  You also want to avoid generic fats and oils like animal fat, poultry fat, fish oil, vegetable oil or mineral oil.
Any food where corn, soy, gluten or meal is the first ingredient.  In general, many dogs cannot easily digest soy so it should not be included.  Onions are also toxic to dogs and should be excluded.
Generic vegetable names like potato product, hulls, corn bran, mill run anything and distiller’s grain.  Fruit pomaces and pulps are another ingredient in poorly made pet foods.  Generic names like meat broth and artificial flavorings should be avoided.
In terms of chemicals, BHA, BHT, TBHQ, sodium metabisuphite, propylene glycol, glyceryl monostearate, phosphoric acid, titanium dioxide, bone phosphate, vitamin K supplement, K3, yeast culture, sorbitol, oxides, sugar, sucrose, fructose, corn syrup and any numbered dye like Blue 2 or Yellow 5 should be avoided.
If you see any of these ingredients, you might want to start looking for a better pet food.  Also remember to never moisten dry food as the moisture can allow bacteria to grow quickly.  In general, avoid moist pet foods.
INGREDIENTS TO LOOK FOR:
In general, you want specific names of ingredients on the label like chicken, turkey, lamb, etc.  You also want specific oil names like chicken fat, herring oil, flax oil, etc.  In the creation of pet food gravies, you want stocks and broths like chicken broth or beef stock.  The same goes for whole grains like rice, oats, barley, peas, potatoes, etc.
Good product additives include ascorbic acid, tocopherols, chelates, proteinates, polysaccharides and any vitamins (not vitamin supplements) like A, C, E and K.
Like humans, you are safest serving organic pet foods.  Websites like thedogfoodproject.com are great resources in determining what to feed for your four-legged family member.