After the scares on all the products manufactured in China, American dog owners turned to USA-made products that touted themselves as “all natural, made from the finest ingredients and SAFE.” In response, the market was flooded with new products made on our soils, as well as old products being re-made in the USA after their sales fell.
But are USA Made Pet Foods, by default, safe? A study released by the Consumer Council of Hong Kong is sparking heated controversy after it shed a not-so-rosy-light on food claimed to be safe just because it was made in the U.S.A.
Several industry experts have helped shed some light on this complicated subject:
Cord Christensen, CEO of Betsy Farms™ dog treat company based and sourced in the U.S.A
Daniel Schulof, founder and president of Varsity Pets, a canine fitness and nutrition company
Dr. John Tegzes, a Professor of Veterinary Toxicology and a founding faculty member of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, CA. He also currently serves as president of the Veterinary Education Worldwide (ViEW)
Susan Thixton, owner Truth About Pet Food website and an expert on Pet Food Regulations and Safety
Dr. Ken Tudor, Pet Nutrition Advisor to Pet360.com and petMD.com and founder of Hearthstone Homemade for Dogs
The Toxins
Regardless of what marketers promise, there ARE TOXINS IN USA MADE DOG FOOD!
Alfatoxins
These are a group of mycotoxins and are among the most carcinogenic substances known. “The group is a secondary metabolite of a mold that sometimes infects grains like corn. Two molds, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus produce aflatoxin,” explains Dr. Tegzes. “These molds can infect corn while it’s growing as well as while it is in storage after being harvested.” The danger, he continues, is that they not only cause cancer but also liver disease in dogs.
There are also other mycotoxins that can be found in grains used in the manufacture of pet foods. “The trichothecene mycotoxins are sometimes found in grains ranging from barley and wheat to oats and corn. These are immunosuppressive and can have harmful effects with repeat exposures,” Dr. Tegzes adds.
How common is it? “Consumer Advocacy groups in Asia using random batch testing techniques have repeatedly found that mass-marketed dog food products from major manufacturers have contained trace amounts of alfatoxins,” Schulof says. And it’s not just food made overseas he adds. In 2005, Diamond Pet foods recalled foods produced in Gaston, S.C. due to alfatoxtin contamination.
Salmonella
We all know what salmonella is, but what you don’t know is that according to Dr. Tegzes, DRY KIBBLE FOODS are at HIGHER RISK for Salmonella contamination. “While the animals eating the food may not become sick,” he explains, “they can shed the infectious organisms into their home environments, potentially exposing and infecting the people they live with.”
Drugs
For pet food, the FDA allows animals that have been euthanized and/or died from diseases to be used as ingredients along with pesticide or chemically contaminated vegetables, Thixon notes. This means your dog is being fed meat and vegetables that may be tainted, and the effects of this are really unknown.
Melamine and Cyanuric Acid
These both come from wheat gluten, which is used as a thickening agent. “The most famous recall in recent years happened in 2007 when as many as 100 or more types or brands of both dog and cat food became contaminated with melamine and cynauric acid,” Dr. Tegzes says. These containments caused the deaths of hundreds of pets.
Related: Best Dog Foods of The Year
Why USA Foods Are Not Necessarily Safe
The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for trying to regulate how food is made and what goes into it, but they are limited by funds and get pressure from the companies who want to make things as cheap as possible for more profit. And, while the China food incident received heavy press, you may be shocked and dismayed to hear that the ingredients in USA made food often come from overseas or are from questionable farms here in the U.S.
Ingredient Sourcing
Christensen adds that “Today it is more important than ever that pet owners are vigilant about the quality of the foods they give their animals…Even some jerky treats that claim to be made in the U.S.A use meat imported from China.”
So while the label may say “Made in the U.S.A.,” adds Dr. Tegzes, the ingredients do not have to be FROM here. And even if they are from stateside, the FDA regulations are hardly doing anything to ensure the safety of our animals.
FDA Loopholes
“The FDA has established maximum levels that can be safely fed to food animals in order to protect humans from exposure from animal sources,” Dr. Tegzes explains. “But dogs are not food animals, and are therefore not included specifically in the FDA guidelines.” In other words, since we don’t eat our dogs, they can be fed almost anything.
“The food/feed that is allowed to be fed to our animals (pets and livestock) in the U.S. is unforgivable. Poultry litter (yes, poultry poop) is an allowed ingredient in cattle feed. Almost any type of food waste – contaminated with anything from pesticides to rodent filth – is welcome to be included into all pet foods and animal feeds in the U.S.,” Thixton writes in her article on pet food containments. “While China certainly must own their responsibility of melamine laced vegetable proteins in pet food ingredients and illegal drug residues in jerky treats – here in the U.S. our animal food/feed system is a horrendous mess. I’ve been told by regulatory authorities at both a state and federal level that their budget is often the challenge – specifically lacking a budget to do any type of proper testing for pet food contaminants. State governments provide very little funding to their pet food regulatory divisions, and the FDA is financially strapped by Congress.”
She adds that there are other concerns such as misleading labels that actually do break laws but are just not enforced, regulations pretty much written for (or by) the industry, and quality of ingredients “With respect to quality of ingredients – federal law (Food Drug and Cosmetic Act) requires food to be sourced from USDA inspected and approved sources. However pet food is giving a loophole to those laws by the FDA.”
Thixton points to the FDA compliant manual and gives us this one as an example: under compliance Policy CPG Sec. 675.400 Rendered Animal Feed Ingredients it states: ‘No regulatory action will be considered for animal feed ingredients resulting from the ordinary rendering process of industry, including those using animals which have died otherwise than by slaughter, provided they are not otherwise in violation of the law.’ Under this policy CPG Sec. 690.300 Canned Pet Food it states: ‘Pet food consisting of material from diseased animals or animals which have died otherwise than by slaughter, which is in violation of 402(a)(5) will not ordinarily be actionable, if it is not otherwise in violation of the law. It will be considered fit for animal consumption.’” Since an animal is eating it, it’s okay if the meat animal died from something other than commercial slaughter.
Hiding Contaminants
Tudor explains that another problems is in detecting contaminants. “In the case of aflatoxins, they are very elusive to testing methods and are resilient to the extreme temperatures of food manufacturing. Often they ‘hide’ as non-toxic substances that are later transformed by the body into a more lethal form.”
What to Avoid
So what do you avoid? That can be tricky. Obviously, if you can avoid all types of grains and corn, you will most likely avoid some of the main toxins known to cause problems in dogs, including alfatoxins, melamine and cyanuric acid. However, your dog needs meat, and lurking within it could be all sorts of dangerous drugs and bacteria, including salmonella.
Dr. Tegzes recommends only buying brands that are made with human-grade ingredients that are certified through the USDA and/or the FDA. He warns, however, “there are some brands that claim to use USDA grade ingredients, but there is more that should be considered. Consumers should inquire whether the company employs veterinarians as core members of the pet food team.” He feeds his own dogs JustFoodForDogs, a southern California-based company that freshly prepares their products using whole food ingredients that, according to him, “maintain high bioavailability of nutrients and energy, and their safety standards meet and exceed standards for human foods.”
Safe brands?
You can’t choose your dog’s food solely by brand and what the brightly colored, marketing-produced bag tells you is inside. Why? Because, as Tudor explains, so few brands make their own food. “The pet food industry relies on co-packaging, which means one maker may produce multiple brands. Contamination in the co-packing plant will affect many brands. This is exactly what happened in the melamine incident. One company made many brands of food and supplied other food companies with the melamine tainted gluten.”
Thixton expands on this issue, noting that many companies will sell you the line that their food is sourced “from” a USDA-inspected facility, but she says this does not answer the question. “Consumers need to know if the ingredients themselves are USDA inspected and approved – certified for human consumption.”
This means you need to do your research and find out just exactly where and how the food is being manufactured and what that company is doing to ensure your dog’s safety.
The Public Takes Charge
The bottom line? The pet food industry is a mess. After Thixton’s own article regarding testing done in Hong Kong pet food plants was published, her readers wanted U.S.A made foods tested so much, that one offered to donated $2500 to test our foods. Another reader said they would match it.
“It was amazing. So – at their urging I started a crowd funding campaign,” Thixton says. “I know a lot of people in this industry – so I’m asking everyone for input on what we should test for and names of labs that can be trusted. With input from those I trust, we will purchase pet foods and ship it off to different laboratories.”
She has raised $8,000 of the $10,000 she needs for the project. Once the testing is done, Thixton will compile the results into a pdf format and publish it for everyone to read. To donate, go here.
Remember, she is not a government employee or an owner of a pet food business with an agenda. She just might be the most unbiased researcher we as consumers could ask for.
Hopefully her results will shed some light and push our government agencies and our pet food companies to up their standards and care for our pets in the same way we do.
In the meantime, you may want to talk to your vet about making your own food for your dog – it just might be the safest choice.
About the Author
Based in Tustin, Calif., animal lover Kristina N. Lotz is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) and works as a full time trainer. She also owns her own custom pet products company, A Fairytail House, where she makes personalized collars, leashes, beds, keepsake pillows and blankets, and anything else your imagine can think up. In her spare time, she trains and competes in herding, agility, obedience, rally, and conformation with her Shetland Sheepdogs.
Toledo, United States.
