■ We look for foods that contain a lot of high-quality animal proteins. We’d love manufacturers to disclose the percentage of meat, poultry, or fish in their food, but they rarely do, so we look for foods that appear to have lots of animal protein. Ingredients are listed by weight, so ideally a food will have one or two animal proteins in the first few ingredients. Understand that whole meat (chicken, beef, lamb, etc.) contains a lot of water weight. If a food list starts out with chicken (rather than chicken meal), and there is no other animal protein listed until 5th or 6th on the list, the food does not
actually contain a lot of animal protein. But if it starts out with chicken, and chicken meal (or another named animal meal, such as lamb meal) is number two or three on the list, chances are the product contains an admirable amount of animal protein. Animal proteins tend to be more palatable and bioavailable than plant proteins and offer a wider array of essential and nonessential amino acids.
■ We reject any food containing meat by-products or poultry by-products. It’s just about impossible to ascertain the quality of by-products used by a food manufacturer. We’ve spoken to representatives who swore they used only the finest sources of by-products, but when asked, they all say that! The fact is, there is a much wider range of quality in the by-products available for pet food manufacturing than there is for whole meats. Whole meats are expensive, and because WDJ’s Dry Dog Food Selection Criteria
they are expensive, dog food makers insist on their quality to an extent that is unreasonable when buying bargain-basement by-products. So we advise that you just avoid foods that contain by-products.
■ We reject foods containing fat or protein not identified by species. “Animal fat” is a euphemism for a low-quality, low-priced mix of fats of uncertain origin. “Meat meal” could be practically anything.
■ We look for whole grains and vegetables. That said, some grains and vegetables have valuable constituents that accomplish specific tasks in a dog food formula. We don’t get too excited about one vegetable fragment and one grain byproduct on the ingredients panel. Our tolerance diminishes in
direct proportion to the number of fragments and by-products contained in a food and the prominence on a label; the more there are, and/or the higher they appear on the ingredients list, the lower-quality the food.
■ We eliminate all foods with artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives listed on their ingredients panels. A healthy product full of top-quality ingredients shouldn’t need nonnutritive additives to make it look or taste better. And plenty of good natural preservatives (such as rosemary extract and vitamins E and C) can be used instead.
■ We eliminate all foods with added sweeteners. Dogs, like people, enjoy sweet foods. Like people, they can develop a taste for these nutritionally empty calories.
■ We look for products containing organic ingredients. What you should ask
So, while I value the willingness of a company to tell you where its products are made, this should be only the start of the information-sharing between consumers and a top-shelf pet food company. By the way, companies that have their own manufacturing plants should not get a pass on these questions; distant clients may scrutinize a co-packer more thoroughly than a company owner! All companies, whether they own their plants or hire contract manufacturers, should be equally forthcoming about their manufacturing arrangements and the following:
■ Product formulation (Who developed the formula, and what are his/her credentials? Can a consumer examine a list of all the product’s nutrient levels?) ■ Ingredients (Do they source all their own ingredients? Can they provide full traceability on each ingredient used in their products? Are any of their products imported? Which ones and from where?)
■ QA processes (Does the plant have an on-site lab, and what can it test for? Is an outside lab used to confirm these findings and independent tests? How often are samples pulled for testing? How often do your own employees visit your co-packer? Do your plants follow a hazard analysis and critical control point [HACCP] food safety program? Do you use third-party auditors to monitor your co-packers – or even your own facility?]
■ Available support (If I feed my dog your food and he gets sick, what support will you be able to provide for me?) Our usual business
On the following pages are products that meet not only our long-standing criteria for food selection (see sidebar, below) but also our new standard of transparency. We’ve listed the makers of all our “approved” products. A few foods that were previously on our lists did not meet our new standard;
these are noted in the chart on page 4.We’ve included more information
about the products appearing on our “approved foods” list than ever. We’ve noted which contact information is available on the packaging: Phone, mail, website? We appreciate easy-to-read (not coded) “best by” dates on packaging; we like it even more when the manufacturing date is also rovided, so consumers can determine the food’s precise degree of freshness. Our charts note which foods include this feature. We’ve also discussed the benefits of an expanded “guaranteed analysis” (GA) on a product label. Federal and state laws require only four nutrient levels (minimum levels of protein and fat, maximum levels of fiber and moisture) to be present, but
anything that appears in the GA is subject to testing by state feed control officials; failures are subject to disciplinary action. We’ve noted which “extra” nutrients are included on our approved products’ GA
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年年都上榜. 好開心呀.
