WE PROVED THE WAY CONVENTIONAL PET FOODS ARE PROCESSED ADVERSELY AFFECTS THEIR NUTRITIONAL VALUE

We have recently had a major epiphany and would like to pass it on to you.

Pet food companies have been pushing the concept that a highly processed, additive-filled brown biscuit is better for pets for far too long. Turkey Twizzlers; do you still have any? That sounds like kibble biscuits to us! As a result, we set out to create Pure Pet Food: a natural, low-processed, high-nutrient pet food that contains zero undesirables (thus the “pure” in the name). We felt so strongly that it was important for people to learn about this nutritious diet that we brought our message to the small screen.

You may have thought this would be easy. No, not quite. It turns out that trying to show the healthiness of your product by comparing it to industry standards is not a simple task, and neither is getting your script authorised for television. The fact that we were able to clear the ad for television airing after jumping through all the hoops required to do so is a testament we felt was worth sharing.

Because it demonstrates, without a reasonable doubt, that we are who we say we are, and that the fight to improve the health of pets by changing their diets is one that is worth engaging in. All in all, it seemed like a huge win for the little man and a significant advance toward our goal of improving animal welfare.

Does that pique your interest and make you want to learn more? Then continue reading to find out the specifics of the evidence we have submitted to back up the statements made in our TV commercial, and visit this link to watch the commercial in its entirety.

We are genuinely PURE

They said:

I The word “Pure” in the context of pet food could be interpreted as an adjective, suggesting that this food is superior to others that aren’t as pure. It’s hard to believe that there’s any pet food out there that can truly be called “pure.” Possibly misleading to the buyer, right?

We responded:

As the word Pure perfectly represents our offering, we felt it was the best option. We don’t include fillers such by-products, meat meals, meat by-products, or digest like some other brands of pet food. The terms “pet grade” and “human grade” are defined below.

(Explanations courtesy of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine’s (www.fda.gov/cvm) Interpreting Pet Food Labels by David A. Dzanis, DVM, Ph.D., DACVN.)

“By-products”: clean, non-rendered “parts,” other than meat, derived from killed mammals (such as chicken by-products or beef by-products). Lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, blood, bone, fatty tissue, and emptied stomachs and intestines are all included. Companies that manufacture pet food can keep the protein content “high” (but of inferior quality) at little cost by using this method.

Cooked animal tissues, minus fat, blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach, and rumen contents; this is what we call “meat meal” or “lamb meal” (rendered). The solids are then dried and used as “meal” in pet food after cooking.

Meat scraps Chicken by-products (as specified above) that have been cooked and processed into a meal (rendered). Solids can be added to pet food after they have been cooked and dried.

Definition of “digest” – mammalian substance resulting from the chemical digestion of uncontaminated meat tissues and byproducts (“parts” other than meat). This is commonly used to simulate the taste of meat in pet diets that don’t actually include any meat.

Manufacturers often opt for artificial preservatives over natural ones due to the former’s lower cost.

Butylated hydroxytoluene, also known as E321 and utilised in the food packaging, cosmetics, rubber, and petroleum industries. Both BHT and BHA have been labelled as possibly carcinogenic by the World Health Organization.

Butylated hydroxyanisole (also known as E320) is a preservative commonly found in fatty foods and other products that require packaging. BHA has been listed as a potential carcinogen by the state of California (an agent directly involved in causing cancer)

We can prove we are more nutritious than ‘over-processed’ alternatives

They said:

Does commercial pet food have too much processing? The processing processes used in commercial pet feeds have not been shown to compromise their nutritional value. Those who prefer fresh or raw foods, however, frequently raise this worry for no good reason. Some people could be offended by a statement that suggests such items are less nutritious, and I can see why they might feel that way.

We responded:

Highly processed foods are those that have been altered in some way to extend their shelf life, such as through the use of heat or chemical additives like preservatives, dyes, and flavourings.

Producers of kibble for pets employ an extrusion method to transform raw materials into a finished product. For the extrusion process to work, high temperatures are required. Scientists found that drying pet food at temperatures between 160 and 180 degrees Celsius (320 and 356 degrees Fahrenheit) dramatically diminished the meal’s nutritional content. (1) Drying at 200 °C (392 °F) reduced the amounts of the amino acids proline, total lysine, and reactive lysine in small kibble (4 mm or roughly 0.16 inch).

Linolenic (omega-3) and linoleic (omega-6) essential fatty acids are greatly reduced while oleic acid is greatly increased throughout the extrusion process (omega-9 monounsaturated). An uptick in oleic acid during drying could be indicative of lipid oxidation in the smaller kibbles. Off-flavors and odours, as well as potentially hazardous chemicals, can be produced when lipids oxidise.

Researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands found that extruding dry food component mixes led to the destruction of most of the vitamins A, E, and the B-complex. (1)

Studies reveal that the high temperatures employed in kibble production (extrusion) have a negative impact on the quality and availability of the nutrients it contains. It is generally agreed that the high heat and pressure used in several food processing techniques has a negative impact on the quality of the final product. In all of the existing research, extrusion is cited as the mechanism responsible for the physical removal of minerals during processing.

Protein quality is decreased during extrusion due to processes like the Maillard reaction, flavour is diminished, and heat-sensitive vitamins are destroyed. Extrusion processing has been shown to reduce the nutritional content of livestock feeds. (2)

Carcinogens, heat-medicated poisons, are produced when carbohydrates and proteins, always present in kibbles biscuits, are subjected to temperatures exceeding 140 degrees Celsius via the Maillard Reaction. When carbohydrates and proteins combine, cancer-causing acrylamide and advanced glycation end products are produced. This was demonstrated in a 2013 research titled “Should veterinarians regard Acrylamide that potentially appears in starch-rich meals as a neurotoxic in dogs” (3). Raw, dried, or fresh foods do not undergo the Maillard Reaction since they are prepared at lower temperatures.

1-Quang D. Tran, “Extrusion Processing: Effects on Dry Canine Diets,” PhD Thesis, Wageningen University and Research Centre, 2008.

The impact of extrusion on the quality of dry pet food’s nutritional value. A. Quang D. Tran Science of Food and Agriculture, Volume 88, Issue 9; Wouter H. Hendriks, Antonius FB van der Poe

Should veterinarians treat acrylamide, which can form in starch-rich meals, as a neurotoxic in dogs? L1 (Le Roux-Pullen) & L2 (Lessing) Published online June 2011 in the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association (D. J. S. Afr Vet Assoc.

Additional Sources

D. Lund, Effects of Heat Processing on Nutrients, Nutritional Evaluation of Food Processing, pages 319–354.

Effect of Food Processing and Maillard Reaction Products on Human Health and Nutrition, International Journal of Food Science, Volume 2015, Article ID 526762, 2015. Tamanna, Mahmood, both with an N.

Changes in Food Quality Due to Processing, Pages 99–106. The Degradation of Vitamins and Minerals During Food Processing, M. Reddy and D. Love.

Assessment of Food Preparation’s Effect on Nutrition. In honour of E. Karmas and R. Harris.

And after only two months, our commercial with these promises is airing on television.

The pet food industry is complex, and it’s up to individual pet owners to do their own study, seek out differing perspectives, and use common sense.