A food made from honest, identifiable, natural ingredients with no artificial additives.

Who knows what they contain? The ingredients lists use generic terms such as ‘meat and animal derivatives’, ‘cereals’, ‘derivatives of vegetable origin’ and ‘EC permitted additives’ to hide their real ingredients from the consumer. Some of these ingredients may not be beneficial to pets’ health and many pet owners would not be happy if they knew what was going into their pets’ food.

The term ‘EC permitted additives’ covers a list of some 4,000 chemicals and there is a large amount of evidence for the potential harm that artificial additives can do to pets. For example, artificial colours such as E102 (tartrazine), E110 (sunset yellow) and others have been shown to cause hyperactivity in children (and have recently been banned by the Food Standard Agency) - and it is highly likely that this effect is also seen in pets. In addition to hyperactivity, colours such as Blue 2 have been shown to have the potential to cause tumours, as have anti-oxidants including BHA.
One of the main problems is lack of transparency – by using the term ‘EC permitted additives’ manufacturers can hide the exact additives they use, so it is impossible for a pet owner to make an informed decision about the food. If manufacturers are so confident about the additives they use, and their effects, why don’t they name them rather than use this woolly general term?

Because many pet foods are made from very low quality ingredients to save cost; additives are required to make them palatable and preserve them. Real Pet Foods use natural alternatives such as vitamin E as a preservative, and rely on good quality ingredients for palatability.

Most natural foods will contain artificial synthesised vitamins rather than vitamins sourced from the natural world. These are exact copies of natural molecules, and have the same properties and effects as the naturally occurring vitamins. They are added to pet foods to ensure that pets receive the correct amounts of the essential nutrients in their food as otherwise we would have to put in high quantities of natural vitamins during manufacture to allow for the degeneration of the vitamins during the product’s shelf life.

The main problem is the fact that it doesn’t specify what type of meat it contains, allowing pet food manufacturers to use any part of any animal to make their food. Yet some proteins, such as chicken and fish, are better for pets as they are easier to digest and produce fewer waste products than others, such as beef. Some pets will have dietary intolerances and allergies to certain proteins, so it is important that they are specified in the ingredients so owners can avoid them. Also, because they are not specified, the protein used changes from batch to batch depending on the price of the different ingredients, and this can cause dietary upsets.
And finally, because they are not specified, it is very hard to find out exactly what meat goes in to ‘meat and animal derivatives’ – it could be chicken, but it could be beef, pork or horse and many people would not be comfortable with feeding these ingredients. We just want manufacturers to be honest.

Good quality natural pet foods only use identifiable, named meats, such as chicken, fish and lamb. There are no ambiguous meat ingredients such as ‘meat and animal derivatives’ and open and honest ingredients labelling allows pet owners to make an informed decision when choosing one of these foods.

‘Derivatives of vegetable origin’ is a term that covers all vegetable by products, from processed vegetables to residues such as charcoal. These ingredients are not necessarily bad for pets but, because they are not defined, it is impossible to make an informed decision about a food with this term on the ingredients list.
Cheap protein sources such as soya are also often used instead of meat in many pet foods. They are hard to digest and much less suitable than real meat protein.

Like other vague terms, ‘cereals’ does not define exactly what is in the food – it could be wheat, barley, oats, maize or other cereals. There is no way of knowing which are being used, and as some cereals are healthier than others, and some can cause intolerances and allergies; knowing which are being used in your pet’s food is very important.

No. Real pet foods are never tested on any unwilling animals, with all product taste testing being carried out by willing volunteer pets.

This is one option for the committed pet owner with the time and expertise required. However, for most pet owners this is not a realistic option and they need to be able to trust commercial pet foods.

No, we are not. Even if the EC legislation was mandatory, it still requires the pet owner to purchase the food and then telephone to see what it contains, which is nonsense! They should have the right to see what they are buying at the point of sale. In the US, pet food is governed by the same labelling legislation as food for human consumption because they understand these issues.