Last month, the Consumer Council of Hong Kong published its results of tests performed on 39 popular pet foods for dogs and cats. This result raised concerns among many pet-keeping households on the lack of laws regulating animal-food safety. Purina, Hill’s, AvoDerm, and Solid Gold each were found to contain either aflatoxin B1, melamine or cyanuric acid in their products. All levels of aflatoxins found in the Consumer Council testing were below established limits of the European Union Commission, and below established limits of FDA. However as the Hong Kong consumer group pointed out, low levels of aflatoxins over time remain a serious risk to pets, as aflatoxin is carcinogenic and long-term exposure increases the risk of liver impairment.
Melamine and cyanuric acid were the culprits of the largest and most deadly pet food recall in history in 2007, so this news is terrible and it is a cry for better regulation of pet food ingredients.
Why do these contaminants continue to get into some pet foods? It’s a long answer, but suffice to say the corn used in processed foods almost always contains mycotoxins including aflatoxin B1, and the low quality grains and animal ingredients used in the vast majority of pet foods almost always contain chemical poisons. In fact, the FDA allows “feed grade” grains to contain more than twice the allowable level of aflatoxins than “food grade” (for people). Melamine (yes the same stuff used to make countertops too) actually contains protein, so gets slipped into cheaper foods to up the protein numbers. Like I said, it’s a long story…
At Carna4, we do not add corn or wheat to any of our recipes. We do not use any chemicals or synthetic ingredients of any kind. We use only meats federally inspected for human consumption, never ‘pet grade’ castoffs. The small amounts of whole grain in our Chicken recipe are human-grade and surpass FDA standards. We want to assure our customers that just to be certain our products are pure, every single batch of Carna4 Dog Food is safety tested for 15 different pathogens and toxins. Nothing leaves our bakery without passing all of the tests. Every Batch, Every Time.
Please feel free to forward this email to your friends and family to generate awareness. To learn more about our safe and synthetic-free products please check out our website.