STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- The processed pet food industry is struggling to keep pet parents confident in its products and increasingly seems out of step with what many consumers want
- Industry-backed “science” often focuses on how much poor-quality, biologically inappropriate food dogs and cats can tolerate, not what helps them truly thrive
- Misleading marketing is another common strategy, with processed pet foods promoted as fresh, wholesome, natural or “clean” despite ingredient lists that suggest otherwise
- Independent research comparing kibble with fresh food is beginning to give pet parents the kind of objective, unbiased nutrition information they actually want
- Unless big pet food aligns its goals with those of pet parents, it will continue to lose ground as consumers seek alternatives to processed diets
Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published August 18, 2018.
It’s apparent that the processed pet food industry is falling further behind in consumer confidence and trust. Big pet food also seems confused about what customers really want. They appear to be taking a two-pronged approach to address pet owner concerns, yet neither is producing the hoped-for results. On one hand, they want us to unquestioningly accept their self-funded scientific studies promoting the benefits of their products.
What Pet Food Industry ‘Science’ Really Tests in Dogs’ and Cats’ Diets
Here’s an example of a standard pet food industry complaint:
“If only we could make consumers … aware of the science and get them to accept it, rather than believing all those myths and misinformation they read on the internet.”1
Also: “Information needs to be science based, not based on perception, marketing or other things,” according to Daniel McChesney, Ph.D., director of the office of surveillance and compliance for the Center for Veterinary Medicine, part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).2
Of course, the science they are referring to is not the science of creating optimally nutritious diets for pets. If that were the case, there’d be no shortage of high-quality, peer-reviewed, lifetime studies comparing the health, vitality and longevity of pets fed a diet mimicking their ancestral diet and pets fed a processed diet.
No, the science the pet food industry would like us to buy into is the science of learning how to keep dogs and cats alive (surviving, but not thriving) on biologically inappropriate, “feed-grade” diets that includes synthetic vitamins to meet minimum nutrition standards.
The science they tout involves testing the limits of dogs’ and cats’ tolerance for poor-quality, biologically inappropriate ingredients that have undergone extreme processing methods. The endgame is to keep carnivores alive on a processed diet of grains, starches and the poorest-quality animal protein they can get away with. It’s the science of dollars and cents. The cheaper the ingredients, the bigger the profit margin.
Independent Researchers Are Bringing More Objectivity to Pet Food Studies
The reason pet parents have grown distrustful of the people and pet food organizations producing scientific information is because, as illustrated above, their goals are often very different from those of pet owners who want to provide the best nutrition for their dogs and cats. In addition, pet food companies are often involved in researching their own products.
Pet parents would be much more open to learning about new pet food science if the research was objective, unbiased and comparative, which isn’t what’s happening in the industry. But it is happening at some progressive universities.
Dr. Anna Hielm-Björkman and her team at the DOGRISK project are evaluating the effects of feeding kibble versus fresh food at the veterinary school in Helsinki. Research efforts have also explored the effects of fresh food (compared to kibble) on the gut microbiome, including work conducted by Dr. Misa Sandri and Bruno Stefanon.
Here in the U.S., CANWI is also beginning their study of advanced glycation end products in canned, dry and raw foods. These are the types of studies that pet parents want to see funded, and are also the studies that would help pet parents regain their trust in the pet food industry. So why aren’t more companies doing them?
If You Can’t Dazzle Them with Science, Seduce Them with Advertising
The second prong of big pet food’s misguided two-pronged approach to improving consumer confidence is to label, market and advertise their products deceptively, with liberal use of trendy buzzwords and misleading artwork.
For example, one processed pet food producer is co-opting the “clean eating” trend. The term “clean eating” has no official definition, however, generally speaking, eating clean “… is about eating whole foods, or ‘real’ foods — those that are un- or minimally processed, refined, and handled, making them as close to their natural form as possible.”3 Here’s the spin from the pet food company’s website:
“CLEAN is the new standardA pet’s food energizes them from the inside out, and NUTRO™ clean recipes are simple, purposeful, and trustworthy — made of real, recognizable, non-GMO ingredients†. Each of our Dry Dog Food recipes is clean, and the same is true for our NUTRO™ Dry Cat recipes.Trace amounts of genetically modified material may be present due to potential cross contact during manufacturing.”4
This is pure marketing hype. “Simple, purposeful, and trustworthy” recipes — what do those buzzwords really mean with regard to canine nutrition? Let’s look at the ingredient list for one of NUTRO’s “clean” products, WHOLESOME ESSENTIALS™ Adult Dry Dog Food with Farm-Raised Chicken, Brown Rice & Sweet Potato Recipe:5
Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whole Brown Rice, Brewers Rice, Split Peas, Rice Bran, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Barley, Lamb Meal, Dried Sweet Potato, Natural Flavor, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, DL-Methionine, Salt, Dried Apples, Dried Blueberries, Dried Carrots, Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid (preservatives), Zinc Sulfate, Niacin Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B2), Selenium Yeast, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Rosemary Extract
This list of “clean” ingredients looks quite similar to the ingredient lists of many processed dry dog foods. Terms like “simple,” “real,” or “recognizable” may not fully apply to a dog food formula that contains nearly 40 ingredients — many of them added back after high-heat processing reduces naturally occurring nutrients — along with synthetic vitamins and numerous hard-to-pronounce ingredients.
Bottom line: use of the term “clean eating” in this case is a marketing ploy. Rendered and extruded pet food cannot, by definition, be clean.
Will Big Pet Food Ever Learn?
Until the goals of the processed pet food industry align with the goals of pet parents to feed dogs and cats optimally nutritious diets and not just inappropriate-but-survivable diets, pet food producers won’t regain consumer confidence or trust in their products.
Too many pet parents are watching their beloved animal companions, at ever younger ages, develop degenerative diseases that dogs and cats in the wild never acquire. And while there are many differences in the lifestyles of domesticated and wild animals, diet is one of the biggest, arguably the most impactful, and the best starting point to improve health.
Big pet food either doesn’t realize or can’t admit that a growing number of pet parents have become too knowledgeable about pet nutrition to keep buying their products. The industry continues to ignore the need to explore connections between an exploding number of pets with degenerative diseases, and the practice of feeding dogs and cats the same biologically inappropriate processed diet day in and day out for months, years or a lifetime.
They choose instead to invest more in the “science” of feeding animals diets they aren’t designed to eat, as well as in just the right marketing to gloss over the realities of their products.
What to Do if You’ve Lost Trust in the Processed Pet Food Industry
Thanks to low-grade ingredients, too-frequent recalls, and an exploding population of pets with chronic digestive issues, allergies and degenerative disease, it’s no wonder so many pet parents are exploring homemade diets, fresh food diets made by smaller, transparent pet food producers, raw diets and other alternatives to the dead, rendered, dubious, processed stuff.
A good starting point is to search this website for more information on choosing the best diet for your pet. There are dozens of videos and articles here that can help build knowledge about pet nutrition so more informed diet choices can be made for dogs and cats.
For those interested in helping encourage greater transparency in the pet food industry, becoming a member of the Association for Truth in Pet Food may be considered. The organization is committed to holding regulatory agencies and AAFCO accountable.
In this free guide, you’ll discover:
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How your pet’s biology influences their nutritional needs -
Why conventional feeding advice often falls short -
Practical ways to choose better food for your dog or cat
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