THE TRUTH REVEALED: New Research Exposes The Dangers Of ‘Dry Dog Food’
-
Laurene Rey-Millet
- 24th August 2021
- 4 minute read
Dry dog food: yay or nay? ProDog Raw aimed to answer this question through their brand new case study, – which was conducted as part of their August 2021 #DitchTheDry campaign (supported by experts, including Dr Nick Thompson).
The campaign also intends to raise awareness about the dangers of feeding our dogs a highly-processed dry-food diet.
ProDog Raw’s study ran a deep-dive on 10 of the UK’s most popular dry dog food brands, which exposed the low meat content, and the over-processed ingredients that makes up the country’s kibble biscuits. All 10 of the brands analysed included ‘meat and animal derivatives,’ or ‘meat meal’ as their main ingredient, where the meat origin was unknown.
Meat and animal derivatives is a vague definition, which could include any and all parts of an animal. Listing this phrase as an ingredient gives absolutely no indication as to where the meat content comes from (and it doesn’t need to be defined, based on current dog food regulations).
Six of the 10 brands were also shown to use vegetable oils, and substances used to increase the shelf life of a product, – which has been linked to detrimental health conditions when consumed regularly and additionally: the latest research has even shown a connection between commercial dry diets, and obesity in dogs.
‘Meat meal’ is a dry brown powder, which is typically made from the parts of animals which humans don’t consume. It’s created through a rendering process, where animal materials are ground and cooked, with the moisture removed, and then pressurized to separate the fats from protein and bone. This mix is then processed again, with moisture removal and grinding, – to create a fine powder.
Some products analysed are branded as ‘with chicken’ or ‘with turkey.’ They state that they ‘contain 4%, 5%, or 6%’ of the named meat in most instances, meaning that only 4% of the meat and animal content will come from the animal listed on the packaging of these dry food products. The rest of the animal product could come from any animal, and from any part of that animal.
Veterinarian, Dr Nick Thompson said: “Ultra-processed Foods have taken American humans to 46th in longevity tables. Why are they forcing this despicable food technology on their pet animals, and exporting it to pets all around the world?”
You can find out more about ProDog Raw’s #DitchTheDry campaign here.