JJ,

Here're a few.  The dog food project info is a also listed (at the bottom) in the first post of this thread.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients
http://www.purelypets.com/articles/whatsinfood.htm
http://www.iei.net/~ebreeden/kibble.html

Some of the foods may have been reformulated since the info was published, but you get the idea.

5CatMom
₌^..^₌

Offy,

We'll just keep helping the PF companies.  Someday, they'll get it.

LOL, maybe we should apply for a federal grant to study the subject.  Since FDA is so busy, we'd just give them a hand.  Looks like Marcy in Ohio got $32K.

http://www.fedspending.org/faads/faads.php?recip_id=108488&detail=-1

Hummmmm.  Now that would test a lot of pet food.

What 'ya think?

5CatMom
₌^..^₌

I hadn't considered the endotoxins.... sigh..

http://njboxers.com/Question.htm

"Manufacturers do not analyze processed pet foods for endotoxin, but it can be present. The fact that coliforms can be cultured from meat meal shows that it contains endotoxin. The pet food industry uses inexpensive sources of protein in order to produce an inexpensive product.  Thus, meat-meal protein continues to be used.

Coliform bacteria such as Escherichia coli have been isolated from meat products. This problem is solved by cooking meat for longer times and higher temperatures. Because Escherichia coli is a coliform, it is another source of endotoxin. Heat does not destroy endotoxin, and it can be a cause of illness. So Escherichia coli can produce disease by more than one means, with one still potent after thorough cooking.  Nothing can be done to decontaminate a food containing endotoxin."

I guess they don't test for it because they can't "decontaminate" it if found in the product.. but, sheesh, it's ok to feed it to the animals..... don't ask, don't tell .. another policy that leaves pet owners choosing in the dark with no help from pfcs..


ETA:  You know what, I'm sending that to Evanger's who claimed the temperature of their cooking process eliminated all the stuff...

I was going to say that was what Strombeck had in his book, word for word, but looks like it IS from his book.  Thanks for finding that, Offy, he says it better then I can.  I'm sure most of the meat meals, especially the "meat meals" that are from many sources, do have bacteria in them at the start since they sit around at a number of places before getting rendered - slaugherhouse, storage, trucks, more storage, render, storage, truck to PF co, storage, process. 

He also mentions in his book some of these plants are contaminated with salmonella from start to finish and unless decontaminated, will continue to reinfect the food at each stage.  So the opportunity is there for bacteria and their endotoxins at many different points.  Not sure how those endotoxins are tested.  (also not sure how they culture e coli from their endotoxins??  Didn't understand that in his writeup)

Some of those food strategies where you provide the meat, organs, etc., and then mix in a prepared supplement look like good alternatives to commercial pet food.

There are just too, too many reports of problems with various foods/feeds.  Today, it's excess copper in Purina Mills feed.  How'd that happen?   

And it's becoming clear that pet food was contaminated prior to the recall of 2007.

The industry is in chaos. 

 

5CatMom
₌^..^₌

Letter to the Editor, Canadian Vet Journal, by Carol Auld

"Dear Sir,

I am moved to respond to the June 2007 ethical question of the
month (Can Vet J 2007;48:571), since, like many people, I fed
my cats an exclusive diet of prescribed dry food, because I was
told by my veterinarian that it was “the very best food that you
could feed your cat.”

After 10 years of continuous feeding of prescribed dry cat
food, my first female Siamese developed kidney problems and
my second, feline diabetes. I then researched cat nutrition and
learned that dry cat food is just meat-flavored cereal — corn,
rice, and wheat, laced with questionable additives and preservatives
— cooked in large vats and through a process of extrusion
molded into kibble. This product is so unpalatable to cats, who
have reputations as discerning gourmets, that the manufacturing
process necessitates spraying “digests,” fermented meat byproducts,
onto the kibble. This is healthy and balanced?

I understand that many veterinarians receive very little in the
way of impartial scientific training in nutrition, although many
are embarrassed to admit this. What they learn comes from the
pet food industry, which, I also understand, as standard practice,
provides students with free pet food. Business marketing plans
are directed at veterinarians to encourage a lifetime of feeding
commercial dry cat food. The sale of dry cat food can amount
to 35% of a clinic’s income (1). Cats are obligate carnivores,
no veterinarian would dispute that fact, so how is it that most
veterinarians prescribe and sell only prescription diet dry cat
food?

Many illnesses in cats — diabetes, chronic renal failure,
inflammatory bowel syndrome — are caused by dry cat food.
Since veterinarians are prescribing food that is creating illness
in cats, selling this food constitutes a conflict of interest and
makes veterinarians part of the problem.
The claims of “health” on these products cannot be verified
over the lifetime of a cat, since any trial studies done are shortterm.
Cats have become “experimental animals.” The only real
long-term tests are those done by cat owners who feed these dry
commercial pet food formulations.

As pet owners become more educated to the fact that a dry
food diet is a junk food diet, they won’t blame the pet food
companies, but the veterinarians who prescribed and sold them
these prescription diet kibbles.
Safe and effective handling of raw meat, a cat’s natural diet, is
of course paramount, and pet owners are not idiots who cannot
understand how to make food at home when provided with the
correct information.

Legislative changes are needed to strip the claims of “health”
from dry cat food, remove the products from the market, and
effectively educate owners on how to ensure the health of their
cats by feeding natural diets.

Tainted pet food is but the tip of the iceberg: the real scandal
is that dry cat food formulations, veterinary-prescribed and sold,
are causing so many illnesses in our cats."

Ms. Carol Auld
85 Henry Lane Terrace #301
Toronto, Ontario M5A 4B8

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2034416&blobtype=pdf

YB,

That's not "our" Carol, but still a good Carol.

Most of us who have been here for a while know about the risks of commercial pet food in general, and dry pet food in particular.

There are posts on several threads which address PF company cost cutting in response to rising commodity prices.  IMHO, this is a very real concern.

A good alternative to commercial food is homemade food, either cooked or raw.  Just make sure your recipes are balanced by providing the required vitamins/minerals.

Happily, there are "commercial" alternatives to the typical commercial pet food brands.  Real frozen foods (Feline's Pride), and supplements (Alnutrin) that you add to your own meats, mail order frozen meats, etc.

Many more choices than we used to have  .

http://cats.about.com/od/homepreparedfood/tp/toprawdiet.htm

5CatMom
₌^..^₌