New study of dog food looking at environmental contaminants

[Kamela & Beckett]

Anyone else seen this?

http://www.kgun9.com/lifestyle/totally-tucson/are-pet-foods-safe-fo...

It's a study of contaminants in pet foods. Surprisingly Acana and Origen have several foods in the bottom 10. Several of the top 10 recommended foods are what I thought were low quality brands carried by grocery stores, etc.

Thoughts?? Karen??

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm going to have to do a little digging on this one. I'd like to know exactly what contaminants they found, in what amounts, and also who funded this study. I looked at their website and couldn't get much information. I suspect something fishy here. No way Pedigree is a higher quality, "safer" dog food than Orijen, lol. I would not be concerned.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It also looks like fish has a lot to do with their ratings. 

[Deborah Brown]

Maybe mercury in fish?  I was wondering about this when I saw all the fish products on the "bad" list.  Mercury is on the list of contaminants. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Deb, where is the list of the contaminants they tested for?

I suppose that if you have a food filled with corn and floor sweepings brewer's rice, like Pedigree, there isn't much mercury there, lol. 

However, what is there is BHA, an artificial preservative linked to cancer, and if that's not a "contaminant", I don't know what is. I think their study may have been a bit skewed. 

[Deborah Brown]

http://www.cleanlabelproject.org/methodology/

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thanks, Deb. They appear to only be looking at certain "contaminants" and not others, and some of this info is quite misleading, including a few of the minerals that are actually necessary and beneficial.  I'd like to see the actually results, i.e. which of these was in which foods, and how much? 

And they do say that basically, anything that contains seafood is basically going to get a poor rating due to the mineral content. 

[Kamela & Beckett]

I'm at work, so I don't have a ton of time to research this right now, but I had similar thoughts. Who funded this research? Because how can Pedigree be better than Origen?? There seemed to be a bit of a dig at higher prices, but how could "grocery store" brands that typically have national advertising campaigns use better safer ingredients and still be SO much cheaper? It defies logic.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I intend to do a little research into their corporate "donors". I won't be terribly surprised to find Mars, Nestle, and/or Colgate Palmolive on that list, lol. 

Artificial colorings and preservatives that are banned in Europe because of their link to cancer? That's what these people consider a "four star" food? Um, no thanks. 

[Kamela & Beckett]

They also supposedly evaluated nutritional value and rate a bunch of garbage brands higher than Honest Kitchen and foods like that!!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Here's the ingredients list for the Pedigree formula they gave four stars:

Ingredients

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Poultry By-Product Meal (Source Of Glucosamine & Chondroitin Sulfate), Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (Source Of Omega 6 Fatty Acids [Preserved With Bha/Citric Acid]), Meat And Bone Meal (Source Of Calcium), Ground Whole Grain Wheat, Natural Flavor (Source Of Meatier Flavor), Chicken By-Product Meal, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Monocalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Dried Peas, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Niacin [Vitamin B3], Biotin, Dried Carrots, Bha & Citric Acid (A Preservative), Blue 2, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, D-Calcium Pantothenate [Source Of Vitamin B5], Riboflavin Supplement [Vitamin B2], Red 40, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride [Vitamin B6], Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Vitamin D3 Supplement), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid.

By-products and corn aside, this food also includes every cancer causing artificial coloring there is, as well as BHA.
http://www.petsafe.net/learn/pet-food-the-good-the-bad-and-the-healthy

From the above link:
Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA), Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT), and Ethoxyquin are 3 nasty chemical preservatives. BHA and BHT are chemicals added to oils (fats) as preservatives that can be found in pet foods and treats. According to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, BHA is on the list of Known Carcinogens and Reproductive Toxicants. BHT is also a carcinogen and causes kidney and liver damage in rats.

Blue 2, Red 40, and Yellow 5 and 6 have been documented to contribute to hypersensitivity (allergic-type) reactions, behavior problems, and cancer in humans. More recently, caramel color has come under fire as it contains 4-methylimidazole (4-MIE), a known animal carcinogen. When it comes down to it, artificially coloring food only appeals to humans and not pets.

[Stella]

OMG, that ingredient list is disgusting, which makes me think this 'study' was a complete joke.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yep. By-products, corn, floor sweepings brewer's rice, corn gluten, wheat, soy, unnamed animal fat & meal, and known carcinogens. And this is "clean" food?