Commercial Pet Food Recalls: 293
Recalls In Your Kitchen: 0
*Number of FDA Pet Food Recalls Since 2013
- Why Commercial Fresh Dog Food Isn’t Always Safe For Your Dog
- How To Avoid The Issues Commonly Seen With Commercial Pet Food?
A fresh diet consisting of gently cooked wholesome human-grade foods is one, if not the best, diet you can give your dog. But not even a fresh diet is safe from the concerning issues seen too commonly with commercial pet foods.
We’ve been noticing more and more major issues with big fresh dog food brands. From these brands recalling their foods due to potential salmonella contaminations to them outright lying about what’s in their foods, it’s becoming impossible for pet parents to truly trust the commercial pet food they’re feeding their best furbuddies.
Why Commercial Fresh Dog Food Isn’t Always Safe For Your Dog
There are many reasons why a homemade fresh food diet is a much better idea than purchasing commercial food. Simply put, you can save money and provide higher-quality meals.
However, there are a few ways that creating your dog’s food at home can eliminate issues common to all commercial foods. Issues that can put your dog’s health at risk!
Salmonella and E. Coli Concerns
A fresh diet takes all the advantages of raw and other pet diets and gently cooks the food to perfect temperatures. This greatly eliminates the risk of salmonella and E. Coli contaminations while promoting the best nutrient retention possible. Every year, it seems like the FDA announces a fresh pet food brand has to recall their products due to exposure to salmonella and E. Coli.
One of the big reasons this is happening is because commercial food brands get greedy and try to cut costs anywhere they can. Often this means they try to cook too much food at a time, leaving parts uncooked and raw, which greatly increases the chance your dog gets sick from eating their food. While some undercook, others overcook white destroys vital nutrients.
Not only that, you are no longer getting your money’s worth because uncooked food hurts your dog’s ability to absorb all the nutrients from it. Nutrients that you’re spending your hard-earned money on!
Human Grade Ingredients
Human-grade ingredients mean food fit for human consumption. If the quality of the food isn’t safe for us, is it truly safe for our dogs? That’s our concern and why we recommend sticking to human-grade food ingredients when creating meals for your dog at home.
Because even when a commercial brand that creates fresh dog food says they only use human-grade ingredients, they’ve been caught lying. And have been forced to confess that their pet products are food grade and are not human grade and that they are not manufactured in a licensed human food facility.
Some commercial brands may even be using the term human grade when they don’t even know what it truly means!
Undesired Preservatives
The false claims by commercial brands don’t stop at human-grade vs. food-grade. One fresh food pet company said their food contains no preservatives. However, their ingredients include carrageenan, which is a well-known preservative and controversial food additive.
“Animal studies have repeatedly shown that food-grade carrageenan causes gastrointestinal inflammation and higher rates of intestinal lesions, ulcerations, and even malignant tumors.”
Used as an emulsifier to make food more appealing to our eyes, there is no real health benefit to carrageenan. Your dog does not care what their food looks like, just that it’s delicious. In fact, by including it, you’re basically paying for a marketing gimmick.
You might be wondering why carrageenan is approved for use in food products? That’s a great question!
There are two types of carrageenan: degraded and undegraded. Human-grade carrageenan is undegraded and deemed safe, while food-grade carrageenan is degraded and the one studies find unsafe.
As we saw above, some commercial brands are lying about using human-grade ingredients, meaning there is a good chance the carrageenan in their food is the dangerous degraded kind.
How To Avoid The Issues Commonly Seen With Commercial Pet Food?
Pet parents everywhere are asking how they can avoid the many issues seen with commercial foods. Simply put, there is no way to guarantee you won’t see contaminated products, harmful substances, and misinformation when purchasing commercial pet foods.
These are just a few of the many reasons pet parents wish they could make their pet’s food for them at home. A place where they have complete control over the ingredients. By preparing and gently cooking your dog’s food for you, using the ingredients you choose, ChefPaw, the home dog food maker, gives you exactly that!