Additives in pet food: are they safe?

Abstract

A good, nutritious diet is essential for the health and well‐being of our domestic pets. Today, most pet dogs and cats are fed highly processed food bearing little resemblance to canine and feline ancestral diets. Additives are included in processed pet food to provide nutritional benefits, ensure food safety, and maintain the desirable features of colour, flavour, texture, stability and resistance to spoilage. This paper reviews the safety of various additives in processed pet food. Labelling, safety assessment, and ethical concerns regarding existing toxicity testing procedures are also considered. The adequacy of testing for many additives and the scientific basis for determining safety are questioned. Additives can be synthetic or ‘natural’ although the distinction can be blurred when naturally derived substances are synthesised in the laboratory, or extracted using a high level of physical and chemical processing. Although additives play important roles in processed food production, updated strategies and technologies may be required to establish their safety in the pet food industry.

Environmental risk factors for the development of oral squamous cell carcinoma in cats

“…An additional risk factor that was confirmed in the present study is the consumption of canned cat food or, in our case, a diet consisting of half or more of wet industrial cat food. Analytic studies are warranted to investigate the carcinogenetic role of contaminants (eg, heavy metals, mycotoxins) or additives (eg, cassia gum, sodium nitrite, and chemical antioxidant such as butylated hydroxytoluene and hydroxyanisole) in cat food 37 . In the impossibility of performing such analysis, we relied on 2 further distinct indicators: price range, which was divided into 2 macro‐categories (“market” and “premium”) and the declared absence of chemical compounds by the producer.…”

“…Additives of the functional groups “preservatives,” “antioxidants,” “flavorings,” and “colorants” need not be declared by name but can be declared by only the respective functional group. This applies even when the level of the additive exceeds the recommended maximum level 37 . Therefore, we considered as low exposure only brands that explicitly declared not to use chemical additives in their products.…”

“…Analytic studies are warranted to investigate the carcinogenetic role of contaminants (eg, heavy metals, mycotoxins) or additives (eg, cassia gum, sodium nitrite, and chemical antioxidant such as butylated hydroxytoluene and hydroxyanisole) in cat food. 37 In the impossibility of performing such analysis, we relied on 2 further distinct indicators: price range, which was divided into 2 macro‐categories (“market” and “premium”) and the declared absence of chemical compounds by the producer. It should be noted that, according to the Code of Good Labelling Practice for Pet Food, produced by the European Pet Food Industry Federation, there is no obligation to declare additives with no legal maximum limit.…”

“…This applies even when the level of the additive exceeds the recommended maximum level. 37 Therefore, we considered as low exposure only brands that explicitly declared not to use chemical additives in their products. A further limit for this classification is given by the fact that cats' diet is often variable and commonly includes different brands, so the data are based on an estimation of the most consumed commercial food brands during life.…”

Evaluación in vitro de la seguridad y eficacia de un nutracéutico a base de romero para la piel de perros

“…Esses ensaios são comumente utilizados para se testar a segurança de produtos para consumo humano (Omoruyi & Pohjanvirta, 2014), sendo uma inovação a utilização deles para testar produtos veterinários. Esses testes são importantes, visto que os nutracêuticos de forma geral não precisam de comprovação de segurança, porém, apesar as agências oficiais darem garantias em relação à segurança, faltam dados para fundamentar essas garantias (Craig, 2021).…”