It's difficult to understand why people don't realize that pets are gifts to mankind-Linda Blair
by Milka Tesla
Choosing dry pet food can be difficult due to the wide range of products available in the market. Typically, we talk about four major categories: - Economy,
Standard, Premium and Super Premium. In some cases, we can also think about Ultra-Premium products.
Economy and Standard products are a “lower” quality products and as such lower cost to produce and cheaper for the pet owner to buy. Cheaper pet foods
are distributed through the retail channels like a super markets or local grocery shops.
Typically, Economy level pet foods are made using “lower” quality ingredients, like by-products, from low quality wheat and cereals left over from the
milling industry. Proteins are mainly come from the cereal material but can also come from lower quality meat and bone meals. In Europe, manufacturers
should follow the nutritional guidelines published by the FEDIAF (The European Pet Food Industry Federation). Economy pet food is produced at the minimal
nutrient recommendation levels and can be deficient in some nutrient levels required by animal.
Typically, Standard pet foods are of a slightly higher quality and are sometimes only differentiated by the branding from the economy products.
Even if declarations on the back of the package states that food satisfies minimal protein requirements, an important question for pet owners is whether the
pet food satisfies the everyday needs of our pets. For example, proteins from cereals like maize (corn) are less digestible for both cats and dogs, compared
to the proteins of animal origin. Cat are carnivores and dogs are pseudo carnivores. From an evolution view, carnivores are animals that are animals that
have digestive systems that can utilise meat and animal proteins to make the nutrients essential for further growth and survival. Dogs as pseudo carnivores
have developed enzymes that can more successfully digest plant materials compared to cats.
University of Lifesciences in Ås, Norway regularly carries out research into the protein quality in pet food.
Their research (Prof. Dr Oystein Ahlstrom) has identified that protein quality is more important than the
quantity of protein in a pet diets. If protein quality is low (cereal proteins, low quality animal proteins)
and quantity is on the borderline for nutritional requirements, pet can suffer protein deficiency in their
diets.
Economy diets also have a greater risk of contamination with mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are toxins
generated by moulds and are often present in a high concentration in “low” quality cereals. Research
published by Gazzotti et al., 2015 (Table 1), showed that standard (cereal based) extruded dog foods
contained higher levels of mycotoxins compared to premium. In the study, all diets contained mycotoxins
below regulatory maximum limits. At other end of the quality scale, premium pet foods often contained
less than 50% of the mycotoxin levels found in “standard” diets. Many factors affect the levels of
mycotoxins found in all types of pet food, including quality systems used by manufacturers have in their
production facilities. However, as the pressure rise on manufacturers to decrease costs of their products, quality standards might decrease and therefore
allow less strict quality specifications for raw materials purchased to manufacture dry pet food.
For further guidance on how to select dry pet food, please contact Pet Food School.
Table 1. Concentrations of mycotoxins (µg/kg DM) in commercial extruded dry dog food
How to choose dry pet food?
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