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Pet Food Feeding Trials
- How important are they?
Kathryn Michel, a lecturer at the World Small Animal Veterinary
Association World Congress in 2001 made an interesting suggestion
for pet owners thinking of using a new pet food.
Things to Consider When Evaluating a Pet Food
1.
Is the nutritional adequacy statement based on feeding trials?
2. Is there a phone number on the label for consumer
inquiries?
If the answer is no to either of the above questions, I would be
disinclined to use the food. If the answer were yes to both questions,
then I would call the phone number and make the following inquiries:
1. Does the company run AFFCO feeding trials on each of their
products or product families?
2. Does the company have their own manufacturing plants or do
they contract with an outside feed mill or manufacturing plant?
3. Does the company have a R&D department?
4. Where does the company get their raw ingredients? Are they
from established sources or do the sources vary? What kind of
standards does the company have for raw ingredients? Do they do
any testing in-house before using an ingredient for manufacturing?
5. What kind of testing does the company do at the end of each
run? Do they hold the product for shipment until this testing
is completed?
6. Does the company do stability testing of their products?
"Finally, I look at any promotional material that is available
for the product (including the packaging) and evaluate how the product
is marketed. Are they basing their marketing claims on a sound scientific
rationale? Is the marketing based on a gimmick? Does the company
market their product by bad-mouthing other companies?"
Now that's a very interesting set of questions, which in my experience
would embarrass a lot of small pet food companies in the UK!
In the course of a year several new dog and cat food products will
be launched onto the UK pet food market. Some of these will be manufactured
by the big boys, Masterfoods or Nestle Purina, who will conduct
scientific feeding trials, but others come from small companies
who really are just marketing and distributing - they have no manufacturing
facilities and make use of independent manufacturers who produce
food for anyone. Several well known and well advertised UK brands,
such as Arden Grange, James Wellbeloved, Burns, Land of Holistic
Pets, Natural Dogfood Company and a host of smaller brands are produced
centrally and simply distributed by the brand owners.
Small companies cannot afford the luxury of Research & Development
facilities, they also do not have the facilities to do their own
pet food feeding trials. Let's face it, they are up against the
might of the Waltham centre for Pet Nutrition operated by the company
that brings you Pedigree, Royal Canin and the like. Their publicity
states
'Set in the heart of the English countryside, the Waltham Centre
for Pet Nutrition is a state-of-the-art facility that unifies all
of the research and development expertise of the Mars group of pet
care companies worldwide.
Waltham collaborates with many of the world's most prestigious
universities and academics in advancing nutritional research and
worldwide the Mars Group employs more than 100 dedicated veterinarians
and 500 scientists (plus several of the world's leading companion
animal nutritionists).'
So how do I know my pet food is safe, and will be beneficial for
my pet?
 That's
an interesting question! Large pet food companies can afford the
facilities of a testing centre, so what goes on there?
Well, the rules for conducting feeding trials seem to be all based
around the US AAFCO guidelines. It is difficult to find the precise
wording of this, but of interest to readers might be the following,
which is Masterfoods' system of food trialling (This is not an endorsement
of their methods, but included for information) as reported on one
of their Australian websites.
One...
Maintaining the highest standards of quality and nutrition is achieved
by implementing a three-step process, starting with laboratory analysis.
The MFANZ Research and Development team studies new and existing
pet food products and compares their findings with recognised nutrient
profiles from Waltham and AAFCO. Laboratory analysis ensures that
nutrients are present in the correct ratio to the energy content
of the diet and also in the correct ratio to other nutrients. The
analysis will also verify that nutrients present meet life stage
and lifestyle requirements, that is growth, adult maintenance, reproduction,
senior, light and working.
Two...
Once a pet food recipe is defined it undergoes palatability (acceptance/consumption)
and digestibility testing through non-invasive trials within special
feeding facilities. These trials determine the actual feeding performance
of the product.
Where step one will indicate if the necessary nutrients are present
in the pet food, step two gives a better indication of the availability
macronutrients such as protein, fat and carbohydrate and how effi
ciently they are being utilised by the animal.
For example, a panel of animals may be put on a 10-day feeding
trial. Faeces (stools) are collected from days 4 to 10 and are analysed
for protein, fat, moisture and ash content. These results are then
compared against the same parameters within the diet fed to determine
what levels the animal has utilised. The faeces are also graded
on a system of one to five - one being too hard and five being
diarrhoea. Recipes are formulated to target grade 2 faeces. These
types of trials indicate product palatability and the quality of
the raw materials being used - the better the raw material,
the better they are utilised by the animal resulting in fewer and
firmer stools.
Three...
The last stage in testing is where the diet is fed for the life
stage for which it was designed. These tests ensure that foods meet
feeding procedures and nutritional levels established by AAFCO for:
* Growth
* Adult maintenance
* Gestation and Lactation
For instance, growing puppies need two to three times as much energy
as adults as well as strictly controlled calcium and phosphorus
levels, and a prepared pet food for this life stage must deliver
accordingly.
Trials for life stage feeding of ADVANCE products are conducted
here in Australia. This is because, for best results, it is important
to trial within the country in which they will beused.
Adult maintenance trials may take six months to complete. A full
veterinary examination is also conducted to ensure the pets used
in the trial are healthy. Food intakes and body weights are recorded
throughout the trial period along with other important indicators
such as oral health, skin and coat health, body condition and faecal
quality. At the conclusion of the trial a blood sample is taken
to detect any nutritional deficiencies or excesses. As a further
measure to assess palatability, in home feeding trials are conducted
as we have access to approximately 8,000 households throughout Australia.
This ensures we get a true reflection of pets’ acceptance
and preference of the ADVANCE product range.
Some MFANZ pet food products may take up to three years to develop
because of this rigorous three-step testing process.
How does that compare with a small company's food trial?
Well, you'll probably find that small companies will tell you that
they do not conduct feeding trials because they do not consider
them necessary - usually a new food is given to staff and family
to try out on their pets. If there are no adverse comments from
users over a four or six week period then the food is launched to
the general public.
This can work out fine, but essentially they are using pet owners
around the country to do their long term food trials. I know of
ocassions where a food has been launched in this way and then caused
problems that were not picked up during the initial food tasting.
However, it also has to be said that all new pet food recipes have
their origin at feeding trials which have been done in the past.
The US AAFCO nutritional guidlines have been used for years as the
base figures for formulating pet food recipes, and you or I could
probably put together a fine quality pet food based upon those guidlines
- but we have to bear in mind that these were established through
nutritional feeding trials, and have been ammended no doubt since
based upon current research.
For this reason, unless a recipe is using very novel ingredients,
or formulated with proportions of ingredients that vary greatly
from other foods on the market, it is generally assumed that these
foods will be perfectly safe for the pets that they have been created
for.
So, maybe pet owners do need to ask themselves a question. If I
am trying a new pet food, am I happy that this food has been extensively
trialled over a period of 6 months to 2 years and proved by scientific
methods to be beneficial to health - or am I comfortable that a
food has been formulated to a similar recipe to others on the market,
given out to a dozen or so pet owners and over a short period of
time no adverse comments made?
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