Part 3: Why veterinary diets?

Most veterinarians work with just a few different companies (primarily those who provide a veterinary line). This has led to veterinary diets, and the veterinary practices who promote them, often being perceived as a monopoly. Before reaching the conclusion that your veterinary practice sells certain diets because of financial reasons, it might be interesting to ask them why they stock the products they do.

Veterinary practices are in the business of making and keeping your pet healthy! Many practices recognize that nutrition is a huge part of overall health, so they have products on hand both for healthy pets (life-stage diets) and for pets with medical conditions or predispositions where nutrition can play a role in treatment, management, or prevention.

They have chosen the diets on their shelves for a number of reasons:

1) Track record of success. Many of the products on their shelves come from companies that have been helping them care for their patients for 20 or 30+ years. They have seen these diets work reliably to help their patients and have faith in their performance. New companies and new diets can be a vital part of your veterinarian’s practice, providing they, too, are meeting the same rigorous standards.

2) Scientific backing. Just like they would evaluate any other treatment or preventative medicine, they have evaluated these diets. They have read the studies that show how and why these diets work. They have read the research behind how nutrition can impact pets and medical conditions.

3) Connection with the company. They know who is formulating these diets. They know the testing the diets have undergone. They know who they can reach out to when they have questions. This allows them to make the best choice for your pet.

Part 2: Diet testing and fear of recalls

Welcome back to our series on how to determine if a diet is “good”. In our last piece, we talked about the importance of step one – WHO is formulating the diet.

Step 2 is WHO is testing the diet, WHAT is it being tested for, and HOW frequently is this testing done? As we talked about in part 1, once a diet has been formulated (the recipe has been created on paper), that recipe needs to be made in a small “trial run” to see if the kibble can be made. Most kibbles are made through extrusion (cooking with steam). There is a lot of science behind this, but also some art!

Kibble can be tricky to make; small differences in humidity, or moisture, or temperature can result in large differences in kibble size, shape, and structure. A diet formulation must be one that can be made into a consistent kibble. The trial run is also the first opportunity to test the kibble. Diets should be going through a FULL nutrient analysis, which will allow the company to tell you precisely how much of each nutrient is in the kibble. Different companies will express this information in different ways, for example, they may tell you there are 80 g of protein in each 1000 kcal of food. Many companies do not list this information on the bag (too crowded!) or on their website – but they should have it easily accessible if you ask. It is essential before a kibble is launched BUT definitely NOT always done! If you can not find out the nutrients that your kibble provides, it is NOT a “good” food.

It is important to ask not only what the nutrient analysis is, but how frequently this is being run. Having a full nutrient analysis done on a product prior to launch is a great start, but ingredients can change over time, and changes in kibble size or density will impact nutrition, ideally a company will be doing a nutrient analysis every time they make a new batch. There are some exceptions to this. Products that have been in the market for years with frequent testing and close scrutiny, like veterinary diets, may now be doing a nutrient analysis quarterly – they have perfected a formulation and the mix of art and science of extrusion to be able to run a consistent product. Their nutrient analyses are now just a “fail-safe” to ensure products stay consistent.

For smaller or new companies – if they are not running a nutrient analysis on every batch, they are likely missing shifts in the nutrition the diet is providing, and their information may no longer be accurate.

Additional testing: Nutrient analyses are essential for consistent nutrition, but what else is or SHOULD be tested for? We have all heard of scary recalls, and all want to know that we are not putting our pets at risk. The truth is, it is impossible to test for EVERYTHING. No company can test for every possible contaminant or risk…so look for a company that is truly dedicated to safety. Ask about their safety procedures and their quality assurance and quality control programs. Their answer should be comprehensive and include a discussion of what measures are in place to produce a diet free of contamination of other products made at that facility, with checks to prevent metal (from machinery) or other foreign materials (from ingredient packages, etc.). They should also be doing regular ingredient testing to minimize the risk of mycotoxins or contaminants. They should be doing finished product testing (like a nutrient analysis) that will help alert them to anything being in the food that shouldn’t be there.

Just like with “human” food – there are not processes that provide zero risk – but there are many companies who have invested significant resources in developing safe products that you can rely on. If you are not getting answers that you feel good about, then this is NOT a good diet for your pet.

One of the most common questions asked to veterinarians, breeders, groomers, or other pet experts is “how do I choose a dog/cat food?”. There are SO MANY brands out on shelves, most of them LOOK great. They have beautiful packages, their ingredient lists sound great, their claims are wonderful…but how can you know about what is IN the package?

It is impossible for any pet care professional to know about ALL of the products out there – there are new diets and new brands being launched every day. There are some reliable ways to evaluate products, though. One of the most important parts of a product is WHO formulated the diet? One of the first steps in creating a diet is the formulation. The formulation is both a “recipe” for what ingredients will go into the diet, but also a prediction on what nutrients those ingredients will provide. For example, a diet that is made up of 26% chicken might then provide 80 g of protein per 1000 kcal consumed. There are no “rules” on who formulates diets. Most companies use the same base software, and the formulator might be a company employee with pet food experience, or a veterinarian, or a PhD nutritionist. Although each of these people will work hard to create the best diet they can – there will be a significant range in expertise and nutrition knowledge.

So – step one of deciding “Is this is good food?” is finding out who formulated it. Some companies will list this information, some will provide it when you reach out to them, some won’t tell you…if you can not find out who formulated the diet or their credentials then this is likely NOT a diet you want to feed your pet.

The next step in creating a new diet is to run a test run of the formula – it may look great on paper, but will it translate into a kibble that can be made well? (i.e. can that kibble be consistently produced) Will it be palatable? Will it provide the nutrition to the pet that the formulation predicts? The next critical step in deciding if a diet is “good” is learning what testing was done in creating the diet, and ongoing to ensure consistent nutrition – join us for Part 2 to discuss pet food testing!