Researchers (Isabella R Maine, Robert Atterbury, and Kin-Chow Chang) at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, Sutton Bonington Campus, University of Nottingham recently conducted a study on the ingredients in several wet pet foods sold in the United Kingdom. This research was sparked by the contamination of horse meat found in human food labeled as beef in 2013.
Seventeen popular wet dog and cat foods were included in the study. These foods were then tested for the DNA of four different animal species. Horse meat was not detected in any of the tested pet foods. However, in fourteen of the tested foods chicken, bovine, and porcine DNA was found though these proteins were not listed in the ingredients. Only two of the seven foods marketed as “with beef” contained more beef than pork and chicken combined.
This study demonstrated that the pet food industry lacks responsibility for proper labeling and production of wet dog and cat foods. The researchers report that “Full disclosure of animal contents will (a) allow more informed choices to be made on purchases which are particularly important for pets with food allergies, (b) reduce the risk of product misinterpretation by shoppers, and (c) avoid potential religious concerns.”
Note: this research is © 2015 Maine et al.; licensee BioMed Central.
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