Pathogens, Pet Food, and Safety
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) who govern pet food have a page on their website that talks about issues relating to safe pet food. They discuss topics like choosing the right food for your pet’s needs, handling the food correctly, and making sure the product isn’t damaged when it’s purchased.
But they don’t say anything about contamination…
If we’re talking about pathogens, what number would you use to quantify your food as “safe”? Less than 5% pathogens? 1%? What if I told you that the United States Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the Department of Agriculture says that “safe” means you can have 15.4% of your chicken parts contaminated with salmonella? And that the estimated national prevalence of salmonella is 24%, while campylobacter is 21%?
I don’t know about you, but having a 1 in 4 chance of buying contaminated chicken doesn’t read as “safe” to me.
And that high percentage means if it’s going into raw pet food, the pet food isn’t really “safe” either.
This is why there’s currently a huge push for companies that sell raw pet food to use technology such as high-pressure processing (HPP) to destroy pathogens.
The other obvious solution would be to cook the meat while in final packaging, but if you’re a raw feeder, that isn’t the solution you’re going for.
Balanced Blends offers both options — we HPP our raw foods, and we also kettle cook. We do this because in the world we’re living in, we don’t need to be exposed to more pathogens. We want your pet food to be safe so you and your family are safe, too.
