Raw-some pet food: what analysis methods do you need for your product?

Author: Rachel Rawson

10th January 2024

Sciantec

Agriculture

Humans tend to prefer their meat cooked for improved safety, texture, flavour, and digestibility. Cats and dogs are better adapted to digest raw meat and tend to be less susceptible to the kinds of bacteria that would make humans ill.

When humans eat uncooked animal products, we have the potential to get ill. Cats and dogs are not only designed to consume raw meat, but they have bodies that can happily process raw foods.

Raw pet food has become much more popular in recent years. In fact, a study by the global market intelligence agency Mintel found that nearly half of owners in the UK prefer to give their pets a diet based on what they would eat in the wild. However, we do need to make sure that the raw food they are given is safe, not just for animals but for the humans around the food and their pets’ waste.

Whilst there are a lot of studies comparing manufactured raw diets to traditional, which one is “best” comes down to the individual animal’s biology and the owners’ preferences. It depends on age, breed, health status, allergies/intolerances, and economic factors like price, convenience, and the importance of sustainability.

No matter what owners give to their pets, it’s important to ensure it’s made from safe, traceable ingredients, manufactured in safe, approved conditions, and certified as “complete” so it’s clear that it will meet the animal’s nutritional needs. This will also help pet food producers maintain compliance with legislation to protect animals and safeguard the food chain.

Read on to find out more about why it’s important to test pet food in general, why it’s particularly important to test raw pet food, and how Sciantec can help.

Why is it important to test pet food?

Whether pet food is raw or not, it’s crucial to test your pet food product before it goes to market. The law requires a number of declarations to be made on the pet food label, namely the analytical constituents total oil, protein, fibre, ash, and moisture, before they are sold. This is so that customers have clear, concise, and honest information on the composition, use, and characteristics of any product they purchase. For a fantastic guide to pet food labelling, click here.

When you are making anything with animal by-products, such as meat, dairy, or waste parts of an animal, analysis needs to be undertaken to ensure the pet food is safe for consumption. There are guidelines on how much bacterial activity should be found in the product, which must be declared before the product can be approved. This declaration includes testing products for Salmonella and Enterobacteria. For more information on what must declared and how often, visit the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) website here.

There are different levels of acceptability for these bacteria:

• Salmonella: no level of acceptability. As Salmonella is a notifiable organism, it’s a statutory requirement to have pet food containing animal by-products tested by an accredited laboratory. If detected, it is sent to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). If confirmed, the manufacturer must cease production until verified as free of Salmonella. This could result in profit losses as well as damaged brand reputation.
• Enterobacteriaceae: higher level of acceptability as this encompasses both good and bad bacteria. Its pervasiveness in the environment means that we can tolerate levels of Enterobacteriaceae more easily than Salmonella. The levels of Enterobacteriaceae permitted in pet food is higher than that of human food.

So, microbiology analysis is required to check the levels of these bacteria in pet food to safeguard animal and human health and to maintain compliance. To retain customer trust and maintain brand reputation, ensuring safe, nutritious pet food is essential.

Why is it even more important to test raw pet food?

If pet food is classed as “processed”, such as a pouch of wet food or a bag of dry kibble, then a “kill step” is part of its manufacture. This sterilisation step, which is usually performed by treating the product at temperatures over 90^oC, kills the Salmonella or Enterobacteriaceae in the product, helping to ensure its safety.

If a product does not have this “kill step”, then it is not classed as processed, but as raw. Whilst this means that these raw products can legally have a higher acceptable level of bacteria, producers must be very careful as they will have much higher levels overall, potentially threatening pet and human health.

Raw pet food producers are incorporating novel ways of getting this “kill step” in the manufacturing process to ensure their product remains safer for longer. Even though this means that it is processed, manufacturers must still carry out due diligence testing as their pet food still contains animal by-products.

How Sciantec can help

With over 30 years’ expertise in animal feed analysis and our extensive experience in the agriculture sector, we work closely with clients to determine what they need to maintain compliance and make the best products for their customers.

To understand what we are analysing, we need to know exactly what it is we are looking at—is it actually raw, or has it been subject to the kill step to help kill some of the bacteria? This isn’t always obvious just from looking at the products, as many manufacturers are able to make processed food look quite similar to raw foods. Equally, some dry kibble may look processed, but may not have been through a high temperature treatment. Cold press manufacturing and air-drying are examples of this and also means the product is classed as “raw”. Sciantec can advise manufacturers on the right method of testing for their particular product.

We deliver microbiology services to analyse feed and ingredients for Salmonella and Enterobacteriaceae, as well as a range of other microbiology services for both raw and processed products. We also provide nutritional analysis, including amino acid and fatty acid profiling, species specific energy calculations, crude protein, total oil, moisture and dry matter, crude ash, and more, helping our customers to ensure the safety and quality of their products.

Contact us to discuss your requirements.