China-Free Dog Food? Don’t Count On It by Mike Sagman These days, I keep reading around the Internet about how this or that dog food is completely free of Chinese ingredients. And frankly, I’m puzzled. After all, there are so many basic pet food ingredients that today are no longer even made here in North America. Take vitamin C, for example. In just a little over a decade, Chinese manufacturers have cornered over 90% of the U.S. market for this common vitamin.1 And it’s not just the vitamin C market that’s been affected. It’s the rest of the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries, too. According to a recent post in the Seattle Times, China now makes… • 70 percent of the world’s penicillin • 50 percent of the earth’s aspirin • 35 percent of its acetaminophen (generic Tylenol) • The bulk of the world’s vitamins A, B12, C and E The Problem with Chinese Ingredients Today, it’s nearly impossible to find a U.S. manufacturer for some essential vitamin and mineral supplements. So, even if a pet food company insists on using 100% domestic ingredients, that noble goal can be elusive. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Chinese ingredients are automatically inferior to our own. But let’s face it, in spite of continued promises for reform by the Chinese government, the country’s ongoing saga of food safety scandals persists unabated. Yet most consumers still believe there’s a law protecting them from pet foods containing foreign-made ingredients? The Shocking Truth About Country of Origin Labeling Laws Here in the U.S., current country of origin labeling laws are either weak or non-existent. They offer little protection to consumers, especially when it comes to the source of a dog food ’s ingredients. For a product to be labeled “Made in the USA” (or for that matter, any other country), regulations require only that the product be “all or virtually all” made in that country. Nowhere do labeling rules mandate the identification of sources of the individual components that were used to make a product. So, even though a company reports they manufacture a dog food completely in a U.S. or Canadian facility, there’s no way to assure a consumer the ingredients weren’t sourced from a foreign producer. Why China-Free Today Can’t Guarantee It’ll Be China-Free Tomorrow And there’s no requirement to inform consumers of a change of any ingredient’s country of origin either. So, a recipe claim made today is never a guarantee the same will be true tomorrow. Even though a manufacturer or a well-meaning third-party writer may report a dog food company’s products are “100% China Free” or “Made in the USA”, there’s nothing to legally guarantee the next batch of raw materials can’t come from a different source. And that’s precisely the reason The Dog Food Advisor relies solely on government-regulated pet food labels and intentionally ignores virtually everything else. It would be misleading to our readers for us to do otherwise. Unverifiable Claims Are Useless Isn’t it possible your dog’s food is different? That it’s 100% free of Chinese ingredients? Of course. It’s likely some pet foods actually are. But let’s be logical. Let’s talk about probability. If human vitamins are mostly sourced from Chinese suppliers, what are the chances the profit-driven pet food industry will still be able to get their hands on the few American-made supplements still available? And what’s the likelihood these same companies would be willing to pay the top prices required to get them? Sure. Anything’s possible. After all, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:04:56 +0000
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