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Answers from Answers Pet Food
- 5-20-2011
- Categorized in: Pet Food Interviews
This is the very first article of a soon to be series of articles taking a detailed look at various pet food companies. Meet Answers Pet Food.
TruthaboutPetFood.com is beginning a new series of articles that will highlight quality minded pet food manufacturers. This will not be an endorsement, but it will be a way for the quality minded pet food companies to separate themselves from the pack.
Each pet food manufacturer will be responding to the same initial questions, As I was preparing the questions to send to various pet food companies, I received an email from Etty Gorman of Answer Pet Food. The timing was right, so Answers became our first interview. More interviews will follow.
Quick Note: No - this is not an endorsement of any pet food. I feel choosing a food or style of feeding (kibble, can, raw, home prepared) for your pet is a very personal decision. No - I or TruthaboutPetFood.com did not receive money for these interviews. They are posted strictly as a way for pet parents to learn more. These articles are not meant to be advertisement, they are meant to be information.
Answers Pet Foods are manufactured in Pennsylvania. All ingredients are sourced from U.S. suppliers with the exception of cinnamon and green tea. Shelf life is 12 to 18 months properly frozen; 5 to 7 days thawed and refrigerated. Answers Pet Foods are available nationwide.
Why types of pet food do you produce? (example: both cat and dog foods, kibble, can, and raw)
Raw diet for dogs and Raw frozen Goats Milk for dogs and cats. Straight Answers (meat grind, 60% muscle, 30% organ and 10% ground bone. Detailed Answers, complete without the use of synthetic vitamins, both are formulas for dogs and our Additional Answers raw frozen goats milk for dogs and cats.
Tell pet parents why they should consider your pet food? What makes your pet foods different? Better?
Our products are designed by raw feeders with over 50 years combined experience feeding raw diets and 7 years experience in the raw food manufacturing industry. Researched and formulated by a food scientist, specializing in the meat and dairy industry. Through experience, research and science, Answers is formulated by design to provide superior nutrition. Answers Pet Food has unique ingredients, like eggs from 100% cage free and pasture fed chickens, kombucha and Azomite®, that bring healing nutrients that no other raw diet provides.
What makes your manufacturing process different? Better?
No pasteurization or high pressure treatment. We only buy USDA, human grade, inspected meat that has never, ever been treated with antibiotics or hormones. Our facility is equipped with high power grinders allowing Answers to grind the bone to a fine (for small dogs ) safe easily digestible form.
Why do you make the style of pet food you do? Example - why kibble or why raw dehydrated?
Digestibility. We only provide raw food. Answers pet food understands when food is processed, no matter how good the raw ingredients are the processing creates toxins and allergens and makes it difficult for the dog to digest.
Please provide some of your reasoning for particular ingredients used in your pet foods; example - why chicken versus chicken meal?
Eggs from pasture fed chickens provide every essential nutrient that dogs require, and provide an enhanced immune stimulator, glutathione. Kombucha provides fermented nutrition, whole food probiotics, prebiotics, and bacteriocins (which naturally protect against pathogens such as E. Coli, Salmonella, Lysteria, Heliobactor pylori). Azomite® provides synergistically balanced minerals that trigger metabolic enzymes and naturally detoxifies heavy metals from the body.
How do you select vendors - suppliers of ingredients?
We carefully research and inspect all of our vendors. We require written affidavits and letters of guarantee from ALL of our suppliers that they are truly adhering to the specifications that we require. We also get copies of all third party audits that are conducted on our suppliers to monitor humane handling and slaughter practices. We ONLY use suppliers who implement and abide by the HFAC (Humane Farmed Animal Care) guidelines. These affidavits and third party audits can be made available to our retailers and end consumers upon request.
What are your routine tests done on ingredients and on the finished product? Maybe we could supply some of our recent results? Do you test ingredients for heavy metals? Fluoride? Any other contaminants? Are these results available to the public?
We routinely test our formulas for macronutrient content and about once per year for the complete micronutrient breakdown. We also routinely test for bacterial content, including pathogens. Because our beef suppliers are human grade, and USDA inspected facilities, this is the same beef that will end up in many of the high quality brand meats and burgers a human would purchase at the supermarket or a restaurant. Therefore, ALL our beef is tested for E. Coli O157:H7 before it ever leaves our supplier and ships to our manufacturing facility.
Does your manufacturing facility have any specific certifications? If so, can you explain why these certifications benefit the pet parent consumer?
Our manufacturing facility is USDA certified and also processes many human meat products. These certifications are a benefit because this means that the facility has an onsite USDA government inspector who is present during most operating hours. This also means that the facility is held to high quality processing standards such as GMPs and HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) to insure that products are processed safely, ingredients are stored and handled correctly and labels and ingredient statements are checked on all end products.
Are your foods manufactured at your own facility or do you use a co-packer? If you use a co-packer...
(a) Do you choose ingredient suppliers or does the co-packer?
We choose ALL of our own ingredient suppliers. We not only choose all of our suppliers but we personally place all the orders for our raw ingredients.
(b) What measures do you take to assure your co-packer is following your recipe specifications?
Roxanne Stone, our Food Scientist, wrote detailed specifications and QA/QC standards and then spent over a year teaching our manufacturer how to process Answers Pet Food down to every detail.
(c) Do you have a company representative at the co-packer or do you do drop in inspections?
We drop in and attend product runs. We are closely located to our facility and are present for most of our runs.
Has your company done feeding trials of each product before it was released on the market?
Yes.
Official or unofficial feeding trials?
Unofficial and currently doing a Vet feeding trial.
If so, how long were the trials, how many animals participated?
Official feeding trials use beagle colonies or other facilities that Answers Pet Food feels are not appropriate environments for dogs to live their entire lives and we will not financially support these facilities. The owners of Answers Pet Food have many years of experience in the raw food category and have worked with other raw food manufacturers. The one and only AAFCO nutrient profile is for dry kibble diets and not appropriate for raw diets. AAFCO understands that nutrients like zinc in dry kibble diets are inhibited from being utilized. Only 20 to 25% of the zinc added to dry kibble will be utilized so excessive amounts of zinc are added. In raw diets zinc and other nutrients are not inhibited from being absorbed (in fact absorption is enhanced) and if these nutrients were added at AAFCO requirements it would overdose the dogs in zinc and other trace minerals. Other raw food manufacturers have done AAFCO feeding trials which set the nutrient profiles for complete and balanced for raw diets. Answers Pet Food nutrients are parallel to other raw diets who did the AAFCO feeding trial.
How does your company go above and beyond?
Product protocol then education.... With safety protocol, quality of ingredients, manufacturing processes, and so on. Answers Pet Food goes above and beyond by offering environmentally friendly recyclable packaging. Other raw diets use plastic bags and plastic containers that are not recyclable and leach toxins and heavy metals into the product.
Do you use any genetically modified ingredients?
No.
If yes, what ingredients are GM and why do you use them? If no, why do you avoid GM and what extremes do you go through to assure your foods are GM free?
We do not support genetically modified organisms in any way. We feel GMO products are insufficiently researched and pose a great threat to our environment, as well as human and pet health. We scrutinize every supplier to assure nothing is sourced from anything genetically modified. It is important to know how to ask the right questions and dig deep into the source of every product to be sure everything is GMO free.
Any other information you'd like to share?
It is important to understand that we at Answers created this product line because we are and have been passionate raw feeders for many years. Our mission is to be able to provide the healthiest raw diet available that we ourselves use for our loved pets. We also wanted to help secure that availability through education, research, science and reaching out to the pet owners, by traveling across the country teaching the benefits of raw, whole food diets. The raw diet is no longer the 11th hour resort to recovering a pet’s health, but a way of life. We are addressing all issues including, proper handling, our convenient green packaging and the positive results from feeding. Please contact any of the Answers family to answer any other questions you have about our products. We truly feel people need to ask questions of their manufactures, so they know exactly what is going in their pets bowl.
Thanks to Answers Pet Food for being our first interview. Your prompt responses are appreciated.
Please feel free to ask additional questions here (below in comments). The comments section is NOT a place for competitors (manufacturers, employees, distributors, retailers) to bash this company or those in subsequent interviews. Legitimate questions and product concerns will be posted; bashing will not.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Thank you so much for doing this!
With companies out there like Evanger's ruining it for the good guys, it's about time they got some positive airplay.
We are so used to bashing the industry, and God knows those stinkers deserve it, but I feel sorry for the little guy who really is honest and cares deeply about what dogs and cats eat and who makes products they feel good about.
Don't laugh, they do exist! They do, I swear. And they deserve the spotlight.
Because, Lord knows, they have an uphill climb, against public perception, negative publicity, the reverse halo effect, and of course the mega giants who have millions and millions of dollars at their disposal to spend on advertising and marketing.
So, let's hear it for the little guy!
A new industry acronym: LGPF vs. BPF.
I'm kidding.
Thank You Mollie~
Re: "mega giants w/millions and millions" - We can barely turn on the TV without seeing Petco's new ad campaign for "Petco Certified Nutrition Checklist", that products sold must pass this "test for quality nutrition" before being sold there. Two featured products on the desk are Iam's and Science Diet and in the background is an assortment of junk including Purina's ProPlan.
It's a sneaky con to say to folks not to bother reading the label, they did it for them.
P.S. This new feature is great, thanks Susan!
See, they believe in raw goats milk too! Hooray!
re: milk replacer warning
Funny - I just mentioned their goat's milk in response to the last posting about milk replacer, and here they are! Great people that really care about what they're doing. I was impressed that the owner came to our store twice (on the west coast) to talk to us in great detail about what they're doing.
I own an independent pet store & try hard to stock only the best foods. When one of my dogs developed allergies to over 20 foods and environmental agents, no food I tried helped him without medications to ease his symptoms...until I tried Answers. His symptoms are reduced by at least 80% and he is off all medications. Because he is a young dog, this is critically important to me. I'm seeing similar results with my customers who are purchasing Answers products. I'm now a true believer in these products. The results we've seen in easing allergies and digestive problems are amazing. We've seen orphaned puppies raised on their raw goat's milk thrive against all odds. And these results are in addition to the long-term health benefits this raw diet will provide. In my 16 years in business, I've never sold a line of food with as many health advantages as Answers.
Answers is indeed an impressive pet food company. However I cannot help but notice that Answers failed to provide answers to some excellent questions. I am quite worried about lead and fluoride levels in pet foods largely coming from bone meals and meat meals after reading EWG's study on fluoride in major pet foods and the link between that and high rates of osteosarcoma in our pets. I have had 2 ddogs die from it. Even though Answers does not use those dry meals, it still uses a large amount of bone ground up (10%). Answers failed to mention testing for those contaminants which are accumulated in bone, so I can only assume those tests are unavailable. A second concern of mine is about the safety of raw meats, especially ground meats , as I have had a dog get very ill from E coli from raw USDA choice human grade hamburger. I read that most of our poultry and meats have salmonella and e coli. A hard question: in your years of experience with raw diets have you had pets get sick with bacterial infections? How have you managed to guard against it?
Thank you for the post. I apologize for not addressing the question about testing for lead and fluoride. We currently do not test for either. It is cost prohibitive to test every batch of meat for heavy metals and contaminants and testing one batch is not a full picture or guarantee. We feel the best way to provide a product with little to no contaminates is through sourcing. As you stated we do not use bone meal or meat meals that are often the source of those contaminants. Our bone source is the same as our meat sources. Answers uses excellent sourcing for all our ingredients. For instance we use grass fed beef from Meyer’s and Tall Grass. We are aware these toxins are in our natural environment and can possibly contaminate even naturally raised livestock. All our meat sources (chicken beef and pork) are raised on small farms contracted by our suppliers. This gives us a safety factor for less potential for high levels of these contaminants.
Answers pet food is very contentious about toxins in our food. This is why we chose packaging with little or no plastic. Plastic bags and plastic chubs leach many toxins into food. The leaching is exasperated when freezing in plastic. Some of the contaminants leached into food from plastic are cadmium, mercury, lead and phthalates. For more information on contaminants from plastic go to www.ecologycenter.org/factsheets/plastichealtheffe... . We also chose sardine and anchovy oil to add to our Detailed formula because smaller fish have a shorter life cycle so there is less possibility of them
accumulating impurities.
Another way we address contaminants is by adding Azomite (listed on our ingredient panel as montmorillonite) to our Detailed Answers. I currently have two mastiffs ages 11 years and 13 years and a pit bull age 9 years. I am a fan of large breed dogs and osteosarcoma has always been a concern of mine. Fortunately I have never lost a dog to osteosarcoma. When I was practicing as a veterinary technician I did see many cases some in very young dogs. It compelled me to research causes and prevention. In my research I learned when the body requires a mineral and it is not available it will utilize something similarly shaped to that mineral and most times these are heavy metals and toxins. To avoid this mineral displacement it is imperative to provide the body with all the necessary minerals as Azomite does.
Regarding your question about pathogens like E. Coli. Roxanne Stone, VP of R&D for Answers Pet Food has developed and implemented QA/QC steps and standards that have consistently produced product without pathogens. When raised and fed properly livestock shed little to no pathogens. This sourcing is more expensive but it is key to our success in producing pathogen free products. Our product is made in a plant that processes food for human consumption, therefore it has all the inspections and testing consistently done necessary to produce products pathogen free. We also add fermented decaffeinated green tea (Kombucha) to create competitive inhibition in our Detailed formula. The good bacteria (probiotics) in the Kombucha naturally prevents pathogens (salmonella, E. Coli, Listeria) from growing in our products. This is a very important protection pasteurized products don't provide. It protects the product all the way to your pet’s bowl. There are many opportunities between leaving our plant and feeding your pet that products can thaw and become contaminated. The Kombucha not only provides probiotics but many other healthy nutrients. I will warn you the kombucha sometimes gives our products a "different" odor than other raw diets.
We do test regularly in house and third party and so does other regulatory organizations. Last week we received a report from the state of New York. They pulled our Detailed Chicken product from a retailer in Syracuse and sent it in for Salmonella and E. Coli testing. Both test came back negative. When we do third party testing we pull product from stores. We recently tested product from an account in the state of Washington. We not only test for salmonella but we also test to see if the probiotics (Lactic Acid Bacteria) are surviving the freezing. The results were negative for salmonella and our probiotics were alive, well and proliferating. If you would like copies of these test results feel free to email me at jhill@answerspetfood.com and I will send you electronic copies.
I have been a raw feeder for 20+ years and heavily involved in selling raw diets for over 10 years. I have never experienced a dog or cat becoming seriously ill or dying due to bacterial infection from food.
I hope this answers all your questions. I applaud you for being a discerning pet owner and asking the tough questions.
Jacqueline Hill
Answer Pet Food is a great company that I feel really does care about the quality of the food and the health of the animals that eat it. I met Jacquline and I found her to be very knowledgable and caring.
Can you please tell me if your raw food is safe & advisable to feed my cats? I used to feed Stella & Chewy raw frozen cat food, which they discontinued for quite some time now. I have been using their raw frozen dog food as an alternative (per S&C this is still okay to feed my cats), but I like to provide variety when possible. (I wish more pet food manufacturers remembered cats as much as dogs!) Thanks!
Our raw diet has been formulated for dogs daily requirments by our food scientist Roxanne Stone. However, many cats are eating our raw diet intermittantly, and suplementing to bring up the taurine level. Our ratio is 60% muscle meat/30% organ meat and 10% ground bone, perfect for dogs. The cats diet would have more organ meat.
I hope you will consider feeding your cat the raw goat’s milk. Dr. Henry Pasternak highly recommends raw milk for cats in his book, Healing Pets with Nature’s Miracle Cures. Dr. Pottinger did extensive research feeding cats raw milk. We have many cats utilizing our raw goat’s milk and reporting fantastic results.