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The latest pet food concern, Fluoride
- 6-29-2009
- Categorized in: Pet Food Ingredients
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Fluoride would be the last thing you would think of when selecting a dog food or cat food, however when you consider the latest study published by EWG, fluoride contamination appears to be a risk with some pet foods. “Eight of 10 dog food brands tested by an independent laboratory commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG) contain fluoride in amounts up to 2.5 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) national drinking water standard.” http://www.ewg.org/node/28070
Veterinary science has not studied safe levels of fluoride for dogs, however people who consume excessive fluoride “often develop mottled teeth (dental fluorosis) and weakened bones, leading to more fractures. High fluoride consumption is also associated with reproductive and developmental system damage, neurotoxicity, hormonal disruption and bone cancer (NRC 2006).”
The EWG report states: “Fluoride occurs naturally in some water supplies. But two-thirds of Americans -- and their pets and livestock-- drink water that has been artificially fluoridated on grounds it improves dental health. Fluoride is also found in certain foods, those from plants grown in high-fluoride soils or those to which the chemical is introduced during processing. Once ingested with food or water, fluoride accumulates in the bones. An average dog who drinks adequate water daily would be exposed to 0.05 to 0.1 milligrams of fluoride per kilogram of body weight, depending on the dog's weight and water consumption. But those dogs who eat food high in fluoride, day in and day out, may be exposed to unsafe levels of fluoride. For example, a 10-pound puppy that eats about a cup of dog food a day would consume 0.25 milligrams of fluoride per kilogram of body weight per day, an amount five times higher than the ”safe” level set by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”
EWG concluded the ingredients common to the high levels of fluoride in dog food include “chicken by-product meal”, “poultry by-product meal”, “chicken meal”, "beef and bone meal”. The EWG report mistakenly states the above ingredients are “basically ground bones, cooked with steam, dried, and mashed to make a cheap dog food filler.” This statement is incorrect. The pet food ingredient ‘chicken meal’ is NOT ‘basically cooked ground bones’. Some pet food manufacturers include muscle meat, internal organs and bones in their chicken meal, others use muscle meat ONLY in their chicken meal. (This information is being added to Petsumer Report as responses from manufacturers are received; approximately 75% of reviews provide this information.)
It is assumed from the EWG report the conclusion derived from this study is that by-products (some internal organs are defined as by-products) and bone meals are the source of high fluoride levels in dog foods. Although cat foods were not studied by EWG, it is as well assumed cats are subject to the same risks of high fluoride levels in some cat foods. Dog food and cat food ingredients that could contain high levels of fluoride (based on EWG’s findings) are: chicken by-product meal, poultry by-product meal, meat meal, meat and bone meal, animal digest, chicken meal (when manufacturer includes bones and/or internal organs in chicken meal).
To limit your pet’s risk to excessive amounts of fluoride, avoid pet foods that contain the above mentioned ingredients. Again, please note, the ingredient chicken meal should only be a risk ingredient (per the EWG report) if the ingredient contains bones and/or internal organs. If you have any doubt if the pet food ingredient chicken meal used in your pet’s food contains bones and/or internal organs, call or email the manufacturer.
As well, fluoride water filters are available. However, they are pricey and your search needs to be specific to filter fluoride from the water. As example, a Brita water filter does NOT filter fluoride.
To read the full EWG report, visit http://www.ewg.org/book/export/html/27364.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Truth about Pet Food
Petsumer Report
www.TruthaboutPetFood.com
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That leads me to believe that the EWG statement is possibly more correct than you have given them credit for.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf0106300
http://www.fluoridealert.org/f-sources.htm
"MECHANICALLY DEBONED CHICKEN
"[F]oods made with mechanically separated chicken have the potential to be a major contributor to total fluoride intake... Fluoride contributed by foods made with mechanically separated chicken could increase the risk of mild dental fluorosis for children less than eight years of age when combined with other sources of fluoride exposure." - Fein NJ, Cerklewski FL. (2001). Fluoride content of foods made with mechanically separated chicken. Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry 49(9):4284-6.
"[W]e found that infant foods containing chicken were high in fluoride. Thus, any infants who regularly eat more than a couple of ounces of infant foods containing high-fluoride-content chicken would be at elevated fluorosis risk." - Heilman JR, et al. (1997). Fluoride concentrations of infant foods. Journal of the American Dental Association 128(7):857-63."
http://www.lime.com/magazines?uri=commongroundmag....
"Yet other research, a 2001 study by Oregon State University, showed that foods made with mechanically separated chicken contribute to fluoride intake, reporting that infant foods had the highest amounts of fluoride, followed by packaged chicken sticks, luncheon and canned meats. The study’s authors concluded “a single serving of chicken sticks alone provides roughly half of a child’s upper limit of safety for fluoride.” This is because fluoride gets stored in animals’ bones and teeth, and some industrial deboning methods can leave residual pieces of both in the food. "
There is also a pdf study from the Department of Nutrition and Food Management at Oregon State University that examined fluoride content of foods made with mechanically separated chicken and turkey.
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
One should be very cautious about pet foods and nutrient. Specially in the case when these are not natural. As for human, they can tell what they are feeling and a doc can diagnose then easily. But in the case of pets in becomes more complicated.
After reading EWG's study on fluoride in pet foods, I began to email various manufacturers. I started with Natura which responded by sending me the manufacturers response: nothing to wrry about bone meal is good and meat meals are high protein, it took me many many emails to find out if their chicken or lamb meals contain bone, they evaded and gave me PR, finally admitted their meat meals "may or may not have bone meal" and if they do contain bone meals they of course had no idea how much. I am no longer feeding my dog Evo. These are the dog foods that probably do not have high fluoride levels: Nature's Logic (they tested beef and chicken, beef tested 110ppm fl. and chicken below 50ppm, Halo Pet Foods do not use meat meals but do it all with mostly eggs and pea meals, Newman's Organic meat meals have no bones or organs,,Nulo Pet Foods likewise. This is as far as I have gotten. O also I emailed Solgar for a breakdown of their Bone Meal for fluoride content, they do not test for it. If anyone else has done any emailing or calling, please post. We need to know!
An amendment: I have just reread the original study by EWG, Environmental Working Group. 50ppm and 110ppm fluoride for Nature's Logic's chicken and beef kibble is too high for fluoride, so they are not safe. I am having an email conversation with them about that. I had bought their lamb meal but that has not been tested at all, so I am returning it. I am doing homecooking for Toby.