Does your food contain legumes and/or potato? Better yet – would your food fall into the BEG (boutique, exotic, or grain-free) category? For many of our manufacturers, the first answer may be yes, but for all, a resounding yes to the second question.
The FDA, with advice from the American College of Veterinary Nutritionists (ACVN), is evaluating not only the mainstream grain-free diets directly linked to DCM in Golden Retrievers, but ALL BEG diets for ANY nutritional deficiencies. (You can listen to the webinar here: https://www.petfoodindustry.com/webinars) As mentioned in the webinar, there are three animal groups concerning the FDA: Golden retrievers and other breeds developing taurine-related DCM, typical breed DCM (the Boxers, Dobermans, Irish Wolfhounds, Newfoundlands, Portuguese Water Dogs, etc who are genetically predisposed), and third, and most concerning, any dog with any diet-related nutritional deficiency. Many of these new dog cases are NOT taurine deficient but improve with taurine supplementation. This issue is not just a grain-free or taurine issue.
What this could mean: another opportunity regulators, with help from the ACVN, will work to maneuver real pet food out of the marketplace. The last thing we want to see is a unilateral decision affecting ALL grain-free diets (this includes raw diets) and/or all BEG diets (which is every single one of our members and future members) without full information about real food ingredients and pet health.
Therefore, Next Gen PFMA highly encourages ALL manufacturers of real food to work with this association to provide pertinent information to the regulatory authorities. As your voice in regulatory affairs, Next Gen PFMA has direct access to “those in the know.”
Because our manufacturers use real food ingredients and do not over-handle said ingredients, we know the food contains more than enough taurine; the concern is regulators will make a blanket decision that all companies will have to adhere to, reducing the quality and increasing the cost of your product.
We need to proactively provide the necessary data to the regulators to help them make the most informed decision to help pets, while not haphazardly effecting foods that don’t need to be altered.
Looking for more guidance? Contact Next Gen PFMA today (support@ngpfma.org)! Together we (manufacturers of real pet food and Next Gen PFMA) can help protect real pet food from partially informed, biased regulation regarding nutrient profiles in real pet food.
Who’s concerned about DCM?
