my view on
With animal nutrition, the animal lover is somewhat fooled. In the commercial you get to see steaks but in real life the animals eat heads, hooves and toes. In addition, it has rained scandals in the animal feed industry in recent years. Jörg Zipprick wrote an interesting book ?? De Supermarktleugen ??. In it he explains how supermarkets and the suppliers of products portray to people a slightly too rosy picture of reality in all kinds of ways, for example about animal nutrition.
Content:
- Jörg Zipprick’s vision
- Beware, article contains shocking content!
- Pets often get sick from pet food
- Animal feed
- Are there any animal feed companies?
- Give your dog hooves and toes
- Meat chunks press
- Steak in the photo, offal in the can
- Hunger stimulators
- Animal welfare diseases
- Series of ‘incidents’
- Kidney problems from cat food
- Animal experiments
- Acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance in all animal foods
- Alternatives
Jörg Zipprick’s vision
Manufacturers are not open about animal feed production. Few have researched animal feed production. Jörg Zipprick is one of these few. His findings may not agree with other people’s views on animal nutrition.
Beware, article contains shocking content!
The content of this article may be shocking to animal lovers. It is therefore appropriate to explain the content of this article. It contains matters that are not generally known. For example, in 2014 the TV program ‘De Keuringsdienst van Waarde’ was unable to find out how an animal feed factory composes the content of its animal feed cans; they honestly admitted that the factories did not want to cooperate in their investigation. The writer Jörg Zipprick is an investigative journalist who has successfully researched the uses in the food and animal nutrition industry. In his book ‘The supermarket lie’ he does not so much proclaim his own opinion but observations, which can partly be described as ‘subjective’.
Pets often get sick from pet food
This website contains an overview of scientific articles that describe how pets such as dogs and cats become ill from animal feed. The list of harmful additives is very long and even incomplete. The website invites you to look at words like “Complete and Balanced Animal Nutrition” in light that shed light on the fact that more and more pets are getting obesity and diabetes. Dr. Mercola has also written an interesting article on animal nutrition. In particular, he says there are all kinds of unwanted by-products in the animal feed cans such as feathers, cockscombs, beaks, chicken feet and wattles. In addition, Mercola points out that corn flour is often used, which is a product that causes many allergic reactions. Moreover, there is white rice in pet food, which is not very healthy for our four-legged friends.
Animal nutrition
The advertisements of animal nutrition are aimed at the people who have to buy this for their animals. Juicy cuts of meat accompanied by a sprig of parsley light up the picture, but these ingredients are not in the cans of dog and cat food. There is a discrepancy between the image presented by the advertising and the final product that animals are presented with.
Are there any animal feed companies?
First of all, it is important to realize that there are few companies that specialize in animal nutrition. There are almost no companies that focus exclusively on dog food. Procter & Gamble is a competitor to Unilever in detergents, but it just as easily sells the animal feed brand Eukanuba. You may know Nestlé from all kinds of chocolate and coffee products, but this originally Swiss company also markets the animal nutrition brands Purina, Beneful and ProPlan. In addition to Mars bars, Masterfoods also markets Royal Canin animal feeds and you can go on and on.
Give your dog hooves and toes
The pet food ‘kibble’ for dogs and cats does not contain meat but meat waste in the form of skin, udder, head, hooves, eyes, lungs and toes. These animal parts are generally not eaten by humans. This animal offal is mixed with poultry waste meal, animal fat and corn starch. To this is added a protein isolate, hydrolyzed animal protein, fish oil and soy flour. The whole is processed into a paste, after which it ends up in an extruder. Contrary to health experts claim, fish oil is an unhealthy waste product. An extruder is a device that can operate at high temperatures and can press a slurry under high temperatures into all kinds of shapes. These molds are dried and so-called chunks have been created that are considered suitable as food for animals.
Meat chunks press
A different extruder is used to manufacture ‘wet meat chunks’. A mixture of meat waste is used about which animal feed manufacturers do not provide clarity. People often suspect that dead dogs are used to make dog meat. Only an employee of a feed company can tell if that is true, as the management of these companies does not answer questions from journalists. In any case, the meat mixture is cooked and canned during the cooking process. The yarn often happens in the can. This food contains too few nutrients for the animals and therefore synthetic vitamins, minerals and amino acids are used.
Steak in the photo, offal in the can
In itself, the use of offal is not that bad, were it not that the advertisement gives a different picture; pieces of fresh meat are shown. This creates an illusion. That has a purpose; offal is super cheap and meat is a bit more expensive. As a result, a can of animal feed can be sold with a relatively high profit margin.
Hunger stimulators
Animals don’t just eat anything. They normally have a fine sense of what is edible and what is not. To give an example, the vast majority of animals will not eat a product that has been in a microwave because they feel it is unhealthy. But they love to eat canned food. Then it must be good, you would say. Unfortunately, the feed manufacturers are outsmarting the animals. They impart flavors to the products that stimulate the appetite of dogs and cats. An appetite stimulant is, for example, trisodium pyrophosphate. There are companies, such as the company Diana, that specialize in developing synthetic substances that stimulate the taste experience and the feeling of hunger. Their clients are restaurants, animal feed manufacturers and the food industry. Companies like these enable humans and animals to gulp down the nutrient-poor meat pulp as if it were a culinary masterpiece.
Animal welfare diseases
From the end of the 20th century, the animals get sick a lot more often than before. They develop diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, kidney problems. In fact, the animals get the same diseases as humans. No need for the man! The Purina and Royal Canin brands have developed special nutrition for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. There is even animal food that is aimed at weight loss. Nobody is talking about the fact that the animals get sick from the original canned food and dry chunks. People only euphorically say that the companies nowadays can do so much and are scientifically sound.
Series of ‘incidents’
But if companies can and invest so much in scientific research, why should animal feed be increasingly withdrawn from the market? On a global scale, scandals follow each other in rapid succession. Obviously, the industry is rushing to say that each case was a tragic incident. is. This denies the problems on a structural scale in the animal feed industry. Royal Canin was withdrawn from the market in 2006 due to an overdose of vitamin D. In 2007, Royal Canin and Eukanuba were withdrawn from the US market due to excessive melamine content. In 2007, a Purina product was also withdrawn from the market. This way, product recalls continue endlessly. Those who want to read more about this can consult the PDF in the sources. Substances that have been frequently found in animal feed in recent years are:
- Melamine, a substance that affects the kidneys
- Mycotoxins are fungi that cause inflammation
- Carcinogens, carcinogens
- Salmonella, potentially deadly bacteria
Kidney problems from cat food
Then there are the specialists who say that the wet canned food is not good for cats anyway because many cats get kidney problems from it. In addition, the hunger stimulants have a disastrous effect on a cat. Many cat lovers today are amazed why their cat wants to eat so much. Even if they just finished a portion, they want one again. This is due to the hunger stimulators in animal feed. There are also a relatively large number of animals that nowadays have allergies and intestinal problems such as vomiting and diarrhea. Bowel infections are also increasingly common. Everything indicates that animal nutrition has evolved into a very unhealthy product for animals at the beginning of the 21st century.
Animal experiments
Jörg Zipprick brings to light an interesting issue in his book. In our time, all kinds of animal testing is prohibited on cosmetics. But animal testing is still going on to test animal eating. For example, cats are fed dog food that is not good for them; it makes them blind. The testing of animal feed on animals that can lead to disease is an ethically questionable issue, not least because it allows manufacturers to see how far they can go in synthesizing food, using offal and causing disease to at a later stage in animal life, the animals can switch to more expensive weight loss food or anti-diabetic food.
Acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance in all animal foods
Acrylamide in human food is strictly controlled. All animal feed contains acrylamide and its presence is much less controlled there. This substance is created by the heating process. The bad thing about acylamide is that it can cause cancer. The fact that animal feed manufacturers heat their product twice increases the risk of an excessive presence of acrylamide. Those who want to read more about acrylamide can go here.
Alternatives
There are alternatives for animal lovers. You can get tripe from the butcher. With current prices, getting fresh food is hardly more expensive. In addition, many animals simply eat potatoes, some vegetables and brown rice. Dogs can even eat a brown, organic sandwich, if only taught. Mix an old organic sandwich with warm water, you can add some dog food and the dog likes to eat it. There are even people who successfully feed their dogs and cats completely vegetarian food. In principle, your pet does not need canned food and animal food. You could also combine canned and bagged dry food with healthy foods left over from a family meal such as potatoes, brown rice, fresh vegetables and organic bread.