As dog food offerings expand and evolve, you may have heard the terms "synthetics" and "fillers" in relation to dog food ingredients to be avoided. But what are they? Do you need to be concerned about these ingredients?
To fully understand, we'll start with a brief explainer of how dog food is regulated. Dog food falls under the purview of a regulatory entity called AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials). AAFCO sets standards for pet food in the US, which may be adopted state by state. AAFCO's written guidance includes standards of what is acceptable to use in dog food, as well as recommended vitamin and nutrient levels. Only dog foods which meet these levels as determined by AAFCO can use the phrase "complete and balanced" in their food's labeling. But here's the thing: AAFCO's recommendations are based off rendered and extruded foods, which are treated to extreme heat and therefore experience a significant loss in nutritional content through these processing methods. That's why dog food ingredient labels - even most fresh dog foods - look like a chemistry textbook. In order to call food "complete and balanced" companies dump a bunch of synthetic vitamins into their food (not so fun fact: vitamin toxicity in dog food from supplemental synthetic vitamins is the second leading cause of pet food recalls).
Fillers are ingredients added to bulk up foods to make them cheaper. Common fillers in dog food are plant or wood cellulose, rice and other cheap grains, corn meal, soy meal, and pea proteins. Fillers may also be animal byproducts such as feathers, beaks, and hooves. (It should be noted that the word "filler" is not defined by AAFCO, and is often used in many connotations.)
Unfortunately the use of cheap filler ingredients, as well as substandard proteins, is often found in dog food. And many dog food companies add in synthetic vitamins and "filler" ingredients - even well-known "fresh" dog food brands. So where does Frank's Fresh stand in terms of synthetics and cheap fillers? Well, we don't use them. Period. We are committed to using fresh foods to meet high nutritional standards; for example, including oysters and pumpkin seeds for zinc and magnesium, sardines for omega 3s, and eggshell or bonemeal for calcium.
Just as we have goals for our own health that are achieved largely by diet and exercise, we use those guidelines in feeding our pets. We've seen the clear benefits of creating a healthy biome and immune system by investing in real, whole, and fresh food diets - and those results can't be shortcut or mimicked by low quality ingredients.