[aimee]

Hi Mutt and Cats,

I’d consider your need to know % of protein from meat to be a feeding philosophy. We all hold philosophies that are important to us. For me I’m not so much concerned if the nutrients come from meat vs plant. I’m concerned that nutrients are available to the dog, come from well researched ingredient sources and are in the proper formulation.

FDA has IMO been very conservative and has never suggested or claimed grain free= DCM and putting my scientist hat on,that on the information just isn’t there. We do have a strong correlation between foods high in pulse ingredients and possible potato and DCM.

Personally, even way before the DCM alert I avoided OTC foods with legumes and potatoes because IMO they were not well researched ingredients. Now we have a situation in which companies whose product formulas were made with the now suspect ingredients were in a bind. We all witnessed the pet industry swiftly pivoting and the companies that vilified grain were now rushing to market grain inclusive diets. But apparently to still embrace their marketing strategy that grains like corn and wheat are detrimental to pets, marketed “ancient grains” But IMO these new products have the same fundamental problem as the original diets have, made from ingredients that have not been well researched.

Years ago, I asked a major company how their diets were formulated a what process bringing to market a new diet entailed. I was told a min. of 5 years from the concept of a new formulation to finalizing that formulation and they listed out for me all the different branches of nutritionists, food scientists, toxicologists etc they had on their formulation team. Compare that to how quickly companies flooded the market with new formulations after the FDA alert. IMO this was just jumping out of the pan into the fire.

Based on my experiences, “transparency” has become a red flag for me. I’ve found the most egregious errors, misrepresentations, outright lies and refusal to provide information from companies that shout out about how “transparent” they are.