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(More customer reviews)While several reviewers have alluded to the healthfulness of this product, I think that we owe it to our beloved pets to pay closer attention and educate ourselves about the actual ingredients.
The overall appearance gives an allure of wholesomeness to this product, but an item listed in the ingredients is actually controversial with regards to our pets' health. (And if you're considering this food good enough for your own consumption, please note that the ingredient is also potentially toxic to human organs).
Here's the list of ingredients, from the manufacturer's website:
Fish broth
Tuna fillets
Yellow fin whole loin tuna/red snapper/shrimp/sole
Soy bean oil
Trialcium phosphate
Guar gum
Calcium sulfate
Carrageenan
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamin E supplement
Vitamin A supplement
Vitamin D3 supplement
Zinc Sulfate
Thiamine Mononitrate
Manganese sulfate
Menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity)
Riboflavin supplement
Folic acid
Pyridoxine hydrochloride
Copper amino acid complex
Iron amino acid complex
First of all, it's great that the manufacturer has whole seafood as the major ingredients (as opposed to the by-products, meal, grains, etc). But there is one item which I would not have expected to find in something of this quality: Menadione sodium bisuifite complex.
Menadione is a synthetic precursor for the K vitamins and has been reported, at high doses, to have toxic effects. Moreover, I had actually never seen menadione listed as an ingredient in other cat foods (though there seem to be others out there).
A little bit of Internet sleuthing yielded some disturbing information, which I feel obliged to list here.
*Menadione is banned by the Food & Drug Administration in over-the-counter supplements due to its potential for organ toxicity. It's also banned in Europe for human consumption.
*There are safer alternatives to menadione for proper K vitamin-related functions (e.g. blood clotting). The use of menadione over the alternatives (leafy greens, kelp) is only for cost-saving reasons, hence usually only found in cheaper and lower quality animal food.
*A study in rats showed that exposure to menadione "produced lesions in the kidney, heart, liver and lung." Chiou et al. Toxicology 1997.
*Menadione's toxicity seems to be due to its ability to induce oxidative stress in cells.
There seems to be a pet food watchdog trying to stop the inclusion of menadione in pet food: [...]
Does this information mean that this food is bad for our cats, when normal doses are given? I don't know for sure, but I wish that I'd been more aware about this ingredient before feeding it to my cats. Admittedly, more research needs to be done regarding this subject. In light of recent episodes of toxic pet food and the questionable behaviors of manufacturers and our regulatory agencies, I'm erring on the side of caution on this one.
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