ethoxyquin in dog food

[dogsarebetter]

I have starting feeding TOTW (taste of the wild) and while doing research I have came across a few dog food forums and websites that think TOTW is the devil.

The reason being, it might have ethoxyquin in it.


From Ethoxyquin... a Dangerous Dog Food Preservative

There’s one dog food ingredient you definitely want to stay away from… a fat preservative known as ethoxyquin.
Watch Out for Ethoxyquin

Ethoxyquin is not only used as a dog food preservative but… are you ready for this… it’s also used as a pesticide… and as a hardening agent in the manufacture of rubber.

Monsanto, the company that makes the chemical insists the additive is completely safe.

Yet ethoxyquin has been “implicated in birth defects, stillborn puppies, liver failure, infertility and cancer”.1

Plus… it’s no longer legal for use in human food. Yet to this very day, ethoxyquin is still commonly found in many popular dog food brands.

The very idea any manufacturer would stubbornly choose to ignore the suspicious evidence and use ethoxyquin when there are so many other safer preservatives out there defies logic…

And it speaks volumes about a company’s ethics… don’t you agree?

Anyway, I don’t know about you, but if ethoxyquin isn’t safe for my kids, then it’s not safe for my dog either.

My recommendation… avoid any dog food that contains ethoxyquin.

It’s simply not worth the risk.

[dogsarebetter]

Here's a article. It's by Susan Thixton, "Truth about Pet Food":

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Careful pet owners closely scan the list of ingredients looking for possible health risks. Thanks to our friends at AAFCO and the FDA, risk ingredients might not be listed on your pet food label, yet it could be in your pets’ food.

Health conscious pet owners, many that have learned the hard way to be cautious of pet foods, closely scrutinize their dogs’ or cats’ food ingredient list. They have become educated to the risks of some ingredients commonly used in dog foods and cat foods. However, thanks to lax pet food regulations, additives such as chemical preservatives that are added to the bulk ingredient prior to pet food manufacturing are NOT listed on the label.

Case in point, meet the pet food, pet treat, AND pet food ingredient preservative ethoxyquin. I have a loud alarm bell that sounds off when I hear this preservative mentioned. In essence, ethoxyquin is responsible for TruthaboutPetFood.com. This chemical preservative, according to my beloved veterinarian Dr. Bruce Catlett (who knew more about pet food in 1991 than most do today), was responsible for the bone cancer of my eight year old best friend Samantha; a ‘Rotten-weiler’. Dr. Catlett shed the first light of truth to me in 1991; he explained that ethoxyquin extended the shelf life of pet foods yet it was a high risk preservative.

Although I trusted my vet completely, it was difficult for me to believe back then that the #1 pet food in the U.S. would have such a lethal chemical in it. So, I called them. I’ll never forget what I was told. The pet food company that I so completely and blindly trusted, told me the dog food had a shelf life of 25 years! That’s a dog food remaining ‘fresh’ for more than 3 times as long as my dog lived thanks to a lethal chemical.

Today, you’ll rarely see ethoxyquin listed on a pet food label. Most pet food manufacturers add natural mixed tocopherols to preserve ingredients. However, because of the likelihood of rancidity of fish meal (ground whole fish and/or fish parts), many fish meal suppliers add ethoxyquin prior to ingredient delivery at the pet food manufacturing plant. And guess what? That ethoxyquin added to the fish meal, because it wasn’t added by the pet food manufacturer, is not required to be listed within the ingredients on the label.

Many dog foods and cat foods that state ‘Natural Preservatives’ on their labels, websites, and/or advertising contain fish meal preserved with ethoxyquin; a very un-natural chemical.

Dr. Jean Hofve, DVM states “Ethoxyquin is banned from nearly all human food products (except certain spices) due to its cancer-causing properties. Most manufacturers have changed to less-controversial preservatives, such as Vitamin E (tocopherol), but ethoxyquin is still used in many "prescription" foods. Ethoxyquin is required for imported fish meal, a prominent ingredient in many pet foods, but not listed on the label; there is a natural substitute (NaturOx) but it is expensive and few companies use it.” The page you have requested does not exist on www.PetFoodStory.com t-food-additives-preservatives-contaminants.htm

The EPA states “The primary target organs affected by ethoxyquin in experimental animals are the liver and the kidneys.” http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/fac...s/0003fact.pdf

However, our good friends at AAFCO and the FDA (pun intended) strongly believe ethoxyquin is safe in animal foods. In a paper authored by David A. Dzanis published for the Animal Feed Safety Branch of the FDA: “Although used in some animal feeds since 1959, first accounts of purported adverse effects were received by FDA in 1988. Since that time, a notable number of consumer inquiries have been received. Despite the fact that ETQ (ethoxyquin) is approved for use in all animal feeds, reports of adverse reactions have been almost exclusively in dogs. Of types of dog food, the “premium” brands of dry dog foods are most often incriminated. However, no correlation of adverse effects with age, gender or breed of dog is apparent. The reported signs include liver, kidney, thyroid and reproductive dysfunction, teratogenic and carcinogenic effects, allergic reactions and a host of skin and hair abnormalities. There have been anecdotal reports that some of these conditions have resolved after replacement of the ETQ-containing diet with a diet thought to be free of ETQ. However, because of inconsistencies in labeling of pet food products containing ETQ secondary to its inclusion in other ingredients, the ETQ-free status of the replacement diets cannot be reliably established.

The original data upon which FDA approved the use of ETQ in animal feeds included a 1-year chronic toxicity study in dogs. Subsequent to the original food additive petition, a 5-year, multigenerational study in dogs was conducted by the manufacturer. The study failed to demonstrate adverse effects of ETQ at 300 ppm of food.”

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/...Suppl/S163.pdf

By the way, the FDA based it approval of ethoxyquin in animal feeds on ‘research’ conducted by Monsanto; the manufacturer of ethoxyquin.

Per Department of Homeland Security regulations, bulk fishmeal is required to be preserved at 400 ppm; ethoxyquin is provided as an example preservative. Section 148.04-9 (c) “At the time of production of the material, it must be treated with at least 400 ppm antioxidant (ethoxyquin); in the case where the material contains more than 12 percent fat by weight, it must be treated with at least 1000 ppm antioxidant (ethoxyquin) at the time of production.” Section

Thank goodness, there are many pet food manufacturers that have chosen to avoid ethoxyquin regardless of the cost. I have this past week (9/3/09) emailed requests to dozens of pet food manufacturers (every manufacturer reviewed in Petsumer Report) asking if their fish meal ingredients (fish meal, ocean fish meal, salmon meal, and so on) are preserved with ethoxyquin. If they were not, I asked to know the specific method of fish meal preservation.

[dogsarebetter]

The reason Ethoxyquin is not listed on TOTW's dog food bag is because THEY do not add it, so they do not list it. however they do not guarantee that the source they get their fish from does not use it.


****edit****
sorry guys! i just noticed there was already a couple of threads on this!

[angie8023]

I feed TOTW. I avoid feeding the salmon and feed the venison mix.

[dogsarebetter]

I am not switching foods, I will stick with TOTW. but I dont see myself feeding the salmon one either. even if there is just a tiny bit of ethoxyquin in fish meal, TOTW pacific stream has like 4 different sources that may have ethoxyquin in it
ocean fish meal, salmon, salmon meal, and smoked salmon

[Gguevara]

I posted part of an email from them in another thread about TOTW, not sure if you read it or not. Here it is;

"The preservation systems used by our vendors are considered proprietary information. The heat from our pet food process destroys antioxidants that are used in the ingredients that we purchase. The cooking process at our facilities is at or above 240 degrees. After the heat process (extrusion and drying), we apply natural tocopherols (Vitamins A & E) in order to carry the shelf life of the food. Diamond does not preserve any of its products with ethoxyquin, only with mixed tocopherols. "

The melting point of ethoxyquin is 25 °C , the boiling point is 123–125 °C. I'm pretty sure Diamond is an American company so they must use Fahrenheit right? 240 °F is 116 °C.

Besides the ethoxyquin issue I've never heard anything bad about TOTW. I've also never actually heard of somebody make any direct statement like, "my dog got cancer because of TOTW!!" etc.

Ultimately it's your decision, I personally wouldn't feed it though.
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[dogsarebetter]

yeah, i read it.
thanks though!

[Barb04]

I do agree that it's not worth risking my pets life over this food. I just bought TOTW Pacific Stream and threw it out yesterday.

EVO now makes a fish formula as well as some other companies that doesn't contain this toxin.

As someone wrote on another site, if I would't eat it myself (too many health risks), I won't give it to my pets. I agree.

Everyone can make their own decision about what they feed, but I won't feed a food when I been told something like this.