Innova EVO Cooking process

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Saje

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The topic of Innove EVO's cooking process has come up several times to I wrote them and got some information about it. Here's the reply I got:

Thank you for contacting us about our products.* Natura uses a slow, low temperature extrusion process which is carefully controlled to ensure thorough cooking and optimal nutritional availability and digestibility of the ingredients.* The ingredients are mixed and then cooked in an extruder and forced through a die to form the shape of the kibble.

Water-soluble vitamins are affected by heat, and are formulated in compensatory levels.* This means we add in more because we know what will be lost during the cooking process.* Probiotics*are heat sensitive*and are added after the cooking process.

What makes the Innova EVO different is that it does not contain any grains, which makes it low in carbohydrate and higher in fat and protein.

Here is an excerpt from*a letter our Vice President, co-founder, and nutritionist Peter Atkins*wrote that might help to further define the Innova EVO formula for you:

"...if you are looking for an ultra high performance food, a more convenient or reasonable substitute for a raw food diet, or if you have interest in approaching nutrition from a high-protein low-carbohydrate angle, then we would urge you to consider EVO.

We are the first to admit that EVO is not for every situation. Likewise, the conventional wisdom, of which your veterinarian's recommendations are in direct alignment, would suggest a much lower protein diet is better. Conventional wisdom would also recommend a low fat diet to avoid obesity.

However, if we look at a conventional pet food label with 25% protein, 12% fat, the moisture will likely claim 10%, crude fiber about 4% and we can assume ash (minerals) of about 6%. Then by difference the carbohydrate fraction can be estimated to be approximately 43%. Most often these carbohydrates are grains. Now, we don't suggest that any grain is inherently bad. But, it is often alarming when we actually understand just how much grain can be found in a conventional diet.

Critical to understanding EVO's philosophical challenge to conventional nutritional recommendations, one must realize that there are no established nutritional requirements for carbohydrate!

Traditionally grains have been an inexpensive way to dilute the nutrient density to more closely align with the minimum requirements. For conventional thinkers this is still a good strategy today.

More recently nutritionists have begun to question the conventional wisdom of providing compounds which aren't inherently key providers of essential nutrients just to lower protein and fat to a level that barely meets requirements. In essence, EVO challenges the conventional thought of adding grain only to lower protein and fat concentrations - the grains have been removed. Thereby, the protein and fat concentrations are going to be elevated.

In long-term feeding studies, EVO has performed extremely well and no adverse conditions have been detected. Further, there have been a number of myths promulgated regarding links between protein and kidney failure, aging, and other health related issues. Repeated research studies have simply not been able to substantiate these myths: Quite the opposite. Much of this work has led us to a better understanding of the role that high quality proteins have on health, disease prevention, and even recovery."

I hope I have given enough information to adequately address your query.* If you have any further questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.

Please reference the original e-mail when responding.

Rory Tharp
Customer Service Supervisor
Natura Pet Products
1-800-532-7261
Click to expand...
 
That's quite informative. Thanks for posting it. I'm suprised that a company would put that much effort into answering an email. Most companies give the minimum response and you have to email them repeatedly to get a complete answer.
 
Oh not these guys. I've emailed them about five times. I should post the stuff on how they rescue lab animals and rehabilitate them. It's pdf though so I don't think I can post it. I can email it though.
 
I'd love to read that. I've liberated a few "used up" lab rats in my time. If you could, my email is threegreensheep (at) aol.com.
 
I decided to sticky it so it's easier to refer people who want to know more about it. Hope that works for everyone.
 
I don't like anything that Natura Makes

I have found that Natura products need to be more consistant - period! I have personally smelled a difference and the vrew have appeared not to like certain bags at different times. I think they are not all that and there are much better foods that don't go changing their formulas as the need arises either from cost of normal suppliers or whatever, but they do change without changing their labels which unfortunately is within the law as long as they don't get caught after the 6 month period that they have to change labels.

Also I don't like the fact they do NOT have anywhere on their bags that their foods are BHA, BHT and/or Ethoxyquin free. I wonder why that is? Perhaps because by law they can get away with saying their products are chemical preservative free as long as they do not add them in. However, the suppliers of their fish and fat can add them. Remember the Go! Natural issue?

Also, none of the Natura Pet Products are that digestible being an extruded foof they are no more then the mid 80's. So, why bother feeding a food that may or may not have the so-called finest ingredients if our companions cannot digest, absorb and utilize them. I have found it to be a total waste of money and my crew did NOT achieve the results that Natura claims on all their different foods from Innova to EVO.

Sorry for the long post, but I don't like the hype and propaganda these manufacturers try to sell me :mad:

www.corgilover.com/page2.html
 
dear lynn,

unlike you, i'm not trying to sell anyone a product, but i'd like to address the claims you are making, since you are spreading just the kind of "hype and propaganda" you claim to dislike.

natura products are made from only hte highest quality ingredients. yes, there have been some changes in appearance and smell recently, but that is because of a change in manufacturing equipment, not because of a change in ingredients. natura's two plants have just received the highest certification from the federal government that a food manufacturing plant can possibly receive - regardless if they produce human or pet food. on top of that, i have seen official documentation that proves their claims to ingredient quality in person, which is more than your regular run of the mill manufacturer will provide.

unlike other companies who exploit marketing gimmicks, they may not have any claims on their bags, but if you check out their website, you will see that they routinely test their ingredients and make sure they are free of contamination. i'll take that any day over some sort of bogus claim a manufacturer can't back up with hard facts.

the claim that baked foods are more digestible than extruded foods is also a marketing gimmick and by no means true. in fact, baked foods tend to cause more plaque buildup on the teeth than extruded foods due to sticking to the teeth much worse. processing temperature is also not a real issue, since baked foods are often processed at much higher temperatures than extruded foods. overall the effect of heat on the kibble "dough" is the same during baking as during extrusion - otherwise it wouldn't be able to even produce a kibble by either baking or extrusion.

now i have some questions for you to answer, and since you sell FRR that shouldn't be a problem for you:

1. why does FRR use generic "poultry fat" in most of their formulations, instead of a clearly defined fat source? what exactly is this "poultry fat" made of? do you know for sure that this generic ingredient is the same in composition and quality from batch to batch?

2. why does FRR use generic fish meal in some of its formulations, instead of a species-specific product? what exactly is this "fish meal" made of? made of? do you know for sure that this generic ingredient is the same in composition and quality from batch to batch?

3. FRR uses "fish meal" and "menhaden fish meal" in its formulations. as someone who is selling pet food, you should be aware of the fact that this kind of material is subject to very specific handling regulations:
( Code of Federal Regulations
§ 173.218 Fish meal or fish scrap.
(c) When fish scrap or fish meal is offered for transportation by vessel in bulk in freight containers, the fish meal must contain at least 100 ppm of anti-oxident (ethoxyquin) at the time of shipment.

now tell me again that you know the food you feed is definitely free of ethoxyquin and who is making bogus claims.

4. why is FRR using synthetic vitamin E in its foods when the claim is the products are "all natural"?

5. why does the manufacturer of FRR not care that its numberous distributors make all kinds of bogus claims on their websites that can't be backed up, to the point where sites put up disclaimers like "Any pricing, policies, including discounts, claims and return policies, may not necessarily be those of the Flint River Ranch Company and are only supported by the distributor who owns and operates this site"? why is there no uniform, manufacturer-controlled product literature? if you ask me, this isn't exactly trustworthy.

6. what is the average meat content present in the finished FRR products?

i have a few more that come to mind, but for now that's enough i guess.
 
Hi,

My old husky is on Innova EVO since about 2 months ago as soon as the distributor started having them in stock. Before that he was CN Lite and then Innova Senior. After trying out Innova EVO, I must say it is the best dog food I ever came across. The size of his stools is greatly reduced and the texture much solid which I assume more nutrition is being absorbed into his body.

I was also puzzled by the cooking process, and had sent an e-mail to them too. They replied on first try, tho' not that elaborate as the one sent to Saje.

My husky has always been on the heavy-weight side, even tho' I was always feeding him less than the suggested amount and because he doesn't exercise much. Now I will see if he will get slimmer on Innova EVO. If he does, then I guess the explanations given by Natura is valid.

NOW, my CONCERN is that part about high protein. My husky is at least 8 years old (he was already a full grown adult when I rescued him off the streets) and I am worried a high protein diet may not be appropriate for an old dog since the liver has to do more work?

What do all of you think?
 
good quality, easily digested protein isn't a problem for the kidneys, even in an older dog. in fact, since the metabolism slows down with age, depriving older dogs of protein in their diet (which so many "senior" and "less active" foods do) is not a smart thing to do.

poor quality, hard to digest protein (e.g. from poor quality meat meals or vegetable sources like corn and soy) are an entirely different story. :)
 
So which kind of food is better for dogs, raw or innova evo? I read 2 sides of the story and want to know what exactly good for my puppy, she is not very healthy and I am deciding on the best food I can find to make her grow up to be a healthy dog
Tks,
Wings
 
wings, let's start a new, separate thread for this. please give me some detail on the health issues your dog has. i'm sure we'll come up with a feeding plan that will work out. :)
 
Saje said:
Oh not these guys. I've emailed them about five times. I should post the stuff on how they rescue lab animals and rehabilitate them. It's pdf though so I don't think I can post it. I can email it though.
Click to expand...

Could you please send me a copy to goinggone99 at yahoo.com? I would love to read about their rescue efforts :)
 
I'm not sure i have it anymore since my old computer crashed but I'll have a look
 
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