[jnite]

I am looking at this food….it is raw but it isn’t because it is lightly pasteurized. What are your thoughts? It has no ratings that I can find either.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi jnite –

I wouldn’t feed this food for a few reasons…

1) Supposedly this food contains nothing but meat and bone (with added vitamins and minerals). Therefore, it should have a very high protein content, moderate fat content and extremely low carbohydrate content. When I convert the guaranteed analysis to a dry matter basis I get that the min. protein is 29% and the min. fat is 26% (very very low protein for a food that is supposedly all meat). Assuming that the ash content is 8%, if I calculate the carbohydrate content (using the dry matter percentages: 100% – 29% protein – 26% fat – 8% ash) it comes up to 37%. Well there are no ingredients in the food that contain carbohydrates so there’s no way the food can be 37% carbohydrates (they actually state on their website “zero carbs”). So how can this be? How can a food with “zero carbs” be so low in protein? This leads me to believe the actual fat content is MUCH higher than the stated min. of 26% (and this is where that extra 37% of “assumed” carbohydrates is coming from). When you run into a situation like this where the fat content is so high, the company is likely using low quality fatty cuts of meat. The reason I say the missing percentages should be attributed to excess fat is because if it were coming from protein, the company would want to advertise that and would state a higher min. for the protein percentage.

2) The food contains menadione.

3) I personally wouldn’t feed a pasteurized “raw” food.

[Kelley H]

Hi, my name is Kelley and I am new to the forum. I work for CountryPet Naturals, and this post was recently brought to my attention by one of our customers. I would like to clarify some of the points mentioned above as they are not an accurate representation of our pasteurized frozen dog and cat food rolls. I see the original post has three main concerns, so I will address each of them below.

1. Our website and product packaging accurately list all ingredients that go into the food as required by the FDA. Our food contains muscle meat (including heart), offals (organs such as lung, liver and kidney), small amounts of ingredients to bind the meat together (such as pea fiber, tapioca starch, vegetable oil), and vitamins & minerals which are required by the AAFCO to ensure a complete and balanced food for dogs and cats of all life stages. The minimum meat content in any of these recipes is 92%.

The protein and fat contents vary slightly depending on the recipe, but we are required to publish the minimum levels of protein and fat that may be found in our food. As a small family-owned company, we are conservative with our minimum values, with lab testing consistently showing levels higher than we publish. If we look at the dry-matter basis of our Lamb Recipe Dog Food, for example, the protein comes out to a minimum of 38%, fat is a minimum of 34%, fiber a maximum of 3%, and ash a maximum of 16%. The remainder is known as Nitrogen Free Extract (or carbohydrates), which comes out approximately 9%. In reality, the protein and fat content is higher than what we state on the packaging, and the ash and carbohydrates are lower, but we always stay on the conservative side and have never in our history had to recall a product from the market.

2. To the best of my knowledge, our food has never contained Menadione and is certainly not an ingredient included in any of our recipes. All ingredients are posted on our website and printed on the product packaging.

3. None of our foods are raw, and we do not advertise the product as raw. However, some of our customers mistake the product for raw due to the high meat content and texture. Instead of offering a completely raw diet, our Naturally New Zealand line is pasteurized to help keep our customers’ pets and family safe. Raw meat can carry dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli, which cause food-borne illness. Again, we choose to do this to avoid recalls, the likes of which have plagued companies that do offer raw diets.

Overall, the ingredients that go into our pet food are 92%-plus sourced from human-grade animal products, and those animals are pasture-raised in New Zealand and free of hormones, antibiotics and grain diets. Our goal is to provide a safe, high-quality product that we can be proud of, and I strongly believe we have accomplished that goal with this dog and cat food. Here’s a link to product reviews posted to our website by happy pet parents.

Please let me know if there are any questions and I’ll be happy to provide answers.

Thank you,
Kelley

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by Kelley H.

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