Q. “WHY PICK ON RAW FOOD?”

Odds are you’ve seen the news about a pet food (or several) being recalled due to contamination with bacteria. The headline grabbing one is usually Salmonella, a bacteria known to sicken people and even cause some deaths.

And, even though kibble has been recalled regularly for salmonella, the pet food industry seems to point the “newsworthy finger” at raw pet food all too often, while kibble is rarely mentioned.

THE “PROBLEM” WITH RAW PET FOOD

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As usual, it’s “Follow the money, honey!” The kibble industry is a multi-billion dollar business, and they likely don’t look kindly at the small companies serving your animals healthy raw food.

If you’ve fed it for any length of time, though, you’ll have noticed the wondrous outcome raw balanced food brings your dogs of any age, pups included. My patients on raw diets often stop needing to see me in pretty short order. And the youngsters who start out right from the breeder on raw? I’m lucky if I see them at all! They just take off for parts Vital and never look back.

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The concern over this bacteria is genuine, though. Getting salmonella is no picnic, and symptoms can be quite severe, usually centered around horrible diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, fever/chills, and headache. That diarrhea stool can even be bloody.

This bacteria is quite prevalent in the world. One source says it’s responsible for up to half of the human bacterial infections every year. That amounts to 1.4 million salmonella infected people in a year (U.S. data), so no rarity here. Roughly 500 of those infected die each year.

As salmonella lives innocuously in the guts of several species of animals (meaning, they aren’t sick from it, but it’s there on culture tests), the commonest source of infection to others is via fecal contamination.

A fair amount of this can happen during the transformation from living animal to meat counter products for consumption. If, during slaughter, gut contents spill onto muscles (aka meat), this bacteria could find its way into homes, onto kitchen counters, fingers, and finally mouths, and set up housekeeping in your intestines.

Uncooked meat, poultry and eggs are common sources of salmonellosis, which is the condition of being infected with salmonella.

Therein lies the rub: you’re interested in the benefits of raw meat-based food for your puppy or adult dogs, and along with the benefits may come the risk of salmonella.

If the starting material meat was contaminated, or the product picked up salmonella in its processing and packaging, it could well continue its way on into your home.

SERIOUS CONCERN

ONE IDEA OF A SOLUTION

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One solution to ease consumer’s minds about possible bacteria in their raw dog food is HPP: High Pressure Pasteurization.

The process actually goes by a few different names:

High Pressure Pasteurization (HPP) Hydrostatic High Pressurization (HHP); High Hydrostatic Pressure Pasteurization (HHPP) Ultra High Pressure Processing (UHP)

The name of the game here is killing bacteria with extremely high pressure once the product has been packaged.

HIGH PRESSURE? HOW HIGH, EXACTLY?

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Well, really, really high. Here’s a little chart from a company that’ll sell your outfit a crusher for your finished raw food product. And, no brag, but they wanted to put the pressure these machines generate into perspective for you, assuming you’re shopping the competition.

So, for sake of comparison, let say we look at, oh, how you’d be crushed in the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench. If you were down there in your diving bell and it happened to spring a leak, you’d have the weight of, wait for it…

over 8 tons per square inch crushing you like a grape.

HPP? It’s More. Pressure. Yet.

Gulp.

WHY ALL THE CONCERN WITH HPP?

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Well, as you might guess, if there were any bacteria in that packaged raw food when it went into this high pressure environment, they wouldn’t make it. Their little cell walls would cave in like those of your leaky diving bell in short order. But that’s good, right? I mean, killing that salmonella helps keep us safe. Well, let me suggest the outcome of all this pressure on food, the stuff we feed our dogs to make them healthy and vital, is not wholly good. Sure, the bacteria got wiped out, but what about the meat and other valuable good things in there? How did they fare? As you might guess, the food is significantly changed from this super high pressure experience:

1. Enzymes, those lively little molecules that are present in raw food and help the consumer digest it are lost. (Enzymes are one of the reasons raw food is so good for your dog. Lose them, and she’ll have to use her own enzyme stores to break down the food.)

2. Other proteins (besides enzymes) are denatured by this much pressure. In other words, they no longer bear any resemblance to prey, the protein your dog/wolf has genetically evolved to eat over millennia. Frankenprotein, anyone?

3. The “good bacteria” that would help add to the defenses of your dog’s gut flora population are wiped out, along with the E. coli, Salmonella, and any other disease causing bad boys.

4. Reportedly flavor, texture and color are all marred in HPP processing.

Here’s a crazy finding: There are now bacteria who’ve survived this pressure, and they have reproduced and passed on that mutation, and just like we’ve had “super bugs” from the overuse of antibiotics, we now have strains of Salmonella that will not be killed by HPP. No, it’s not enough pressure to kill these elite strains of herculean bacteria. So, companies are now adding high heat and even radiation to the pasteurization process, which, as you can guess, further tortures the starting material and maybe even brings the packaging plastic chemicals into the your dog’s raw food.

WHAT WERE WE SELLING, AGAIN?

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Wait. Did these companies using this process lose perspective on what they went into business to sell? Sure sounds like cooked food now, doesn’t it? Hard to imagine it’d be any better for your dog than the glop in a can or the food like particles in the bag. And, it was so. Verily, the dogs lost their healthy edge when they ate-th from the fruits of the HPP machine.

Simple stuff, right? And, it’s so easy to forget the basics when you see shiny tech come before you, promising a better day in the battle against bacteria. The costly recalls of raw food likely sent some manufacturers fleeing the simple fixes and embracing HPP instead.

A BETTER SOLUTION

Far better than subjecting food that has amazing natural qualities to vastly unnatural amounts of pressure (and heat and irradiation) in the name of “NO Bacteria!,” is to do a few smart things in that food’s manufacturing process.

Start with human grade, high quality meats. If you’re making raw dog food, odds are the cheaper the raw meat source, the more likely you’d be to find bacterial contamination tip toeing into your finished product.

Maintain high quality hygienic standards in your facility. Bacteria has a way of getting around, so you’d want your workers to have standards like hairnets, glove changes, frequent visits to wash up stations, etc.

Keep the work spaces chilled. Less temperature = less bacterial growth.

Wipe down surfaces that get messy with a natural disinfectant that kills any stray bacteria with a very low pH. Example: grapefruit seed extract.

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A PROMISING NEW COMER: BACTERIOPHAGES

It would seem science does sometimes come up with some brilliance.

New on the scene of bacteria fighters is the use of viruses that specifically attack certain bacteria, but leave the rest of the world (including your pets and you) alone.

Ta-daaaa: Bacteriophages!

These strange sounding viruses are right out of Alien, but they are diving straight into bacterial bellies rather than the innards of humans or their animals.

For instance, there are viruses in this class that attack only Salmonella. Several species of salmonella, including the biggest disease causing ones. These bacteriophages (literally “bacteria eaters”) can be sprayed on raw foods and have been shown in tests to decrease the salmonella populations from 60 to 92%!

And, they leave the “good guy bacteria” alone, as well as the dog who’s eating that food! Pretty promising sounding, right?

No chemicals, no crazy high pressure (or heat or irradiation), no breaking of enzymes or interfering with proteins, just decreasing the species of bacteria they are selected for by big amounts!

As we’ll see in our list, these bacteria-ripping viruses have been slow to be adopted by raw food companies, for some reason. We can hope they’ll help some of these companies get off the HPP list one day soon!

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AND, THE LIST, PLEASE

In an effort to help you make wise choices on behalf of your puppy or adult dogs, my staff has gathered a list of which brands use HPP and which do not.

If you’re a savvy consumer, this will help you decide where to spend your hard earned money best. The goal is sound: buying truly raw, balanced diets, which are clearly superior to the processed “food like particles” called kibble. Or Glop in a Can.

HPP foods are not truly raw at all, I think we can all agree.

If you’re buying raw food for your dogs, make sure it really is raw and minimally processed.

United States

No HPPK9 Natural Bravo

OC Raw Primal, (poultry only)

Vital Essentials Northwest Naturals

Uses HPP

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bacteriophages as a strategy)Raw Bistro

fermentation as a strategy)

Small Batch

Real Raw

BARFWorld

Hare Today

Raw Feeding Miami

United States

Canada (Note:GO Canada!!)

Spring Meadow

Primal

Urban Carnivora

Mountain Dog Food

K9 Choice

Amore

No HPP

No HPP

Uses HPP

Uses HPP

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Buddies

Club Canine

Congo Raw

Big Country Raw

Healthy Paws

Raw Performance

Red Dog Blue Cat

Canada (Note:GO Canada!!)

No HPP Uses HPP

U.K.

No HPP Uses HPP

Nutriment

Natural Instinct

WolfTucker

Cotswold Raw

1Special thanks for the UK food list to Judith Broug of Raw Feeding Rebels!

Buying prepared raw foods is a great way to save time and not have to think much about “is this food balanced?” “Have I gotten the recipe right this time?”

Please don’t let fears of bacteria scare you away from feeding raw, as multiple thousands (millions?) of pets are eating this way to great effect on a daily basis.

Take comfort in the fact that dogs, like wolves, have a digestive system capable of eating carrion. You know, the animal that died and was left rotting in the hot sun before the wolf pack or coyote pack, hungry from lack of prey, found it?

No deaths from these billions of consumed bacteria, just like no deaths in dogs eating salmonella tainted foods. If they eat some, they’ll pass it in their stools, so handle those with care, especially if you’ve got immune compromised humans in your house. Odds are high that the dogs consuming salmonella are resistant to the sickness it can bring us humans.

Because that’s the way the canine gut rolls. Highly acidic stomach pH, lots of innate digestive enzymes to break things down, and a short digestive tract that moves the ingesta right on through, absorbs the good stuff and sends the rest out the waste chute.

Salmonella just gets digested or moves on through. It doesn’t make the average dog sick.

In conclusion, I’d suggest avoiding the HPP foods like the plague. I’ve heard stories of dogs refusing to eat them, and their humans saying the meat looks and smells funny.

Two clear standouts with promise for the rest of the raw food manufacturing pack: Darwin’s, first in bacteriophage usage, and Answers, using fermentation, an age-old method of preserving foods, akin to your dog burying that bone to dig up and eat later, after some “ripening time!”

IN CONCLUSION

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Kudos to both companies!

Finally, this raw feeding isn’t some new fad. Steve’s Real Food, the first to enter the commercial raw food market, brought their product to savvy consumers way back in 1999. They still make top shelf food and they’ve been joined in more recent years by many other manufacturers.

Now you know how to choose a good brand. Buy food that’s real food and your pups of any age will thrive and be very Vital Animals!

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1Steve’s link above is an affiliate link for a company I trust. Buying through that link brings me a 1 small commission at no additional cost to you. Beer money (except, well, I don’t drink).

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I started out in conventional veterinary practice in 1980, using all the latest drugs and surgeries. After seven years, I was inspired to begin holistic re-training and established a full time, solo, homeopathic practice, treating animals globally from Austin, Texas.

To reach more people, I began blogging and sharing the wealth of information that I gleaned from years of study and holistic practice.

Around 2010, I made the connection that my sick animal patients were often falling ill from veterinary intervention that ironically, was being done in the name of prevention. I was spending my hours and days treating one sick animal at a time, many of whom were victims of over-vaccination, toxic pest control and toxic, lifeless diets, and yet these preventable problems weren't going away, because the diseases were now often chronic and long lasting.

Today I live on 200 acres of pristine nature in the Hill Country of Central Texas and I'm inspired daily by walking the land there and swimming in natural water ways. Animals that visit my clinic often think they are just visiting a friend…and the truth is, they are.

ABOUT ME

My calling to teach became crystal clear, and Vital Animal was born. I educate animal owners how to raise wildly healthy animals in tune with timeless natural laws.

My purpose is to help you sidestep the damage of conventional “prevention” with a better way, which I call The Natural Path.

Welcome to the natural path,

Dr. Will Falconer

I'm glad you're here and I look forward to serving you and your vital, healthy animals. Make sure you stay up to date with all the latest. Like and Follow my Facebook page, FB.com/VitalAnimalPack where you will find lots of informative content along with my Facebook LIVE broadcasts where you can ask me anything about your pets.