As pet owners, retailers, veterinarians and a small army of bloggers continue to categorize ingredients into good or evil, pet food manufacturers will try to meet those demands. This has begun to move toward more extremes in the current era and may create more risk for pet and owner despite the perception that it is clean and simple.
First, it is important to understand that there is a whole range of pet foods along a continuum of formats, additives and intended functions. We add many ingredients to pet foods such as vitamins and minerals to provide nutritional fortification, preservatives to maintain freshness and retard spoilage, flavors and aromas to enhance the eating experience, colors to improve the visual appeal, processing agents to improve production and consistency, and acidulants to assure food safety. The intent of the manufacturer is to produce a safe, appealing product that consumers will repeatedly purchase and their pets will routinely eat.
