Vitamins are vital for our beloved four-legged friends. A vitamin deficiency can therefore have serious health consequences.
Since your dog’s body cannot produce most of the vitamins themselves, they have to be absorbed through the food they eat. Ideally, they are the original nutrients of the processed ingredients, not artificially added nutrients. We at BUNCH are following exactly this approach and expressly dissociate ourselves from any added additives, including added vitamins and minerals. We use only fresh ingredients such as meat, offal, vegetables, fruits and high quality oils and herbs. Due to the gentle processing the contained natural vitamins and minerals are almost completely preserved.
Why do large brands add these ingredients and how do they do it?
In the usual industrial production of dog food they use a process called extrusion, this process is often used in food which contain flour ingredients which are then heated under high pressure. As a result, a large part of the natural vitamins and minerals are lost during the process. To compensate for this, synthetic vitamins and minerals are sprayed onto the extruded nuggets. Also to increase the taste offering in the food and to make it appealing to your dog they use tricks such as adding fat and flavour enhancers to the food, they apply this directly onto the food during the production process by spraying the food before it is extruded.
Did you know, a well known brand recently had a recall of their Wet Food Range?
In a recent case , a world wide animal feed manufacturer has withdrawn wet food lines from the market across the globe , this was immediately actioned by the food agency after several dogs sadly died due to a manufacturing issue. An excessive amount of vitamin D had been artificially added to this industrial feed, which was responsible for the death of the dogs. Excessive vitamin D concentration is so dangerous because it can lead to vascular and renal calcification's.
How can it happen that an (industrial) food contains too much vitamin D?
Because vitamins degrade over time, it is common in the industry to spray higher dosages of synthetic vitamins and minerals than indicated on the packaging to ensure that the specified nutritional value is still present at the end of the best before date. If the dosages are too high, it can quickly become dangerous for dogs.
Synthetic vitamins - even in the right dosage - are no comparable alternative to vitamins and minerals from fresh ingredients. Because artificial vitamins and minerals are often not bio available for the dog and therefore can not be sufficiently processed. This is due to the different chemical compositions. In the worst case, the synthetic vitamins and minerals can even cause disease themselves. Our BUNCH range of products therefore only contain the fleshiest ingredients such as fresh meat, fresh offal and calcium bones as well as fresh fruits, vegetables, high quality oils and herbs. Also, our food is neither extruded nor cold-pressed, but gently air-dried and freeze-dried. All our products are free from flavour enhancers, colourings and preservatives. All of our products including our natural treats, frozen raw food and our Dry RAW diets are manufactured in Germany under strict quality controls according to IFS Food agency.
Adding synthetic vitamins and minerals to pet food is only the start, did you know many other brands also state “REAL Beef Meat” when they only actually contain as little as 4% PURE Meat and the other 96% is made up from animal derivatives & by products ? By UK Law they are allowed to state the flavour of a food based on as little as 4% of the actual material used.
We will soon be digging deep into this common trick many other brands use to fool their honest customers, we will also be looking into the RAW food world and revealing some exciting news and sneaky tactics many companies are using to increase their profits while reducing the quality of food your dog is consuming. This exciting blog post is coming soon, keep following our social media pages @Bunchforpets for when this goes live.
