01/01/2025
I haven’t seen the topic come up here, but just in case there are any dog owners concerned, I wanted to share this post from a very reputable veterinarian Odette Suter DVM and a very reputable dog food maker i’ve known of for years — through various outbreaks, whether based in fact or fallacy. The essence is — respectable companies have a safety protocol that they develop, follow and improve upon to manage any outbreaks in the food supply or their manufacturing, whether they are bona fide or rumour based claims. They are as serious about their business and the health of their customers as you are about yours.
If you don’t trust your pet food maker, find one you do. Then you can avoid panic every time there’s a slow news day.
To say that "avian influenza is on the rise" or to assume that avian influenza is a new and scary disease is irresponsible at best. Quite simply, the reason that we are seeing it come up now and haven't in previous years to the degree that we are seeing now is because it is being tested for by FDA now, where before it was handled by USDA and poultry growers. To speak as though we all need to button up our standards now fully assumes that the standards of raw pet food manufacturers are where the problem stems from. We say constantly that one cannot get healthy food from sick animals - what you get from sick animals is sick food. Solutions Pet Products has been defending our foods and consumers from viruses, pathogens, contaminants, etc ever since we ran our very first production batch.
SOURCING: Like most things regarding health, sourcing is of utmost importance regarding, not just AI, but all viruses and pathogens. Starting from a base of healthy birds, who are not exposed to contaminated birds, eliminates the risk completely before the birds even get to our facility. Clean sourcing that encourages a robust immune system is one of the main benefits of regenerative farming.
FERMENTATION: Besides the incredibly effective food safety step of keeping our foods and raw materials frozen throughout the entire manufacturing process (none of our ingredients ever thaw until the consumer thaws them out at home), fermentation has been shown to effectively neutralize viruses and pathogens through “competitive inhibition”. The strength of our food is in its potent probiotic culture that deactivates harmful entities, including viruses.
EXCLUSIVITY: It is no surprise that factory farmed animals are diseased and are creating a culture of disease. That is why we chose to come out of the gate with the cleanest possible sourcing and the highest quality manufacturing standard - we saw this coming. Our food isn’t co-packed and our ingredients are stored in our own private cold storage facility. Nothing that we haven’t vetted comes in contact with our food at any stage in the process.
HANDLING: It seems as though the FDA warnings regarding avian influenza in raw food are based, if we assume honorable intent, on an abundance of caution rather than on any determinable data. To date, there have not been any robust or scientifically valid studies showing that animals can contract AI from eating raw meat that has been properly handled - instances studied involve either direct contact with contaminated birds or improperly handled raw meat. It is easy to lose perspective - if a pet gets sick or dies, we rush to blame something tangible, often food, before considering other factors, such as how that food was handled, the environment that it was kept in or served in, and how the affected pet lived or was treated aside from their diet.
People can throw around their fancy words like "biosecurity" all they like, speaking as though it is a new concept. At the end of the day, we are not going to change anything that we are doing, because we have been doing what is needed to be done to create safe, clean food from the very beginning. Solutions for pets and solutions for the planet are one in the same.
We are, as we always have been, committed to clean, raw, earth honoring foods. As we usher in a New Year, that conviction remains stronger than ever. Thank you all for your support and your passion and we are excited to move forward in consistency and health ❤️
