The new food list is out.  They’ve made some changes this year and in an attempt to holds pet food companies to a higher standard, one of transparency, according to the new 2008 report.  Whole-Dog-Journal (WDJ) is asking those companies who meet their usual selection criteria, to also meet at least their minimum transparency criteria and disclose the manufacturer of their product ingredients.

Apparently a few companies chose to either not respond, or not comply with this request and were dropped from the list for 2008.  According to the 2008 report, some companies cited reasons for not disclosing the source of their ingredients were, their source is a “competitive advantage” or they didn’t want to “lose the advantage of an exclusive relationship”.   However, it appears that most companies just failed to respond to WDJ inquiry for the manufacturer information.

After a  horrendous 2007 in the pet food industry with the food recalls and pet deaths,  it puts everyone it a tough spot I suppose, but none more than our pets.  Pet food is big business.  Disclosing ingredient sources, I would imagine, is a huge thing; and for reasons I can not even imagine.  Those companies who chose not to, may very well have nothing to hide; but as a pet owner, it certainly makes it difficult for me to stand behind any product that would not be transparent in disclosing the source of it’s ingredients.   I need to know what I’m feeding my pets is safe and coming from safe sources.  It’s all about accountability.

As WDJ has stated in the past, every single good food is not listed in their annual lists.  They will tell you themselves, to read the ingredient lists yourself.  Also, if one food from a company makes their list, chances are, other varieties or foods from that same company would also - if it meets their selection criteria.  (click image to left to see selection criteria)

So does that mean the foods cut from the list this year are bad?  No, not necessarily.  It also doesn’t mean those companies are hiding anything.  You can buy a copy of the WDJ 2008 List for $10 and find out for yourself if the food  your feed is one of the 33 foods on the list, or one of the 11 foods cut from last year’s list.

If you have questions, then call the manufacturer yourself and ask them!  Reports like the WDJ are helpful, and it’s great that others do some leg-work for us, but they aren’t the “end-all” authority.  They say themselves this isn’t an exhaustive list of good foods.  So while great to use as a guide, you still need to read the label on what you’re feeding and decide for yourself if what you’ve chosen to feed your pet is a quality food.  If you have questions about the ingredients being used - call the manufacturer and ask.