Health considerations
Brendan Clarke, a former president of the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society (RFVS) and advisor to Bella & Duke, a raw pet food company with headquarters in Scotland, claims that as people become more concerned with their own health, they are turning away from highly processed foods, ready meals, and fast-food chains. Instead of merely eating a prepared meal with added sugars, salt, and other ingredients, they need to understand what is on their plate. The same holds true for their dogs.
According to Clarke, although official statistics place raw food at roughly 10% of the market, that figure is likely an underestimate since it excludes customers who buy raw meat from their neighborhood butcher for their dogs. According to a poll by the American Pet Products Association (APPA), just 3% of dog owners and 4% of cat owners in the US report buying raw pet food.
The CEO of Bella & Duke, Mark Scott, experimented with his diet as a biohacker and was shocked by the lack of interest doctors showed in human nutrition. In the same period, Scott and his friend and business partner Tony Ottley's three family pets all had cancer before the age of 10.
If you examine the components, you can see why so many domestic animals, especially cats and dogs, suffer from chronic ailments like cancer, dental decay, and obesity, he claims. We've been feeding cats and dogs with highly processed food, he argues.
In 2016, Scott and Ottley, a food production specialist, founded Bella & Duke. Scott reports that since then, dogs with issues ranging from skin complaints to pancreatitis have shown significant improvements.
But what precisely is raw pet food?
Uncooked components from livestock or wild animals, such as meat, offal, and bone, as well as fruit, vegetables, oils, nuts, and seeds, are included in raw meat-based diets, also referred to as "Biologically Appropriate Raw Food" (or the unfortunate acronym BARF), with dietary supplementation for essential vitamins and minerals advised.
While some veterinarians caution that pets may lose out on nutrients, supporters claim that the industry is not a passing trend. According to Tony Ottley, raw is natural and it is what animals have been eating for millennia. Dogs have always eaten raw food; their diet did not alter until the 20th century.
According to an academic study from 2019, dogs prefer meals with nutritional profiles similar to the "wild wolf diet," therefore manufactured diets heavy in carbs and chemicals and low in protein are causing metabolic issues.
Although she accepts a sustainability argument in favor of balanced diets, nutritionist Marieke Post of Kiezebrink, a pet food manufacturer located in the Netherlands, claims that becoming completely vegan is quite far from what the digestive system of dogs and cats is intended for."
Safety concerns
Although the raw food industry in Europe is reporting significant demand, it is difficult to communicate quality and safety to customers, especially as more companies enter the market. Raw meats may spread dangerous diseases like salmonella and campylobacter that can injure pets, owners, and families if not handled correctly and without any defrosting occurring in the supply chain.
Bella & Duke's production procedures and equipment are all built to keep meat frozen throughout, and they guarantee that all of their meats are frozen within 72 hours of slaughter. Other businesses, though, are not as careful.
According to Bojan Zebi, head of sales at the raw pet food firm Von Barf, high-quality raw food producers in Croatia are fighting against what they refer to as "garage BARF," which is made unofficially by vendors who are not registered with the Ministry of Agriculture.
Zebi explains, "We can’t compete on price because we have professional packaging, we have to take care of all the legal work and the production methods and checking."
The Croatian Ministry of Agriculture facilities are routinely inspected. Zebi continues, if one batch isn't excellent, you could have to burn one ton of stuff. The first profit for Von Barf didn't come for another six years.
Regulation
Raw startups are pushing for accreditation and certification systems to boost standards.
Concerned about the rise of subpar businesses, Bella & Duke asked the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society (RFVS) to create an audit based on optimal methods for producing human food. The accreditation, known as RawSAFE, is now in use with two businesses, Paleo Ridge and Bella & Duke, already certified and another 25 businesses being evaluated.
RawSAFE, which took over two years to finalize, is akin to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and FSSC 22000 food safety certifications used in the human food industry. It calls for cold chain documentation throughout the supply chain, the use of meat from respectable abattoirs, and an isolated manufacturing environment.
In place of chlorination, RawSAFE is now researching other hygienic practices, such probiotic washes. It's not a fixed norm that we establish and declare to be "it," according to Clarke. According to Tony Ottley at Bella & Duke, the goal is for the RawSAFE accreditation to develop over the next few years into something comparable to human food accreditation, with requirements of A star, AA star, and AAA star.
It is still to be seen if regional and national norms will change or if a pan-European strategy will start to emerge. The Dutch government's attempts to promote RawSAFE, according to Marieke Post at Kiezebrink, have stalled because of diverse enterprises' levels of cooperation.
Certifications may be essential for establishing a company's credibility with customers. Consumers don't recognize the difference between brands, so if businesses don't take safety seriously, Post, whose company operates in the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, Germany, and France, warns that may be disastrous.
Consumers need comfort that buying from a respectable manufacturer rather than a business that is running out of their garage is safe to serve to their dogs, says Will Green, director of sales and marketing at Paleo Ridge. It's crucial to establish a standard by which you can vouch for the food's safety and nutritional value.
Many brands of raw and softly cooked pet food are smaller, venture-backed, or privately-owned, according to a survey by Lincoln International. Many of these businesses were started in garages or as startups. Regulation will be what distinguishes firms, according to Green.
