What are Artificial Flavors?

Most commercial pet food brands spray their pet foods with a combination of liver, fats and sugar to encourage the pet to eat the food. These artificial additives and flavor enhancers (which are produced by the enzymatic liquefaction or hydrolysis of animal tissue) add little more than a greasy feel and texture to the food and an artificial taste sensation for your pets that's generally lacking in terms of nutrients and efficient digestibility.

These pet food companies also typically prepare their foods by steaming it as quickly as possible (usually less than 3 minutes), followed by extruding it under extreme pressure through a metal die to expand the food with air in order to create a uniform shape. The steam extruded food is frequently almost "raw" and requires the addition of what many pet nutritionists contend are harmful chemical preservatives such as Ethoxyquin, BHA, and BHT in order to maintain a reasonable product shelf life. These chemical products may be associated with dry skin, allergic reactions, dental disease, poor health, and degerenative organ dysfunction.

The Flint River Ranch oven baking process, in contrast, involves "twice-baking" for uniformity of product before being broken into bite-size pieces. This process takes more time and is more expensive, but the good taste (palatability) and smell of the food and beneficial digestibility are baked-in, not sprayed on. The oven baking process also converts potentially harmful and hard-to-digest starches into easily digested dextrins that can be readily absorbed into your pet's body.

The secret to good nutrition is not just in the quantity of nutrients present in a food, but also in how available they are and how efficiently they can be utilized when digested. The wholesome, healthy value of Flint River Ranch is baked-in to the food.

You can pick up a handful of Flint River Ranch premium oven baked pet food and breathe in the full, rich aroma. And when you run it between your fingers there's no greasy film left on your hands or undesirable smell.

While Flint River Ranch could significantly reduce costs by using the steam extrusion process typical of most pet food manufacturers, the sprayed-on artificial flavors, chemical preservatives, and steam cooking in the extrusion process do not produce the premium quality standards Flint River has set for itself.

The Flint River baking process has been used for oven baking pet food for more than 30 years. For each batch of pet food baked, the temperature is monitored and regulated every ten minutes with a computer printout for control and regulatory agency reporting. The food is always within optimal standards or it is destroyed.

FAQs: Pet Nutrition and Pet Food Ingredients