The Risks of Animal By-Products and Ethoxyquin in Pet Food

By-products are waste matter, when we refer to animal by-products we refer to anything that is not "meat".  As such chicken by-products can include beaks, feet, and to a limited extent, feathers.  By-products can also include cancerous tumors, collars, and so forth.  As if this is not bad enough, these by-products are preserved with a chemical pesticide known as Ethoxyquin, a Monsanto product.

Ethoxyquin is not always listed on an ingredients list even when it is in a particular pet food. It is used to preserve “by-products”; it is considered to be part of the by-product and as such many pet foods are not listing Ethoxyquin on the label. Ethoxyquin may also be used to preserve animal fat, and as the manufacturer did not add the Ethoxyquin they do not have to list it; however they will be aware if it is in the fat they used or not, and as such pet foods that list ingredients as Human Grade Ingredients, will not contain Ethoxyquin.

Author's cat walking among the hens.

  What is Ethoxyquin?

Ethoxyquin is a chemical pesticide; in most countries it is not accepted to be used in human foods, in fact it is totally banned on some countries.  It has been shown to cause death in fish, and has been speculated to be linked to health problems in cats and dogs, including liver problems, and cancer.  Just what are the concerns?

In 1997 the United States Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine launched a study. The results were not published nor made public, however the study did result in a request that pet foods reduce the use of Ethoxyquin from 150 parts per million to 75 ppm. (source – Wikipedia) This is 300 times higher than the permitted residue in beef or pork to be consumed by humans. In 1956 an interview took place between Monsanto (makers of Ethoxyquin) and Dr. Lehman of the US FDA, who said if pressed he would have to rule that Ethoxyquin is “harmful and deleterious” and that no amount of retesting could convince him otherwise. This was reported in the January/February issues of Natural Pet Magazine, 1994.

The Chemical Toxicology of Commercial Products lists Ethoxyquin as a 3 on a scale of on a scale of 1 to 6, with 6 being so toxic that fewer than 7 drops would be fatal. They indicate concerns about depression, convulsions, coma, death, skin, or liver damage.

Many sites list Ethoxyquin as a carcinogen, used commonly as a rubber preservative. Wendy Volhard and Kerry Brown, DMV, state in their book “The Holistic Guide to a Healthy Dog” that the addition of Ethoxyquin in dog foods caused a rise in reported incidence of sterility, deformities in pups, periodontal disease, precancerous lesions of the liver, kidney, and bladder, as well as vaccination failure, and an increase in cataracts.

Many North American made cat and dog foods continue to use Ethoxyquin, including Hills Science Diet, Purina, Iams, Royal Canin, Nutro, and Eukanuba (and others). As a cheap preservative Ethoxyquin is usually found in the less expensive cat and dog foods.

Ethoxyquin may also be used in some livestock feeds (but is highly regulated). These animals are typically slaughtered before problems arise from continued eating of this food, but at least one concerned owner, Sibylle Faye, and her veterinarian, had concerns that her lovebird suffered problems and died from the results of eating food preserved with Ethoxyquin, as reported at the bottom of this link.

In livestock feed Ethoxyquin can be used as a grain preservative, but must not be fed for longer than two years. So why is this chemical pesticide allowed in our pets food?  Why is a dangerous chemical pesticide that is banned in human foods, restricted in livestock, allowed in cat and dog food?
  
Pet owners should always read the ingredient list, and should avoid Ethoxyquin, or anything that could potentially be preserved with Ethoxyquin (by-products in particular and animal fat). Foods should be listed as containing Human Grade Ingredients Only. Vitamin E, (Tocopherols) is a safe, but more expensive preservative used by the better quality pet food companies.