Menhaden Fish Meal

[adora's mom]

I've just read some things about menhaden fish meal containing ethoxyquin.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

My thought was..."Oh crap. I've been giving my dogs poison."

I feed them Candiae, a high quality food that they do very well on. But it contains menhaden fish meal. I don't want to switch unless I find out that this is bad for them...

It's always something!!

[franp]

Where did you read about this?Can you trust the source of the information?

If it is true, then you really need to rethink what you are feeding.Ethoxyquin IS afterall a known carcinogen

[gmacleod]

Weeeelll, it isn't just Menhaden fish meal, it is any form of fish in dog food (in the US, anyway - things could differ elsewhere).

The reason being that dog food manufacturers are required to list anything they put into a dog food. But they are not required to list anything added to the ingredinets before they receive them. So that means that if ethoxyquin, or anything else, is added to a dog food ingredient before it is delivered to the manufacturer, then it is not required to be listed on the label. And when it comes to chemical preservatives, you can bet that it won't be listed on the label unless it has to be ;)

Anyway, fishmeal/scrap/pellet is treated with ethoxyquin (actually right out there on the boat - and it is US coastguard law requiring it) and before the dog food manufacturer receives it. As such, the manufacturer is NOT required to list ethoxyquin in the ingredient list, and in fact may not even know whether or not it is present.

Technically the same could be apply to any other ingredient in dog food - it just happens that it is most common with fish.