The Clear Label Venture just lately revealed a testing outcomes undertaking titled “Heavy Metals Found in Up to 99% of Cat Food Products Tested Across 62 Brands.” The graphic beneath reveals what the Clear Label Venture examined for and what their outcomes evidenced.
From the Clear Label Venture abstract:
- “In our testing, lead was detected in 99% of merchandise, cadmium in 96%, and arsenic in 94%. Lead ranges are increased in dry meals. Dry meals carried roughly 3x the lead of moist or air-dried meals.”
- “On the subject of mercury, fish-based cat meals had a lot increased ranges. Cadmium additionally seems to be in increased concentrations in fish-based diets, at about 2.5x different merchandise.
- Herbicide ranges had been immediately associated to the quantity of plant components in a product. On common, glyphosate ranges elevated by about 40% for every further plant ingredient among the many first ten listed on the label.”
- “DEHP, a phthalate linked to hormone disruption, was detected in 48 of 100 merchandise — greater than something besides the heavy metals. It turns up at comparable charges in each kind of cat meals—moist, dry, canned, and pouched—however canned and pouched merchandise carry about 5 instances as a lot.”
Earlier this yr (February 2026), the Clear Label Venture revealed outcomes on pet food; “Extremely High Levels of Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, and Cadmium Found in Dry Dog Food.” On this testing, Clear Label Venture in contrast outcomes to human meals testing outcomes and located that contemporary/frozen canine meals examined remarkably higher than dry meals. From their pet food testing outcomes:
In 2009 and once more in 2019 SPEX CertiPrep tested pet foods for heavy metals. Briefly, their findings:
- “In 2009, there have been vital quantities of metals discovered within the pet meals, with 215 ppm aluminum and over 1 ppm of a number of doubtlessly poisonous metals, together with chromium (2.5 ppm), nickel (3.2 ppm), lead (6 ppm), and tin (9.4 ppm). There was 0.5 to 1 ppm of antimony and cobalt. Some meals had correlations of ppm ranges of nickel and tin displaying massive quantities of potential put on steel contamination from the manufacturing gear. There was even uranium detected in a number of samples as much as 1 ppm.”
- ““The samples from 2019 nonetheless confirmed heavy steel contamination, together with twice the quantity of uranium (1.7 ppm), and 3 times the quantity of arsenic (0.7 ppm). Lead ranges had been considerably decrease general within the 2019 samples with a most of 0.5 ppm.”
In 2021 the University of Nevada Reno revealed heavy steel pet meals testing outcomes discovered “concentrations of mercury which can be excessive for persistent consumption” and carried out DNA evaluation on pet meals discovering “Each pattern we checked out had some inaccuracy, based mostly on our outcomes, some extra egregious than others. As for the DNA outcomes, generically talking, we discovered that lots of the pet meals merchandise had been comprised of low-value components, equivalent to rooster, and that merchandise claiming to be created from high-value components, equivalent to fish and novelty proteins, sometimes contained extra low-value components than high-value components.”
The above are only a small snippet of research beforehand carried out on pet meals over the previous years. On the subject of heavy steel contamination in pet meals, the FDA states:
“Whereas the FDA CVM has not promulgated steerage, motion ranges, or tolerances for heavy steel ranges in animal meals, the FDA has—and makes use of—the authority to take motion on a case-by-case foundation the place a selected animal meals is discovered by routine or focused testing to be adulterated. That is completed by making an allowance for info supplied within the Nationwide Analysis Council of the Nationwide Academies Mineral Tolerance of Animals e-book (NRC) in addition to info supplied within the Affiliation of American Feed Management Officers Official Publication (AAFCO OP).“
Translated into non-legalese (comprehensible) language…
- The FDA has NOT established any most allowed ranges for heavy metals in pet meals. This implies ANY stage of lead, mercury, and so forth is suitable in pet meals except the uncommon likelihood a producer would get caught (near not possible) with some absurdly excessive stage.
- The FDA depends on the antiquated Mineral Tolerance of Animals e-book, revealed by the Nationwide Analysis Council in 2005.
- The FDA passes of some accountability to AAFCO, who additionally has NOT established any most ranges for heavy metals in pet meals.
The Clear Label Venture Cat Meals report states it very properly:
“Whereas human meals can typically be in comparison with third-party regulatory thresholds,
few (if any) laws exist surrounding these contaminants in cat meals. The few reference values that do exist for animal feed—most tolerable ranges revealed by the Nationwide Analysis Council and the Affiliation of American Feed Management Officers (AAFCO)—had been derived to stop acute poisoning in livestock, to not shield a housecat consuming the identical meals each day for fifteen years. These laws, closely influenced by commerce, present false safety and a ready-made excuse to reassure customers concerning the merchandise’ purported security.”
Our query to FDA is:
What number of research evidencing US pet meals is often contaminated/adulterated is it going to take for FDA to determine most allowed ranges for heavy metals, pesticides, plastics in pet meals?
Susan Thixton
Pet Meals Shopper Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
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