Natures Menu says it is willing to offer pet owners and retailers advice and support if they have concerns over some of the issues raised in Channel 5's ‘The truth about your dog’s food’.

But it is also thrilled that knowledge about the ingredients and nutrition of pet foods is being highlighted so widely by national newspapers and TV.

The multi award-winning Norfolk-based raw food specialist issued the following statement this week following last week's highly debated Channel 5 show.

"Our campaign for more honest labelling of pet foods and the use of better quality ingredients has been at the heart of our own product creation and commercial labelling for the last 32 years! We are also pleased to see that raw feeding has been included now as a real option for pet owners within the TV programme itself.

"Those that know and love Natures Menu pet foods will agree that our labelling is clear and we really try to identify ingredients to make life easy for consumers.

"In addition, we can whole heartedly claim we know exactly what goes into our products and exactly where those products came from, in other words we have full traceability of our ingredients and work hard to ensure only the best foods your reach dogs and cats.
We are proud that our gently steam cooked cans and pouches only contain real meat and contain no sugars, artificial colours, flavourings or preservatives, meat meals or manufactured meat derivatives.

"We continue to work tirelessly to advise pet owners that raw feeding has now moved much further forward than the TV coverage has time to share with you all!

"Raw feeding today is easy, economical, clean and safe with products such as our ready-made complete raw meals. These complete and balanced meals provide all the benefits of a genuinely natural and species appropriate diet with the convenience expected of a professional food for pets.

"The best thing about using these prepared foods is the safety of them. Registered Defra approved raw pet food companies such as Natures Menu follow strict EU guidelines where approval to produce raw pet foods are controlled by Defra and the AHVLA (animal health veterinary laboratory agency). These agencies only allows a company to legally provide prepared raw diets when all of the specific production rules are met for Salmonella and other bacteria. In other words, raw pet foods today are produced to high quality standards in the same way as any meat product. Clean production, new packaging, cool storage and quality controls are all demands on the EU regulation for the production of great raw meals for pets.

"As the Europe’s leading experts in raw feeding, with two award wins in 2013 for our manufacturing procedures we can assure anyone considering feeding a raw diet that Natures Menu raw meat products are of the highest quality and are safe to feed."

Natures Menu added that it was disappointed with a quote from a canned pet food producer in the Channel 5 programme stating that dogs could pass salmonella out through their skin to their fur and onto humans. It was described as shedding.

"Our vet and team have not been able to find any evidence to support this claim and there seems to be no evidence in the UK of people contracting this bad bacteria from dogs," added Natures Menu.

"Dogs have a much lower stronger acid in their stomachs than humans, and a digestive system designed to eat and digest raw foods.
We live with millions of dogs in the home and it’s a fact that we live together safely."