The growing popularity of raw pet food toppers

Raw food toppers often serve as a gateway for familiarizing consumers with raw pet food. They can also help make raw pet food products accessible and affordable to a wider range of pet parents.

Convenient and functional toppers

Texas pet food manufacturer Primal Pet Group introduced the raw toppers concept to their customers as early as 2012. They revised the serving suggestions on their freeze-dried nuggets for pet parents not only to use the nuggets as a complete meal, but to add it as an ‘extra’ to another pet food item.

After the success of this novel product, they began to introduce more toppers to their portfolio in 2014. Nowadays, they offer a variety of meat-based toppers alongside milks, broths and other options. Over time, the company has come to focus on toppers that are both convenient and add functional ingredients – including butternut squash and turmeric – to a pet’s diet.

“Interest in the raw topper category continues to grow,” says Emma Kumbier, veterinary outreach coordinator at Primal Pet Group. “We know that pet parents often consider the cost and convenience of a product before making a purchase. Toppers have proven to be a strong entry point for new consumers in our category, because they come at an accessible price and are easy to incorporate into a pet’s diet.”

Pathogens – danger of infection

Despite the popularity of these products with consumers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to warn that pet parents who feed raw pet food products “may have a higher risk of getting infected with salmonella and listeria monocytogenes”.

This conclusion was reached after an analysis by the agency determined that several raw pet food products contained these bacteria. However, the bacteria were not detected in any of the dry dog food products sampled by the agency, and only in a single dry cat food sample.

Making raw pet food safe

Primal Pet Group uses a test-and-hold protocol, with a third-party laboratory, to confirm that all finished products are free of pathogenic bacteria before shipping. But more options to ensure the safety of raw pet food products are emerging, including the use of bacteriophages. Research has shown that these can reduce the number of harmful bacteria in raw pet food and pet food ingredients.

Bacteriophage producer Intralytix originally intended to use their products for treating human diseases. But they shifted their focus to food products, eventually expanding into pet food.

Their initial forays into using phages – viruses that solely kill and selectively target bacteria – to decontaminate pet food focused on dry kibbles. But raw products proved a more natural fit, because the heat involved in cooking and drying kibble products also kills beneficial bacteriophages, as well as the harmful bacteria.

Bacteriophages – the safe way to reduce contamination

In raw products, phages can achieve a 60-90% reduction in salmonella and other bacteria. Such results are similar to those achieved by heating and cooking dry food. Key is that the food product is completely coated with a liquid containing the phages. This coating is acquired using a spraying process.

Added benefits are that phages have no effect on the taste or smell of the food product. What’s more, they are non-GMO, biodegradable and environmentally friendly; attributes buyers of raw pet food products are likely to value. There is also no labeling requirement because these organisms are legally regarded as a processing aid.

Ongoing research into the benefits of phages

The phages do have some drawbacks: they aren’t quite as effective at decontamination as some chemicals, and specific phages can only kill specific kinds of bacteria.

But overall, it is believed the phages could have considerable potential in the raw pet food sector. According to Alexander Sulakvelidze, president and CEO at Intralytix, phages “reduce the risk of recall, and also have a beneficial, positive effect on human health”.

“It will still require some time for people to explore the full benefits and options for using phages. More research is needed, but once a sufficient body of data is obtained, I think this can help improve the safety and reputation of raw pet food,” Sulakvelidze concludes.