The Science Behind Fresh Dog Food

What is Veterinary Nutrition

Board certified veterinary nutritionists are specialized practitioners that can be involved in several different aspects of veterinary nutrition, including research, patient care, consulting with veterinarians and teaching. They may work for veterinary schools, pet food or drug companies or private veterinary practices and hospitals.

While human nutritionists are numerous, veterinary nutritionists are actually quite rare. In fact, only around 100 American veterinarians currently hold a board certification in nutrition through the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM).

To become board certified in a veterinary specialty, a veterinarian must complete four years of veterinary school, a one-year internship or equivalent and then complete a two- to three-year residency program that meets the standards of a recognized specialty college or board, such as the ACVIM. Residency carries strict training requirements, and after it’s complete, the veterinarian must pass one or more rigorous exams before becoming board certified. 

So why is a board certification in veterinary nutrition important? In addition to the valuable research and patient care they provide, the title carries a distinction that sets their expertise apart from others claiming to have pet nutrition expertise (and there are many out there). Board-certified veterinary nutritionists have a veterinary degree, and have taken the extra steps to complete the training necessary for diet formulation, disease management, research and education that’s informed specifically by animal physiology, metabolism and nutritional requirements for different species and life stages.

Current Standards for Nutrition Research 

You may be familiar with AAFCO from reading dog food labels. Also known as the Association of American Feed Control Officials, this nonprofit organization establishes animal-feed rules, including those for pet food. The organization itself has no regulatory authority, but states use AAFCO’s standards when defining the nutritional adequacy of pet food.

According to the FDA, for a pet food to make the claim of “complete and balanced,” it must meet one of three standards:

• Nutrient Profiles: The food must meet one of AAFCO’s nutrient profiles for a given life stage, including protein, fat and nutrient content. While this ensures the content of the food, the source and quality of nutrients, and whether they’re bioavailable to your dog, are not stipulated by AAFCO. Companies are not required to test or prove these nutrient levels, only to keep a notarized affidavit on file that says that their product meets the nutrient profile standard.
• AAFCO Feeding Trial: This has been considered the gold standard in nutritional verification until now. These trials must include at least eight dogs, each at least one year in age, and be conducted over a period of six months. The food being tested must keep six out of the eight dogs healthy for six months. Dogs must not lose more than 15 percent of their initial body weight and the averages of four certain blood values (hemoglobin, packed cell volume, serum alkaline phosphatase and serum albumin) must fall within acceptable levels. For the purposes of these trials, most pet food companies conduct their testing in a lab environment, using kennel-confined, single-breed dogs.
• The “Family Rule:” A pet food can also earn the AAFCO complete and balanced designation through the family rule, which states that a pet food that has not completed a feeding trial, but is nutritionally similar to those in the same product family that have passed a trial, can also meet the standard.

While AAFCO feeding trials reveal valuable information about dog food, they have their limitations. The tests are typically done with a small number of single-breed dogs in a closed laboratory kennel setting, and do not account for real-life variables. But perhaps most significantly, the testing time frame may be too short to illustrate whether a food can sustain long-term health, as nutritional deficiencies and other health indicators can take longer to develop than a six-month period.

How Things are Changing in Veterinary Nutrition 

In recent years, things have started to shift away from those historical standards as new research is funded and completed—and it’s beginning to paint a picture of some of the benefits of fresh, human-grade dog food.

But let’s back up a little. Over the past decade or more, it’s become more and more common for pet owners to treat their fur-babies more like family members, and in response, pet food companies have developed diets that more closely resemble human food, including human-grade meat and vegetables over mystery meats and fillers.

As consumers, we assume that since human-grade ingredients are high quality, that these foods should be highly digestible—it seems logical, afterall. But until unbiased researchers actually conduct the testing, we’re left to trust the companies’ claims that the food does what they say it will, and that it’s safe for long-term use.

Fast-forward to 2019, when the University of Illinois published the first study on human-grade dog food that showed that whole, fresh food is not only highly palatable, but more digestible than originally estimated. In this study, researchers tested six commercial dog foods from Just Food for Dogs, a company that claims to exclusively use USDA-certified ingredients in its diets. Their products are formulated with minimally processed, human-edible ingredients and supplemented with human-quality vitamins and minerals to ensure they qualify as complete and balanced, as defined by AAFCO. And although this initial study only included a single product line, the researchers believed the outcomes were likely to apply to other products that are made with human-grade ingredients.

In 2020, The Farmer’s Dog announced results from their long-term, ongoing feeding study. If you’re not familiar with the brand, The Farmer’s Dog makes fresh, lightly-cooked food with human-grade ingredients, formulated by board-certified nutritionists to be 100 percent complete and balanced according to AAFCO standards.

The purpose of this study was to show the long-term impact that a food can have on a dog’s health, rather than the six-month snapshot of an AAFCO trial. They set out to create a more robust study that includes more dogs, more breeds and a significantly longer time frame. 

This multi-year study ran from 2014 to 2020, and included 10 dog participants, all varying in age, size and breed (including purebred and mix-breed dogs). The dogs in the study are pets who lived their normal lives at home with their owners during the study. Each of the dogs were fed The Farmer’s Dog for a minimum of one year, and up to a full six years.

And the results? The Farmer’s Dog measured 49 blood values (including the four mandated by AAFCO feeding trials), along with a full medical exam, and all participants remained healthy throughout the testing period according to AAFCO standards. During the study, dog owners also observed decreases in stool volume and number of poops per day—both are indicators of a diet that is bioavailable and highly digestible. To sum this up, the results showed that The Farmer’s Dog is complete and balanced, bioavailable and safe to feed long-term.

Another recent study directly compared the effects of The Farmer’s Dog with kibble. This study, published this year, took place at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and involved 10 dogs eating The Farmer’s Dog as their primary diet for one year, and a control group of dogs that continued to eat their previous complete and balanced dry dog food. This study lasted longer, involved more dogs and collected more health data than a standard AAFCO feeding trial. All 10 dogs that were fed The Farmer’s Dog completed the study in good health, according to routine weight and body condition checks, and extended blood-chemistry panels.

As you can see, recent advancements in veterinary nutrition research are providing valuable information, thanks to longer, more robust trials with more animals. This is creating a growing body of research that didn’t exist until recently, and can help legitimize claims made by dog food companies and give us pet owners added peace of mind when it comes to our dogs’ long-term health.

Investments in Veterinary Research 

The Farmer’s Dog announced earlier this year that they will be making an additional $10 million investment in veterinary research. This initiative will fund residencies, grants and clinical studies across a number of universities aimed at advancing scientific understanding of pet nutrition. This investment builds on the company’s existing veterinary research, including significant studies on the impact of food on dog hydration and more.

And the first major program has just gone live. It’s a clinical nutrition residency at the University of Tennessee’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The Farmer’s Dog is sponsoring this residency, which will fully fund the training of a veterinarian, preparing them for board certification through the ACVIM. 

In addition to receiving rigorous hands-on training in the science of nutrition and how to apply that knowledge in a clinical practice setting, the resident will work on the design, execution and publication of a peer-reviewed study focused on veterinary nutrition. Through this program, The Farmer’s Dog hopes to contribute to the growing body of published research in animal health, create more opportunities for clinical nutrition training and positively impact the future of pet health. 

As pet owners and dog lovers, we’re excited about what these new studies will reveal. We’re also excited about brands like The Farmer’s Dog who don’t just stop at making a high-quality product—they’re investing in the future and making strides that will benefit the industry—and our furry friends—for years to come.