From DaytonNews.com…
How we feed our pets, store their food and wash their dishes can have negative health consequences if not done properly — for both humans and animals.
There have been multiple outbreaks of illnesses among humans after exposure to E. coli- and salmonella-contaminated dog food, which has been more likely in commercial and homemade raw food diets. These diets typically involve the need to prep pets’ foods in the kitchen, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
But guidelines for how owners should safely handle pet food and dishes is limited, and their effectiveness is unclear, so the authors of the new study investigated dog owners’ feeding habits and analyzed the impact of US Food and Drug Administration hygiene protocols on dog food dish contamination.
During casual conversations among veterinary nutritionists, “we realized that, when it came to our own pets, we all had different pet food storage and hygiene practices,” said Emily Luisana, a coauthor of the study and small animal veterinary nutritionist. “Once we realized that (FDA) recommendations were relatively unknown even among professionals, we wanted to see what other pet owners were doing.”
Luisana is on the veterinary advisory board for Tailored, a pet nutrition expert-led dog food company. Caitlyn Getty, another coauthor of the study, is the scientific affairs veterinarian for NomNomNow Inc., a company focused on pet gut health and suitable food. Neither company funded this study, and the authors didn’t report any competing interests. The study’s focus is owners’ handling of any dog food, not the food brands themselves.
