Overview
This source page is a mechanical bulk-ingest record for a PDF in the research-pulls corpus. It preserves source-level identity, routeable product/analyte scope, and exact extracted numeric lines for later human or fresh-context audit. It does not derive HMTc thresholds, percentiles, or brand-by-brand comparisons.
Key numbers
The worker extracted the full PDF text with layout preservation twice and compared extraction hashes before commit. The following lines are copied from numeric/table-bearing regions of the PDF and retain the source units and wording where legible:
- 4 conducted. We measured mineral composition of a range of complete wet (n=97) and dry (n=80)
- 7 failed to provide nutritional minimum (e.g. Cu, 20 % of wet food) or exceeded nutritional maximum
- 9 Some foods (20-30% of all analysed) had mineral imbalances such as not having the recommended
- 11 elements such as arsenic. The study highlights broad non-compliance of a range of popular pet foods
- 4 to be supplied in their food (NRC, 2006). In the UK, wet pet foods (e.g. tins, pouches) are fed to 41%
- 5 of dogs and 77% of cats (PFMA, 2016), usually together with treats, snacks (including table scraps) or
- 8 unbalanced diet. In a pan-European Harris poll, 56% of UK pet owners bought branded pet foods,
- 31 cadmium, mercury and lead, further legislation regarding acceptable concentrations in foods are
- 6 we assessed, for the first time in the European Union, mineral composition of a broad range of dry
- 5 Selection of Pet foods: Pet foods were bought locally from a range of commercial suppliers and pet
- 8 selected as representative of popular brands sold in the UK and including a range of main flavours
- 9 (e.g. beef, chicken, fish) largely aimed at adult pets (139 of 177) but also young (n=14) or senior (n=24)
- 10 animals. In total, 42 different brands were represented (dry food, n=21 brands; wet food, n=27
- 12 food, n=49; dry food, n=15). Key nutritional information provided on the label was recorded such as
- 20 as µg/kg). Further information on the composition of the food was derived according to the
- 28 Table S1). These guidelines were largely based upon the original National Research Council minimum
- 29 recommendations in the USA (Table S2). Nevertheless, for many minerals there is no specific
- 32 the American Association of Feed Control Officials for maximum concentrations in pet food (Table S3;
- 4 (arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead) in pet food are regulated by EU directive 2002/32/EC (Table
- 18 in 3.0ml of 68% trace analysis grade (TAG) HN03, 2.0ml 30% H2O2 (both Fisher Scientific UK Ltd,
- 20 microwave-heating (Anton-Paar, 2000) for 45mins in 3.0 ml of 70% Trace Analysis Grade (TAG) HNO3,
- 28 elements were corrected to percentage recovery of the CRM (Table S5). Minimal between-batch
- 7 presented after correction for blanks and batch variation (using the CRM as reference) as ppm (e.g.
- 8 major elements, 1ppm = 1mg/kg), ppb (e.g. trace elements, 1ppb = 1µg/kg) or per 100g of dry matter
- 9 (DM) as indicated in the text. For major and trace elements, recovery was >95% with <10% coefficient
- 10 of variation for each (n=17 separate analyses). Intra-assay variability for all elements was <2%.
- 12 but the majority of results were close to limits of detection (LOD) and are not reported. Lead (Pb),
- 13 Caesium (Cs), Cadmium (Cd) were above LOD but below limits of quantification (LOQ) and are
- 14 therefore also not shown. Chromium (Cr), Molybdenum (Mo) and Vanadium (V) were above LOQ but
- 15 many results were close to LOQ and therefore these data are also not included.
- 7 variation of <5% for elements at low (e.g. arsenic) or high (e.g. selenium) concentration.
- 10 protein content and lower carbohydrate, than foods fed to dogs (Table 1). Total mineral content
- 11 (reflected as declared ash on the label) also tended to be increased in foods fed to cats (Table 1). On
- 14 for dry matter content, were similar (Table 1). The declared ash content of pet food (corrected to
- 21 Table 2). Corrected for moisture content, wet pet food had higher sulphur, calcium, phosphorus,
- 22 sodium, potassium, strontium and rubidium but lower manganese relative to dry food (Table 2).
- 24 (Table 2). When all foods were represented according to the mandatory FEDIAF guideline (Table S1,
- 30 maximum for selenium (Table S1; 56.8 µg/100g DM), which had a very narrow acceptable range
- 2 non-compliance with all EU (FEDIAF) Guidelines; 94% (91/97) and 61% (46/80) of wet and dry foods,
- 5 to either provide the minimum (e.g. for copper, 20 % of wet food; Figure 1c) or exceeded the
- 6 maximum (e.g. for selenium, 76% of wet food; Figure 1d) levels of at least one essential mineral. Many
- 7 had marked mineral imbalance (e.g. 29% of wet, 20% of dry for Ca:P ratio; Figure 1a) and some
Methods (brief)
- 7 Preparation of samples for elemental analysis: To avoid trace ion contamination of the samples,
- 12 cans and dishes of wet food (≥500g), the whole sample was pre-mixed and a representative sample
- 14 duplicate samples (100-200 mg) of this powder were acid-digested using standard techniques for
- 15 mineral analysis by inductively-coupled plasma mass-spectrometry (ICP-MS), a method widely
- 19 Loughborough, UK), and 3.0ml milli-Q water (18.2 MΩ cm), acid-digestion was accelerated by
- 24 liquids but no sample). Additionally, for every batch (to control for batch-to-batch variability) and/or
- 25 every 60 ICP-MS tubes (control for within-run drift), duplicate samples of a certified reference
- 1 Elemental analysis by ICP-MS: Elemental analysis was by inductively coupled plasma-mass
- 2 spectrometry (ICP-MS; iCAPTM Q, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) using a He
- 6 sample switching’. Internal standards were Ge, Rh and Ir. Final foodstuff elemental composition is
- 12 but the majority of results were close to limits of detection (LOD) and are not reported. Lead (Pb),
- 13 Caesium (Cs), Cadmium (Cd) were above LOD but below limits of quantification (LOQ) and are
- 14 therefore also not shown. Chromium (Cr), Molybdenum (Mo) and Vanadium (V) were above LOQ but
- 15 many results were close to LOQ and therefore these data are also not included.
- 3 analysis for 5 minerals were compared against values determined by ICP-MS at The University of
- 6 samples were analysed repeatedly within-run (8 technical replications) yielding a coefficient of
- 10 In conclusion, this study is the first to sample a wide range of wet and dry pet foods, designated as
- 25 2005. Metal and metalloid multi-elementary ICP-MS validation in whole blood, plasma, urine and hair.
Implications
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Verification notes
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wiki/sources/pages before creation. - Full-PDF read:
pdftotext -layoutwas run on the full PDF twice; extracted text hashes matched before the page was written. - Numeric verification: numeric/table-bearing lines were selected mechanically from the verified extraction and preserved without unit conversion or rounding.
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Update history
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