Pet food needs to be stored as carefully as human food

UNTIL RECENTLY (IN TERMS OF HUMAN HISTORY), storing pet food wasn’t an issue, because pet food as we know it didn’t exist. Companion animals foraged for themselves or received table scraps. If a particularly valued animal did receive a special diet, it usually consisted of fresh ingredients borrowed from a human menu. Nearly 150 years ago, however, all this began to change.

“The first commercially prepared pet food was a dog biscuit introduced in England about 1860,” according to the Pet Food Institute (PFI), a Washington, DC-based trade organization that represents pet food manufacturers. “Since then,” the PFI literature continues, “commercial pet foods have expanded to include canned, dry and semi-moist foods to meet a variety of nutritional needs.” Today’s animal scientists and food technologists synchronize their skills to provide safe, nutritious, and shelf-stable fare for pets—affording pet owners a convenience as unimaginable to our forebears as microwave popcorn would have been to the Lincoln White House.

To get an idea of the complexity of today’s pet foods, let’s say that, possessing a modern knowledge of animal nutritional needs, you set out to prepare your own pet food in your own kitchen. Here’s what it would entail: You’d shop for quality ingredients—lamb, beef, chicken, fish, grains—compiling a healthful mix of protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins, and minerals.

To hedge your bets, you’d add a smidgen more vitamins (to counteract any lost in the processing). Perhaps you’d throw in a pinch of garlic or tuna flavoring to excite the taste buds. And, since nothing smells or tastes worse than rancid fat, you’d toss in some antioxidants to keep things fresh.

You’d grind up the concoction in your food processor and then—to save yourself from having to mess with this mash several times a week—you’d preserve the food by baking or canning it. Whew.

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