Do you know where your vitamins/minerals come from?

[morse]

Do you know where your vitamins/minerals come from that is added to pet food? Raw meat and liver does not need these "vitamins" and "minerals" added.

So why do Pet Food companies add these vitamins? The sludge of byproducts they cook up....does it not have nutrition? (not just calories)

Here are some of the vitamins/minerals and how they are produced due various manufacturing processes (it may or may not be added to pet food):

Ferrous Sulfate:

In the finishing of steel prior to plating or coating, the steel sheet or rod is passed through pickling baths of sulfuric acid. This treatment produces large quantities of iron(II) sulfate as a by-product.

Zinc Oxide:

In the indirect or French process, metallic zinc is melted in a graphite crucible and vaporized at temperatures above 907 °C (typically around 1000 °C). Zinc vapor reacts with the oxygen in the air to give ZnO, accompanied by a drop in its temperature and bright luminescence. Zinc oxide particles are transported into a cooling duct and collected in a bag house. This indirect method was popularized by LeClaire (France) in 1844 and therefore is commonly known as the French process. Its product normally consists of agglomerated zinc oxide particles with an average size of 0.1 to a few micrometers. By weight, most of the world's zinc oxide is manufactured via French process.

Sodium Selenite:

Sodium selenite usually is prepared by the reaction of selenium dioxide with sodium hydroxide:^[1]

SeO₂ + 2 NaOH → Na₂SeO₃ + H₂O

The hydrate converts to the anhydrous salt upon heating to 40 °C.

Vitamin B1:

Thiamine mononitrate or thiamine hydrochloride is made from coal tar, ammonia, acetone, and hydrochloric acid

Vitamin B6:

Pyridoxine hydrochloride comes from petroleum ester, hydrochloric acid, and formaldehyde

Choline:

Choline chloride or choline bitartrate is made using ethylene, ammonia, and hydrochloric acid or tartaric acid.

Vitamin K:

Synthetic vitamin K, menadione, comes from coal tar derivatives and genetically modified and hydrogenated soybean oil, and uses hydrochloric acid and nickel.

Soybean oil:

To produce soybean oil, the soybeans are cracked, adjusted for moisture content, heated to between 60 and 88 ºC (140–190 °F), rolled into flakes, and solvent-extracted with hexanes. The oil is then refined, blended for different applications, and sometimes hydrogenated.

The above are just examples. In all of the pet foods, the vitamins/minerals are added. Why are they added if meat/liver contains almost all of the needed vitamins/minerals? Not to mention the very poor chelating and bioavailibility of the synthetic minerals/vitamins.

Various industrial manufacturing processes produce by-products, they need to get rid of these by products. Why not dump it in the food supply and call it "multivitamin" and "mineral" supplements?

 

[denice]

People who feed raw also have to add some vitamins and minerals.  Here is one recipe,  there are others, http://www.catnutrition.org/recipes.html   The only ones that don't have to add are those who feed actual whole  prey like mice.  There are trace nutrients that kitties get from parts of the animals other than muscle meat and liver.  There are some that feed a diet called whole prey model and they usually only have to  add a small  amount of fish oil. 

 

[cicoccabim]

I feed raw, and I only add iodine (algae). My cat eats whole bones, where many important minerals are. I add egg yolk as well. 

 

[morse]

 
I feed raw, and I only add iodine (algae). My cat eats whole bones, where many important minerals are. I add egg yolk as well. 

Could it be that you only add iodine because the level that is normal is determined by "modern science"? Shouldn't fish naturally be high in iodine?

 

[cicoccabim]

My cat is allergic to fish..... so I add iodine to make sure that she get at least the minimum level.