Ash in food

This is volcanic ash. This is not the same ash found in our pet food!

Every now and then we'll get a phone call or email from a concerned customer inquiring about the ash content in our food. Questions such as...do you really add ash to your products? or...is it the same stuff you find in your fireplace?

To this is there is an easy reply, ash isn't what it sounds like. So what is ash? It is the total mineral content in food and every food has ash regardless of whether it is raw or processed(kibble or can). The ash reported on a label represents the total of all minerals found in that food. These minerals are calcium, iron, magnesium, sodium, zinc along with trace amounts of others. Generally, any natural food will have less than 5% sometimes up to 8% ash in content while processed foods have ash content of 10-14%.

Pet owners become easily confused and concerned with ash specially cat owners, as vets will sometimes recommend they only purchase foods low in ash (high ash content is often associated to feline lower urinary tract disease). Sometimes people will take it further and want to do whatever it takes to nearly eliminate ash completely not knowing exactly what their vet really means. Because ash is made up of essential mineral nutrients, feeding too little can lead to a mineral deficiency and cause other health problems in their pets. 

We can probably get into many different discussions just by explaining ash, perhaps we'll save some topics for future posts!