Heard of irradiated treats?
Meat coming into Australia needs to be irradiated, which means essentially blasted with radiation. Yes, you heard that correctly. Blasted with radiation.
This is done to reduce the risks associated with pests coming into Australia from overseas.
The majority of supermarket treats will have this logo. Supermarkets want to offer you the cheapest treats possible, for a reason - to sell more and make more money.
But, is irradiation safe?
Food standards organisations and the Government will tell us that irradiation bears no risk, that is is completely safe. We hold a different opinion, any meat that needs to be blasted with radiation does not sound healthy.
You can absolutely make your own opinion, too. Food Standards Australia tell us that they hold an independent approval process for each company (food) they are evaluating for irradiating their products. This food must then be labelled with the green logo (if they choose to follow labeling laws).
As we are well aware in the pet sector, many companies do not label food coming in from overseas correctly, to avoid transparency - and to charge higher prices because consumers think its local, Aussie produce.
If the irradiation process bore zero risks, and made no difference to food... in our opinion, this would be a blanket process with no need for any labeling.
Irradiated treats - only from overseas
Australian Made treats, like ours from Lulu's Kitchen are not irradiated. They are not blasted with radiation. They don't even have salt, sugar or any type of preservative added!
Labels - what's on a label?
Reading the ingredients list of the treats you're about to buy in the supermarket may seem silly, but it's so important. The amount of preservatives, fillers, salts, sugars and plain outright nasties in mass produced dog treats is mind boggling. If the bag you're looking at has more ingredients than the treat itself, for example, Chicken Breast 100%, avoid.
There are more and more dog treats on Australian supermarket shelves that are quite literally killing dogs. Look at Facebook and you'll see posts popping up every now and then. This sick race for the bottom is not going to end anytime soon.