Category: Dog / Cat / Cute Pet Knowledge
A while ago, a pet food industry launched a can that advertised no added carrageenan, and the news that it contained carrageenan was still detected, which made a lot of noise in the industry. What exactly is carrageenan? Will adding to pet food cause them harm?
What is carrageenan
Carrageenan is actually a substance extracted from marine red algae, also known as staghorn gum. Because of its hydrophilic and coagulation characteristics, it is often used as a thickener, emulsifier, coagulant, and is widely added to our food, such as: ice cream, fudge, sauce and so on. In fact, the use of carrageenan by humans has a long history, and as early as hundreds of years ago, the Irish often added carrageenan to food to make a pudding-like dessert.
Carrageenan doubts
You may think that since it is extracted from seaweed, it should be quite healthy, right? In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does list edible grade carrageenan as a recognized safe item, and does not prohibit the use of carrageenan, which seems to be a safe additive. However, the problem is not carrageenan, but the degradation of carrageenan (also known as Politicenan)! Carrageenan refers to the transformation of carrageenan into degraded carrageenan after high temperature or strong acid, it is currently known that Politicenan will not only cause intestinal damage in some animal experiments, but also lead to the occurrence of malignant tumors, so it is forbidden to be added to food.
But what's worse is that according to a study by the Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit organization in the United States, carrageenan cannot be completely separated from degraded carrageenan during the extraction process, so even edible grade carrageenan contains a small amount of Politicenan.
When purchasing canned food, please pay attention to the ingredients
At present, the canned food on the market, in order to make the appearance look better, increase the amount of most of them have added glue, in addition to carrageenan, some will also use watercress gum or guar gum, three immortals glue and so on. Although there are no cases of cats and dogs directly causing disease by eating carrageenan, for the sake of the health of the babies, it is recommended that everyone can pay attention to whether there is glue when purchasing canned food, or occasionally replace it with fresh food, so that they can eat more safely!