The Dog Food Project: A good example for bad answers

During my gathering of information on which companies are removing, or planning on removing, menadione from their products, I also emailed the Blue Buffalo Company, which markets the Blue Buffalo line of dog foods.

Here's the email I sent:

Hello,

I'd like to know if you are considering removing potentially harmful menadione from your products as well, as many other companies have done so recently, for example:

Solid Gold has removed it quite some time ago already,

Diamond has removed it from their Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's
Soul line and per Dr. Melissa Brookshire, the Director of Veterinary
Services at Diamond Pet Foods is planning on discontinuing in all of
their products in 2006,

Newman's Own Organics is currently looking into eliminating Menadione
from their products,

Holistic Blend has removed it,

Castor & Pollux is eliminating it as of April 2006,

Nature's Variety has removed it from their formulas but is still using
a batch of bags with it present in the ingredient list printed on them,

Natural Balance has removed it from their formulations recently.

Thanks in advance

And here's the reply:

Thanks so much for your interest in BLUE. And thank you for taking the time to write to us. In response, The reason we use Menadione/ Vitamin K in our foods is to maintain the normal floral (bacteria) in dogs and cats GI tract to insure proper and healthy digestion. Sometimes if a dog or cat is on antibiotics this can effect their GI tract and Vitamin K prevents that from happening. Menadione Sodium Bisulfate is also the most stable of any other Vitamin K compounds and is a key reason why its used in pet foods.

As far as that website is concerned, Mark Finke doesn't give it much credit as he feels there are a lot of inaccuracies, ie. other fat soluble vitamins are toxic at high levels (vitamin A, D, & E).

Sorry for the delay. Let me know if this helps.

Samantha Wuhrer
Great Plains Leasing, LLC
The Blue Buffalo Co.

Seems like whoever made that statement about menadione didn't pay attention during their animal nutrition classes and can't tell the difference between beneficial bacteria in the gut and artificial vitamin K. The little jab about "that website" and "inaccuracies" was quite amusing though, especially since the section on vitamins outlines the dangers of deficiencies and toxicities for each vitamin.

According to what I was taught about the intestinal flora during my animal nutrition and physiology courses, here's how it really works:

The bacteria present in the healthy intestine synthesize vitamin K (or to be more accurate, vitamin K2, also called menaquinone), which is then absorbed by the body.

If a large enough number of these bacteria are destroyed, such as for example by giving antibiotics (which do not differentiate between "good" and "bad" bacteria) over a period of time, logically the amount of vitamin K available to the body also decreases and it must rely on additional dietary sources until it is reestablished - which can be accelerated for example by giving a probiotic supplement.

Vitamin K in the diet, regardless of whether it is natural or synthetic, does not influence the intestinal flora, since it has no effect on the bacteria themselves. Of course a dietary source is needed wherever not enough vitamin K is synthesized in the intestine, but as many manufacturers have already demonstrated, the source does not have to be a synthetic supplement!

I'm quite disappointed that a company would pass on such outright incorrect information to consumers, but with all the false claims I've seen throughout my research in the past 5 years I shouldn't be surprised. It just makes me angry when pet food manufacturers exploit the fact that pet owners generally aren't exactly experts on nutrition or food ingredients and just want the best for their animals.

Blue Buffalo's reply to my email was a copy-and-paste job from a message sent to at least one other person who inquired about menadione - I know since I was forwarded a copy. It would be interesting to know how many other people out there were given incorrect information.