DISCLOSURE
Heavy Metals
At Solid Gold, our passion is to deliver natural, holistic food, treats, and supplements that help your beloved pets look and feel great while they live life to the fullest. Consistent with our passion, we carefully monitor and track our products for the presence of any potentially harmful substances, including heavy metals, and provide detailed heavy metal test results to keep our customers informed. Solid Gold stands behind its carefully and conscientiously sourced ingredients and its quality control procedures. We believe this information will continue to reassure our pet parents, who trust us with the health and wellness of their pets.
Heavy metals are naturally occurring metallic elements that have a relatively high density compared to water. Because heavy metals are naturally occurring, they can be found everywhere, in air, water, and ingredients. Over the past few decades, more attention has been paid to the potential negative effects these heavy metals may have on people and animals. Although some heavy metals provide essential nutrients, other heavy metals are toxic at high levels and carry known risks to humans and animals, including cats and dogs.
In particular, U.S. and international government regulatory agencies have identified arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury, as heavy metals that each have the potential for serious, adverse health effects at high levels. Accordingly, public safety organizations including the NRC (National Research Council) have set the following acceptable exposure levels for certain heavy metals and other potential contaminants in our food and drinking water:
- Arsenic – maximum tolerable limit of 12.5 mg/kg (ppm).
- Cadmium – maximum tolerable limit of 10.0 mg/kg (ppm).
- Lead – maximum tolerable limit of 10.0 mg/kg (ppm)
- Mercury – maximum tolerable limit of 0.27 mg/kg (ppm)
Heavy Metal Testing Schedule and Results Below
With the goal in mind of providing information to our customers to help them make important decisions about their pets, and to ensure that all Solid Gold products are safe and comply with NRC guidelines, we, along with our supply network, perform at a minimum annual testing on ingredients most likely of accumulating heavy metals. For certain products, including Solid Gold Grain Free Fit as a Fiddle Fresh Caught Alaskan Pollock Dry Cat Food, Solid Gold Grain Free Indigo Moon Chicken and Egg Dry Cat Food, Solid Gold Grain Free High Protein with Chicken Dry Cat Food, Solid Gold Blended Tuna Recipe in Gravy Wet Cat Food, Solid Gold Mackerel and Tuna Recipe in Gravy Wet Cat Food, and Solid Gold Sea Bream and Tuna Recipe in Gravy Wet Cat Food, Solid Gold conducts, at a minimum, biannual testing for heavy metals including mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium. Details on the latest heavy metal testing results (as well as all prior heavy metal testing results) can be found here.
In addition to the NRC (2005), there are other studies and literature on heavy metal exposure. Consumers are encouraged to do their own research and may want to solicit information from companies regarding the heavy metal content in pet food products before purchase.
BPA Certifications
Another contaminant that Solid Gold monitors is the industrial chemical BPA, which is commonly used in food and beverage packaging. BPA has the potential for adverse health effects to both people and their pets at high levels. Solid Gold only uses packaging certified by its suppliers to be BPA Free/BPA Non-Intent.
Ingredient Sourcing
The listed ingredients for Solid Gold Grain Free Fit as a Fiddle Fresh Caught Alaskan Pollock Dry Cat Food, Solid Gold Grain Free Indigo Moon Chicken and Egg Dry Cat Food, Solid Gold Grain Free High Protein with Chicken Dry Cat Food, Solid Gold Blended Tuna Recipe in Gravy Wet Cat Food, Solid Gold Mackerel and Tuna Recipe in Gravy Wet Cat Food, and Solid Gold Sea Bream and Tuna Recipe in Gravy Wet Cat Food, and the country or region from which they are sourced, can be seen here.
Questions or Comments?
At Solid Gold Pet, the health of your pet is our utmost concern. We hope that the above provides you with helpful information and shows you Solid Gold’s commitment to the health, safety, and well-being of your pet. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us.