There are many products for animals on the market which claim veterinary approval. Some very big name pet foods are notable for these claims and the claims may or may not stand up to scrutiny. Our RawSAFE Certification Mark carries the words “Approved by Vets” as we have worked hard to make sure this is the truth. A Certification Mark itself has to go through a very robust process to be legally valid and we are delighted to have achieved this.
As a general rule, veterinary professionals are prevented from endorsing products by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ Guide to Professional Conduct. We’re allowed of course to make a specific recommendation of a product to help overcome a problem for a specific animal, but not to generalise that “product X is the best for problem Y”.
There are many products for animals on the market which claim veterinary approval. Some very big name pet foods are notable for these claims and the claims may or may not stand up to scrutiny. Our RawSAFE Certification Mark carries the words “Approved by Vets” as we have worked hard to make sure this is the truth. A Certification Mark itself has to go through a very robust process to be legally valid and we are delighted to have achieved this.
As a general rule, veterinary professionals are prevented from endorsing products by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ Guide to Professional Conduct. We’re allowed of course to make a specific recommendation of a product to help overcome a problem for a specific animal, but not to generalise that “product X is the best for problem Y”.
As a company, RawSAFE has put a lot of hard work into preparing objective audit criteria for raw pet food manufacturers. This means that someone looks at the criteria and at what a manufacturer is doing, and can clearly say “yes, they are doing that” or “no, they are not doing that”. There’s no opportunity for there to be a matter of opinion, it’s not possible for a company to become accredited just because someone likes their products, or because they pay a membership fee. Because we believe so strongly in objectivity, we have appointed Eville and Jones as independent auditors. They are the largest independent provider of veterinary meat inspection services in Europe.
When a manufacturer chooses to be audited (and we’re delighted to share that more than 20 UK based companies have made this choice already), a veterinary surgeon from Eville and Jones will be appointed to conduct the audit. Not a member of the RawSAFE team, nor someone from the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society, but a completely independent veterinary surgeon auditing against objective audit criteria. Not only do they conduct a planned audit, but they will also visit unannounced during the manufacturer’s membership period to ensure that things are spot on, and weren’t just made perfect for the day of the planned audit. Eville and Jones already have a string of accreditations for their work. Such is their belief in the RawSAFE audit process that they are applying for a further accreditation for auditing, which will add yet more strength to the RawSAFE certification mark.
Manufacturers invest considerable time and money in the audit so that they can proudly display the RawSAFE Certification Mark on their marketing materials and packaging, to reassure pet owners of the very high standard by which their product has been manufactured.
We know that many of our colleagues in the veterinary profession have a lot of misinformation about raw food, and that this misinformation causes them a lot of concern when a client tells them they raw feed. The team at the Raw Feeding Veterinary Society are hard at work to address this issue through sharing resources and education. We hope that being able to recommend products with the RawSAFE Certification Mark will help to ensure that our colleagues feel better equipped to support their clients who choose to feed their pets real, minimally processed foods to keep them healthy.