How dog food is made...

It may come as a surprise to you that the vast majority of complete dog foods never see the inside of an oven. They are made using a process known as extrusion. This process cooks the food using friction. The raw dough is forced at high pressure through a long barrel and then chopped into pieces at the end using a rotating knife. The main benefit of this process is that it is very fast and allows manufacturers to make large quantities of food very quickly. You will be able to identify an extruded food by its regular ‘kibble’ shape and by its greasy texture.

Betty Miller is one of the few pet food bakeries in the world that actually bake a complete dog food in an oven. Our process is simple. We mix natural ingredients together into dough, cut it into shapes, bake for 15-20min and leave to cool. Our food has natural smell, taste and texture. We do not need to fat coat the product to make it palatable to your dog. Its naturally very appetising, and uses only simple healthy ingredients. 

Why baking is better than extruding

Both processes are different methods of achieving the same thing; a tasty cooked complete food for your dog to eat. The cooking processes differ greatly in their results. Baking is a much slower process typically taking 15-20min whereas extruding takes 2-3min. This speed is critical in terms of how the cooked food will taste. The high temperatures and friction cooking needed to extrude dog food remove much of the taste from the product. Manufacturers know this, and to make up for it they spray the products in an extremely tasty oily coating, which is why these types of product are very greasy to touch .

Why Oven baking can make a difference to your dog?

1.      Its Natural

We want to make the most natural and appetising food for your dog and we do this by choosing good wholesome ingredients, mixing them together and slow oven baking them. You could make our oven baked recipes at home! But we very much doubt you have an extruder in your kitchen and fat coating equipment!

2.      Nuking Ingredients.

We all know that good tasting food starts with good quality ingredients. However if you microwave those ingredients, you know the taste will not be the same as oven baking them. If you cook ingredients at very high temperatures (or even friction cook them), you also know that the taste of these ingredients gets less. By slowly oven baking our ingredients, we can maximum taste for your dog without the need to add taste enhancers, flavours or preservatives.

3.      Gluten

Its very difficult to bake anything without using the gluten properties of raw materials. In baking, we need to stick the ingredients together and this is why gluten in wheat or rice is important. Yes there is gluten in rice and barley and of course there is gluten in wheat!

4.      Hypoallergenic

It is estimated that under 0.75% of all dogs have an intolerance to wheat gluten – it is NOT an allergy!

Yet many manufacturers call their products “Hypoallergenic” and claim they use ingredients that prevent “food intolerances” by not using certain ingredients. Many issues with skin and coat (and scratching) are due to allergic reactions to fleas, mites and not due to gluten intolerances. The only real way to find out if your dog has a food intolerance to certain ingredients is to undertake feeding an “exclusion diet”. These involves starting with a base diet of say rice and chicken and then if there are no problems with this, add other ingredients until the food intolerance ingredient is ascertained. This can take 6 to 8 weeks!

Most owners who believe their dog has a wheat gluten allergy will still feed a “flour/cereal based” treat to their dog with no effect on the dog!

This leads us to believe that although a very few dogs have wheat gluten intolerances there is more fear than fact put around by manufacturers about the so called “benefits” of their food.

5.      Rice vs Wholegrain flour

Where does rice grow...? India, Asia, Africa. So consider this.... for all those people feeding a “rice diet” to their dogs, it comes from a long way away (food miles!) and probably takes food away from some of our less well off neighbours whereas we actually grow wheat in the UK.

One other point to consider – most breakfast cereals contain wheat and you will see the virtues of wholegrain (wholemeal flour) being extolled. Well actually, wholemeal flour is good for you and for your dog as it contains a natural pre-biotic which promotes good gut mobility.

Worth thinking about when you purchased your next Meat & rice diet!