The search for natural preservatives in the gourmet dog treat baking world is huge. We have inquiries almost daily about what folks can do to help with their mold issue. We often have people asking if Citric Acid is a good “natural preservative” to use in their dog treats. While we are mainly focused on the dog treat decorating end of the business – we did get our start baking treats. And with that, we’d like to share with you some thoughts about the use of Citric Acid in natural / gourmet dog treats.
Citric acid is a weak organic acid and is in fact considered a natural preservative. “That’s Great!” you must be thinking. Hold tight, it’s not all sunshine and butterflies. There is information out there indicating that Citric Acid may be associated with Gastric Bloat in dogs. That is NOT so great in our eyes.
In general, we take the perspective that if there is any question / possible concern about an ingredient – we recommend strongly that you not use it in your treats. “But what about my mold issue?” you may be asking. We understand that managing mold is probably one of your biggest quality issues. We also believe that there are other non chemical solutions to your issue that are probably better for dogs. Now, couple the fact that there are better alternatives to help you with your mold issue with the fact that Bloat is the #2 killer of dogs behind cancer – and we can’t think of any good reason to use citric acid.
Effectively dehydrating / lowing the amount of moisture in your treats is by far the best way and MOST NATURAL way to prevent mold issues. We aren’t sure why folks insist on adding unnecessary ingredients to their treats when a little more time in the oven / dehydrator would work wonders.
Soft treats. Now – yes, with soft treats, you can only lower the moisture but so much before your soft treat becomes a crunchy treat. The reality of soft treats is this – they are going to have a limited shelf life. Seriously, would you want to eat a cupcake or piece of cake that was 3 months old? Probably not. So why would you want your dog to eat that? If you are in the business of soft treats, we recomend that you implement some concepts into your business model that will help manage this issue such as:
1. Educate your buyers / customers about the need for a shorter shelf life and the naturalness that they desire.
2. Establish a bake to order protocol that will meet your buyers needs and your end users needs. Offer weekly deliveries as a service that upholds your “baked fresh natural and gourmet” image.
Still want to use Citric Acid – well, we’d just ask that you read about Bloat in Dogs and make sure that you are choosing the best possible approach to providing healthy treats.
Those words were great advice when I started in the food industry. They have proven an invaluable mantra during my Everything Dog Treats journey. When I first attempted decorating my dog treats with carob chips – oh my!!! Everything started off nicely, the carob was all smooth, my treats all lined up and ready to decorate. The drizzling started, the carob started seizing and clumping, I burned myself (repeatedly), and ended up with a carob mess everywhere.
It’s not a mistake – it’s a test.
More importantly, it was a great learning in the challenges of decorating with chips. So I searched the net far and wide and found a few tips on how to make the whole melting chips experience go better. Add more hydrogenated fats (Crisco or paramount crystals) to help make a smoother carob after melting. Ok. So, that’s what I did. Eventually the seizing started again, after the burns and the mess. Was I really adding Crisco to my dog treat decorating? I don’t even eat Crisco. Paramount crystals are the exact same thing as Crisco, but with lecithin (an emulsifier). This just wasn’t something I felt good about. I was ok with a little sugar – after all it was a treat. But that nasty fat, this felt wrong.
I remember thinking – “Am I sure this isn’t a mistake, because it sure looks like a big ol’ mistake to me…”
Several more weeks of this agonizing pain without success resulted in the birth of an idea. Surely if I am having this much trouble decorating dog treats with melting chips – so must many others. Now, I understood that there were some very talented folks out there that were having huge success with the chips. And if I’m feeling this bad about the hydrogenated fat, so must others. I was certain I was not going to make it using chips. I didn’t know that I wanted to use the chips. But what if there was an easier way, what if there was something I could add water to and then decorate with that. What if there was something that didn’t contain the hydrogenated fats. Hmmmm – now that might be helpful.
It wasn’t a mistake – it was a test; a test that ended in seeming failure each time, but opened up the door to another possibility. And so was born our Dog Treat Icing Mix line. I put my skills as a food scientist to work, mixing and combining dry powders until I got the right mix.
I think one of the things I am learning in all of this is to keep my eyes open during the whole process. There may be opportunity to help meet others needs in ways that I hadn’t originally thought about. At the end of the day – helping others is really what I enjoy the most about my business. The second part that I love is that it is for dogs. Combining two things that I love dearly with some experience, a bunch of mistakes (tests), and a willingness to maybe see it differently has made all the difference in the world.
Needless to say, when I got the call for pallet quantities of our dog treat icing mix, I nearly fell off my chair! Yep, you heard me – pallets of dog treat icing mix!!!
We did it – we made it national!!! Our icing mix is being used on products that are distributed nationally!!! WHOOOHOOO!!
What an amazing feeling have been working for so long and to have a customer believe not only in your products, but you. Finding great partners in business is so important to being able grow your own business and more importantly help your customers grow!
The owner in me starts immediately thinking of how to refocus the business and continue driving this thing forward. “Don’t lose momentum, keep pushing” is the mantra that begins to reverberate through my mind. But then I stop and remember “smell the roses, Vic.” Enjoy this win; enjoy this success! Give thanks and revel in this moment. Whatever else comes beyond this will come.
I’d love nothing more than to reveal all the details of our huge win – but for trademarks and confidentiality agreements, I am not at liberty to disclose the specifics of our success. Such is the nature of the ingredients business – since the main product isn’t ours, we have to respect the requests of our customers. But I can just tell you that myself and everyone behind the scenes at Everything Dog Treats went wild when the call came!!! Picture it in your mind – people jumping and yelling and slapping high fives for like an entire day. We would see each other and just fist pump or shout! It was AWESOME!!! It still is.
Even Sammy was excited – catching the energy we were spreading. I think he wagged his tail for an entire day – including while he slept!
Stick with your own businss – believe in your efforts and your products. If I can do it, no doubt you can.
