Addressing Concerns about Avian Flu

UPDATED APRIL 19, 2025

A decade ago, Food Fur Life was created in the middle of an avian flu outbreak.  Avian flu is not new, and the highly pathogenic form (H5N1) was first detected in the U.S. in wild birds and backyard flocks in the 2014-2015 outbreak. In January 2022,  the USDA/APHIS reported the first detection of HPAI in wild birds in the United States since that first 2014-2016 outbreak.

Testing protocols of not just avian flu, but the numerous contaminants common in the food chain supply of our human grade manufacturer and the human grade source materials used in our premix were primary factors in our relationship decision. Testing protocols of this manufacturer have kept humans and pets safe: they have a no recalls of any kind for any reason in their multi-decade history of production for national and international organizations, not just small companies like Food Fur Life.

Regarding the safety of ingredients of concern in the EZComplete premix:

- Egg yolk. EZC contains dried egg yolk, which is sourced as liquid yolk. This, by law (in the human grade market at least) is required to be heat pasteurized. This heat pasteurization has proven to  render the highly pathogenic avian flu unable to cause infection.

- Eggshell. The 450g bags of EZComplete fur Cats was already switched to calcium carbonate from eggshell in 2023. The 225g bags and 450g EZComplete fur Dogs at the current inventory fulfillment are also being switched to calcium carbonate from eggshell.

- Chicken Liver. Due to an outbreak of avian flu when EZComplete entered the market, the supplier of this ingredient switched from freeze-drying to spray-drying. We were upset about this at the time, but had more than sufficient supplementation of the B vitamins to account for the change. A decade later, upon verifying the specifications of the method used, it has been confirmed that the chicken liver ingredient in the premix is safe from the highly pathogenic avian influenza. The spray-drying of the product has an intake at 150C (302F) and is 100C (212F) at the outlet. This is more than sufficient for safety purposes of all known potential pathogens, including HPAI, especially notable given it is just 74 microns.

Despite the safety steps already in place, the food ingredients in EZComplete premixes are human grade and tested for avian flu. (HPAI is a serotype of avian influenza A and will test positive when tested for it). Of course, this is in addition to all of the other contaminant testing, and this means each ingredient as appropriate, each batch. The testing is done by one of the world's largest independent labs as a third-party provider to our human nutraceutical cGMP manufacturer with NSF certification.

REGARDING FOOD SAFETY: FOOD FUR LIFE RECOMMENDS COOKING POULTRY.

The EZComplete premixes are designed to make raw or cooked meats nutritionally complete and balanced per AAFCO nutrient guidelines. Cooking meat to 165F (79.9C) kills the avian flu virus according to the FDA. We recommend cooking all poultry, which is safe as meat used with EZComplete must be boneless.

When cooking meat to make food, please follow the instructions for how to properly make the food with cooked meats as the amount of premix to use is based on the raw weight prior to cooking. This information is on the bags and on the How To sections for Cats and Dogs here, on the website:

How to Prepare and Feed EZComplete fur Cats
How to Prepare and Feed EZComplete fur Dogs

Finally, it has come to our attention that some people feel locally sourced poultry is safe. To our knowledge, this is not the case. There is no step a local farm can take that is safer than a large factory farm: the only difference is the size of flock that may have to be euthanized. "Pastured" meat is definitely not safe, as that enables flocks to come into contact with infected bird feces outside. Make no mistake,  the source of avian flu is migrating birds.