Plastics in Pet Food: What You Can Control—And Why It Matters

What We Can and Can’t Control

You can’t control the air your pet breathes, the lawn chemicals your neighbor sprays, or the stress hormones that shape your pet’s day.

 

You can control the food bowl, for the most part. That’s where most lifetime toxin exposure begins — and the one place where you can influence health vs dis-ease.

 

Completely eliminating plastics from a pet’s diet is nearly impossible. Every ingredient, package, and transport step interacts with some form of polymer. But you can choose foods that minimize contact: those never heated inside plastic (such as high-pressure pasteurized (HPP) or sous-vide foods) and those packed in paper or cardboard rather than flexible film. Each avoided layer of plastic is one less route for phthalates and plasticizers to leach into your pet’s food.

Why Small Exposures Matter

A single trace of a phthalate isn’t alarming. Even many traces may seem inconsequential. The concern is chronic accumulation — when every meal, every day, brings micro-doses of compounds designed to make plastic soft.

 

Phthalates like DEHP, DIBP, and DBP are well-documented endocrine disruptors. In humans, long-term exposure is linked to:

• Reduced testosterone and altered reproductive function (Howdeshell et al., Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2008)
• Thyroid and adrenal hormone changes (Huang et al., Environ Health Perspect 2017)
• Neurodevelopmental and cognitive impairment in children (Sathyanarayana et al., Environ Res 2022)

If such effects appear in humans with tiny daily exposures, imagine the impact on a 10- or 15-pound animal whose metabolism and hormone feedback loops operate on a much smaller scale. Further, in most pets, their hormone feedback is already significantly disrupted by early castration.

 

Quantitative HTMA analyses from hundreds of cases show a clear pattern: pets fed HPP, sous-vide, kibble, or canned foods exhibit more frequent and/or more significant adrenal and thyroid imbalances than those eating foods that avoid plastic exposures with minimal plastic contact and no heat-step involving plastic packaging. While correlation is not causation, the trend matches what toxicologists expect from low-dose EDC exposure.

 

The Lab Reality

Independent testing at HRI Labs found phthalates in five mainstream kibbles (Purina Pro Plan, Royal Canin, Taste of the Wild, Natural Balance, and V-Dog).

 

Detected levels ranged from tens to thousands of parts per billion, including DEHP (≤402 ppb) and octyl phthalate (≤1,359 ppb)

 

Phthalates Labs

 

Analyte Detection – Results in ppb	Limit of Detection	Purina Pro Plan	Royal Canin	Taste of the Wild	Natural Balance	Vdog
Dipropyl Phthalate (DPP)	1	3.11	1.43	5.4	75.41	1.24
Diisopropyl Phthalate (DIPP)	1	36.99	24.87	60.96	13.68	7.19
Phthalic acid bis(n-ocytl) ester (DNOP) (BANNED IN CHILDREN’S TOYS >1,000ppb)	2	1,183.71	657.86	659.59	1,359.65	11.62
Phthalic acid bis(2-ethoxy) ethyl ester	2	54.58	16.79	73.95	176.38	1.76
Bis isobutyl ester	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	249.3
Phthaltic acid bis ethyl ester	5	200.34	89.37	229.11	402.27	14.45
Phthalic acid bis (cyclohexyl) ester (DCHP) (BANNED IN CHILDREN’S TOYS)	5	ND	ND	5.85	9.76	ND

— levels so high that several would violate the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act if these foods were children’s toys.

 

How do phthalates get into kibble?

High-heat extrusion is performed inside stainless steel barrels with synthetic lubricants, followed by plastic conveyors and liners that retain heat and grease. Every step is a leaching opportunity as fat and heat draw plasticizers from these surfaces into the food.

 

HPP and Sous Vide: Hidden Variables

Manufacturers often promote HPP and sous-vide as “safe raw” methods. Both technologies use >15 % flex plastic that directly contacts the food under intense pressure or heat. Our own testing on an HPP-treated raw food found 9–34 ppb of DEHP, and those results are likely common across similar processes. Although such numbers appear small, pets fed these foods daily may face a lifetime of low-grade EDC exposure that compounds over years.

 

Even scientific reviews acknowledge that “safe” thresholds for phthalates may not apply to endocrine systems because these chemicals often act at non-linear, ultra-low doses (Vandenberg et al., Endocrine Rev 2012).

 

The Illusion of “Too Low to Matter”

Yes, calculations show that 9–34 ppb DEHP alone is unlikely to reach toxic levels within a pet’s lifetime. But that assumes no other sources — no toy chewing, no plastic bowls, no vinyl flooring, no long-term use of HPP or sous vide meals, and no fat-soluble storage in tissue. Phthalates accumulate in fat and liver and are poorly excreted. For neutered pets with already altered hormone feedback, even trace levels can add stress to adrenal and thyroid systems over time.

 

The true danger isn’t a single batch — it’s the cumulative, compounding load of plasticized meals fed for years.

 

How Solutions Pet Products Reduces Plastic Exposure

• No plastic packaging for our fermented raw foods, raw milks, or gelatin Jiggles — we use cardboard and paper.
• Raw only, never HPP, cooked, or stored in plastic. Our meats are shipped in plastic-lined boxes to contain blood but never heated or processed with plastic.
• Soft cheese exception: kept in plastic only to maintain texture, minimizing risk since it’s fully raw and never heated.

This approach eliminates a major variable in your pet’s health — and that control matters. Reducing EDC burden supports hormone balance, brain clarity, fertility, and longevity.

 

The Unknowns Still Matter

Long-term phthalate research in pets barely exists. Given how often human toxicology has underestimated low-dose risks (think lead, asbestos, PFAS), it’s wise to act with caution now. Eliminating every plastic is impossible, but each choice you make toward less plastic exposure is a vote for your pet’s hormonal resilience and long-term vitality.

 

You can’t control the world, but you can control the bowl.

 

Avoid HPP, sous vide, kibble, and canned foods as daily staples. Choose fresh, fermented, raw foods in non-plastic packaging whenever possible — because every small choice adds up to a healthier, more vibrant life for your pet.