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Natural Preservatives
Rosemary, Cloves and Sage are natural preservatives used in Wysong dog food in Japan. These preservatives are said to be more effective than BHA and BHT.
Other natural preservatives: Vitamin E has a shorter shelf-life
Fresh, Frozen, Dehydrated
I once spoke to a nutritionist about frozen food vs canned vs fresh. His response was that whereas much of the nutrition is lost in the canning process, much is preserved in the freezing process. He said that produce begins to lose nutritive value after it is picked. The longer it takes to be consumed the less nutrition it has. Frozen food is frozen at the peak of nutrition and grocery store produce has been sitting several days before the consumer purchases it.
I haven't verified the accuracy of his statement, but it makes sense.
Not all foods lose their nutritive value when cooked, though. I've read several articles mentioning that broccoli still retains its cancer fighting abilities after being cooked and garlic's immune stimulating characteristics are enhanced by cooking.
I feel comfortable feeding frozen foods, uncomfortable feeding canned, and have reservations about feeding fresh. I often wonder what pesticides the store has sprayed on everything to keep the fruit flies away, and what preservatives have been used to keep apples and tubers so fresh-looking in the middle of winter......
gloria
Cooking and drying are a form of "preserving".
Pellets with NO preservatives will stay fresh for quite a long time, but obviously not as long as pellets which contain chemical preservatives. You just need to keep them clean and dry, and maybe keep them in an airtight container.
A "dried" blueberry will last longer than a "fresh" blueberry; a "dried" kernel of corn will last much longer than a "fresh" kernel, etc. Many "natural" foods assist in preserving, such as sugars, citrus acids, spices, and others. Cooking some foods, retards spoilage, by killing and removing surface molds, bacteria's, bugs, etc.
So, the very process of gathering, cooking and drying, ingredients for a pellet, is a process used to "preserve" those ingredients for a period of time, that should be longer then keeping those ingredients for the same period of time individually.
A well-formulated pellet with no chemical preservatives or dyes, can be very helpful to bird owners who do not have the time or space to gather, store, cook or not cook, and serve a large variety of those ingredients. They can also be beneficial, when the birds are being taken care of while the owners are on vacation, sick, etc. And, for bird owners, who never feed fresh foods to their birds, they would certainly supplement a seed-only diet.
A good example of a human food that will last a very long time with no chemical preservatives is a fruit cake. Fruit cakes are baked with no liquids, mainly eggs as the binding ingredient, and contain almost all dried fruits and nuts. They are baked in a very slow oven, to a relatively dry state, and then stored in an air-tight tin. A fruit cake can be eaten a year later, and still be edible. Sort of a human pellet! And, if the fruit cake is wrapped in a cheesecloth drenched in some form of alcohol, like rum or brandy, can actually last much longer.
So certain foods can last for quite a while, when prepared properly. Mary Sara Fields
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