The Raw Materials

The selection of raw materials is of paramount importance to obtain a product whose characteristics provide the optimum nutritional intake and biological value for the welfare of pets. In Farmina, we use only the best products of our partners to get food nutritionally able to meet, in the best way, the nutritional needs of dogs and cats. In our food are raw materials fit for human consumption. In the wet food, for example, you can see whole pieces of muscle and vegetables that you can enjoy with your eyes. Those same elements are then pulverized and used in the composition of our dry food. The higher quality of the elements ensures the highest quality of the finished product and thus, a useful food to the wellbeing of pets.

The wellbeing of animals is the value guide followed by Farmina to achieve complete and balanced food, able to assure for dogs and cats of every age, race and weight, the correct amounts of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals..
For this reason, Farmina chooses products with careful choice of the best ingredients, deprived of GMO, with meat coming from healthy animals and fit for human consumption.

Protein
Farmina Pet Foods utilizes primay source of protein from chicken, fish, lamb and eggs. The dehydrated chicken meat present in Farmina products derives from whole Italian chickens freshly slaughtered, free of feathers and other waste products of the animal.
All this helps to make this raw material a food with high contents of biological value protein, with a digestibility of 95%.
The fish, utilized by Farmina Pet Foods, is Scandinavia origin and derives exclusively from animals caught at sea and not of breeding.
The raw materials are low chloride content, with protein with an amino acid profile to assure a cured contribution of essential amino acids.
The Farmina products containing lamb are particularly indicated for subjects with manifested problems of cutaneous allergies. The dehydrated lamb meat is of New Zeland origin.
The eggs are transported fresh to the shelling plants and here the liquid egg is transformed into powder through a process of dehydration for atomization, which guarantees the maximum preservation of the nourishing elements of this food, whose proteins have a highly elevated biological value.

Fats
Fats represent a primary source of energy for dogs and cats. The choice of lipids to be used is of fundamental importance also to the goals of appetizing and to the contribution of all the essential fat acids for a correct nutrition.
The fat from chicken, the oil from fish, the vegetable oils, among which those contained in the flax seed, allow furnishing the animals the required essential fat acids.
Furthermore, the percentage of fatty acids omega-3 type and fatty acids omega-6 type, is held in the proper ratio, thanks to the balanced mix of raw materials bearer of lipids.
All this allows for control of inflammation and maintenance in good condition of the skin and fur.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), in fact, play an important role in the maintenance of skin function, maintaining more stable all membranes, thus ensuring greater elasticity to skin protecting it from aging.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are another important source of Energy for dogs and cats. In particular carbohydrates provide readily available Energy.
The digestibility and availability of carbohydrates of our foods derive from the raw materials use, as first class rice and corn, OGM free, and from technological processes and controls which they are subject.
Treatment with twin-screw extruders, as the ones used by us, allows to enhance maximum digestibility and availability of these important nutrients.
In terms of controls, important are all activities developed to ensure the absence of mycotoxins and aflatoxins.

Fibers: modulators of digestion and assimilation
In a balanced food, the correct intake of fiber plays an important role in the regulation of intestinal transit of food ingested.
Farmina products utilizes as an important source of fiber beet pulp, which promotes the formation of good stool consistency. The beet pulp contributes to keep the intestine in good health, also thanks to the action of fatty acids, also thanks to the action of short-chain fatty acids produced by their fermentation by the intestinal microflora, representing a primary energy source for the intestinal villi.
Similarly, the use of substances in Farmina products bearers of fructo-oligosaccarides (FOS), can produce beneficial effects in the intestine, promoting the development of lactic flora, an antagonist of the pathogen.
The presence of yeast, and extracts, rich in mannanoligodaccharides (MOS), in addition to the contribution of direct B vitamins and natural substances with antioxidant, amino acid and peptides easily and completely assimilated, promotes beneficial action on the intestine due to the exclusion of bowel bacteria and the selective removal of potential toxins. Furthermore, yeasts and extracts, strongly activate the immune system specificity.
Farmina pays particular attention to the mix of fiber products for certain species, races and classes of animals. For example, for those who show special predisposition to constipation or the tendency to gain weight, the product is enriched of pea fiber and cellulose powder. These fibers help reduce enteric problems, promote intestinal peristalsis, and at the same time, help to give a correct sense of satiety in the animal.
The seeds of psyllium, when added, are a natural laxative, and thanks to their content of natural mucilage, determine an increase and softening of the fecal mass.

Vitamins, minerals and substances with targeted effect
Vitamins are essential for proper nutrition because they are the most important driver of biochemical reactions in the body.
Vitamin deficiencies occur in some cases so specific and obvious, in others in a more silent or with a state of general weakening of the subject.
Daily intake of the appropriate amounts of vitamins is important to help the dog and cat towards a smooth operation of all vital functions.
Farmina products, vitamin supplementation is also complete and balanced according to the physiological and developmental stage of the animal.
The application in post extrusion is a further guarantee for the preservation in time of the vitamins included in the food (System Long Life Vitamins).
Similarly, great care and attention is given to the inclusion of mineral through the addition of macrominerals and oligoelements opportunely balanced for each species and category of dogs and cats.
As above, because Farmina attaches great importance to a holistic approach to feeding our four-legged friends, paying close attention to those nutrients which play a requested focused action, and that together with all other components present in competing a global welfare of the animal.
To support the welfare of the joints, especially for food designated to large animals and particular breeds, or animals in old age, Farmina products are fortified with glucosamine and chondroitin.
Taurine helps regulate the osmosis cells and supports cardiac function: its inclusion along with that of L-carnitine in food is exceptionally well designed to increase the mobilization of metabolic body fat storage and preserving lean muscle mass.
Methionine, lysine, cystine are amino acids and the inclusion of which has the task to help increase the biological value of protein in Farmina food products, to respond better to specific amino acid requirements of different species and animal categories.
 Beta-carotene and lutein are two carotenoids with characteristics of pro-vitamins that accompany and enrich the vitamin supplementation in many Farmina products.
Lastly, natural plant extracts from grapes and green tea, enhance the antioxidant action.