Hill's Prescription Diet Gastrointestinal Biome Dry Cat Food

Does Prescription BIOME food have live cultures? What-if... it gets cooked in transit? – UPDATE: Hill's Biome Prescription products are, NOT PROBIOTIC live cultures. They define their products as BIOME support food. (ActivBiome+ is prebiotic fibre) So it is a combination of foods and fibre to feed and rebalance the existing biome in the cat's gut. (information given by Hill's and transcribed from phone call) but an email response… Read more ·  1

also coming to confirm.

We were advised to get this for our cat, from the Vet (who sells it when they have stock) Hills BIOME cat food, wet or dry. This stuff is expensive, $60 per 1.8kg RRP, but so are the other medicines our unwell cat has needed.

I have tried contacting Hills by phone a few times (busy in meetings message) and through websites and chat sites I haven't received an answer by email yet (just the placeholder auto reply), I eventually got an explanation from a Hills vet in USA or should I say a vet that answers questions for Hills, because the following response seems to be a generalised reply for "biome" probiotics.

'The biome product may have active cultures, as can be further explained in the BIOME category of products in USA. Shipping, handling and storage should ensure temperatures of 95 degrees are not exceeded because this will reduce the effectiveness of the biome product......'

Fair enough, that is completely accurate and I also take biome probiotic products myself from time to time and a recommended temperature range is consistent advice.

I initially stopped worrying about temperature because 95 degrees is huge, but then I realised we might be referring to the Farenheight, so consider the Celcius equivalent (ie 35°C).

I contacted Petbarn and Australia Post to check if special handling notes about requirements for transport in cooler temperatures and prescription medication was contained in box.

Australia Post put an enquiry flag on the delivery to get a response from the sender and I just got lip service from Petbarn to say they are sure their staff know what they are doing.

When the parcel was delivered, I asked the courier driver and he didn't know the details of the flag on delivery (that is for the sender) he confirmed it was hot work delivering on Thursday 7th December and the aircon in his van might not make the temp low enough in the back. He didn't have any instructions to keep the parcel of medicine up front where it is cooler.

Any business that knows about shipping and handling of food products and medicines would have training and education about how temperature would affect live cultures and other biome products. Petbarn would know about special handling for live insects and fresh pet food products, but have not thought about equivalent procedures for biome products and medicines.

I have video of recording the temperature inside the box of biome cat food when I opened it. The temperature in the box is above 95 degrees Fahrenheit and there is ZERO consideration for insulation packaging inside the carton. Whoever packed the biome cat food, may as well had the training for packing plastic dog toys.

The Green Cross Vet who answers enquiries for Petbarn has told me that she is unaware of any Petbarn special handling requirements for Hill's products, so that passes the buck back to Hill's.

There are numerous articles stating the case for temperature controlled transportation and storage of biome probiotic products (for humans) and the alternative is costs for the supplier versus benefits for the consumer.

See attached article for relevant discussion of probiotic, but as my update has suggested, the Hill's Biome Prescription products are not probiotic.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0736/3645/files/IMP-07878_-_ExeGi_Pharma_Cold_Chain_White_Paper_Web_db2661b7-7a78-4f23-80c4-f7a7ffbce01c.pdf?v=1602518810

The updated advice is that temperatures above 38°C or wet environments will degrade the Hill's Biome dry cat food quickly, but the unopened (sealed from manufacturer) product is able to take the higher temperatures for 48 hours and that is due to the fats and oils that are contained in the product more than the prebiotic fibres being the limiting factor.