Those heartbreaking incidents made pet owners worldwide much more aware of how important it is to feed our animal companions foods that are safe and of good quality.

We cannot avert all food-related problems. The fact that even human beings consuming meals from established companies and restaurants, or at home, still occassionally fall ill ( and in some cases causes death) from food poisoning, shoes there is only so much that vigilance can do.

However, when it comes to our health and that of our pets, we can at least take the precautions of checking what ingredients have gone into the food products we serve, researching the policies and suppliers of the companies that produce the food, and finding out from veterinarians or holistic pet-health studies what kinds of ingredients tend to cause health or allergy problems in pets.

Many owners, as a result of the tainted-ingredient pet-food scandal in the US, have seriously considered home-cooking their pets' meals, while others are turning to organic, holistic or raw varieties of pet food. But how good are these options?

Cooking for pets presents the problem of getting the tricky nutritional requirements for dogs or cats down pat. Wild animals hunt and forage for a wide variety of food, thus increasing their chances of obtaining all the nutrients they need. But our long-domesticated pet species no longer have the instincts or digestive systems of wild animals, and depend almost entirely on us to provide them with the necessary nutrition. If you want to cook for your pet, you must find out exactly what nutrients your cat needs, which foods contain them, how much of each type of food contain them, how much of each type of food to give per day, and what ordinary "human foods" you must never use because they will kill your pet.