July 14 2026
What Quality and Safety Mean to Veterinarian Recommended Solutions®
When choosing supplements for your furry loved one, you know that quality and safety matter: That’s why you’re reading this!
But what many don’t realize is that there are surprisingly few regulations governing what can go into a pet supplement and be sold to pet owners.
Here are some things to look for:
Quality Matters:
For us, quality means using the best possible ingredients with clinical evidence to support their use in dogs and cats. VRS chooses ingredients that are backed by the most up-to-date studies in pets, purposely choosing ingredients with true clinical results when creating our unique formulas.
What’s a gold standard study? A gold standard study is randomized, placebo controlled (or double controlled), and double-blinded.
Randomizing a study helps keep the study fair. It ensures that the groups being tested don’t favor any one particular trait. For example, a study on 100 dogs with Osteoarthritis would want to make sure to randomly split the groups of dogs into the test categories, so one group did not have every dog with less severe symptoms. Randomizing balances the qualities between the groups, allowing for clearer outcomes. This is not possible with any other study design.
Placebo-controlled studies allow for the product or ingredient being tested to be compared to something else. Placebo generally indicates giving a “blank” version of the product being tested without the ingredient you are trying to test it in (e.g., a fish oil with no EPA and DHA vs. a fish oil with EPA and DHA.) If you simply test whether EPA and DHA improve a dog’s lameness score, it could be because of the ingredients or it could be for another reason. Comparing it to a placebo allows scientists to see what similar dogs experienced without the active ingredient.
Imagine doing two loads of laundry. Both dirty white towels, but one you wash with detergent and baking soda, and one with just detergent. In this case, the load with the baking soda is what you are testing, and the load without the baking soda is the placebo group. Both groups went through the same washer, the same dryer, and you can see for yourself which towels turned out whiter!
A double-controlled study compares a product to a placebo and another existing ingredient. Double-controlled studies are rarer since they require more participants and cost more money, but they offer a wealth of information.
Fun Fact: Glycoprolex®, the active ingredient for joint health in TruBenefits® Osteo, was used in a double-controlled study against a placebo, as well as a popular pain medication, Carprofen. Glycoprolex® did much better than the placebo, and almost as well as the pain medication, without the side effects!
Double-blinded studies ensure that both the participants (and, in pet studies, their owners) and the researchers don’t know who receives the placebo versus the actual treatment. This approach keeps bias out of the reporting, including unfair judgment and personal preference. Once the study is complete and is unblinded, scientists check for any measurable results from the ingredient being tested, including mixed results. If the results are mixed, the study is inconclusive. If the results are clear, in which most of the pets on the active ingredient performed better than those on the placebo, the study is considered conclusive.
Science is evolving, and one study does not mean another cannot contradict it. That’s why it’s so important to look at what kind of study was done. Was it randomized and fair to begin with? Did it offer an opportunity for comparison with a placebo? And was it double-blinded to keep it unbiased?
Quality also means the correct dosing for dogs and cats based on their individual weights. For example, there are many supplements on the market that have great ingredients – but not in amounts that will show any results. It’s like eating one strawberry – it’s good for you! But it’s not going to get you to a full serving of the vitamins and minerals that a full cup of strawberries would provide. That’s why the dosing at VRS reflects the amounts shown in those clinical trials, which makes a difference.
Along with correct dosing, you want to make sure all the great ingredients and formulas you’re paying for are being absorbed and providing a benefit. For example, our TruBenefits® Omega has smaller doses of EPA and DHA than many other fish oils on the market. That’s because it’s in the triglyceride form. It is much easier for dogs and cats to absorb EPA and DHA in this way, which gives their bodies the chance to actually use the Omega-3s they consume.
Safety is Critical:
So, we’ve covered the quality of supplements, which includes the importance of a strong clinical foundation, dosing, and formulations. However, all that means nothing if the bottle you order does not contain the ingredients you carefully selected inside.
As we often say, the pet supplement industry is the ‘wild west’. There are very few laws and standards that regulate what is allowed in a bottle and to be sold to a pet owner. That’s why at VRS, we go above and beyond what is required. We use world-class cGMP manufacturing facilities, we use our own proprietary formulas for every nutraceutical, and we 3rd-Party Test every batch we make!
What is 3rd-Party Testing? 3rd-Party Testing is an independent evaluation of a product by an organization that’s not involved in its manufacture, distribution, or sales.
Ingredients are what you put into the bottle; 3rd-Party testing tells you what comes out of the bottle. Think about baking a cake: You need flour, eggs, sugar, baking soda, and vanilla. But once we stir with a whisk, apply heat from the oven, and let the cake cool, you have something entirely different than what you started with. A cake is more than the sum of its parts: chemical reactions have occurred and nutritional values can be different! And we all know someone who has a severe enough allergy that they cannot even use a cake pan because it has touched peanuts or gluten. 3rd Party-Testing offers peace of mind that what we put on the label is what you get in the bottle.
Independent labs test every batch of VRS nutraceuticals to verify each ingredient, confirm accurate amounts, and ensure harmful toxins are not present. So, you can rest easily knowing your pets have a safe, effective solution.
We also share those test results with you: Our Quality Check page on our website lets you look up each batch, so you can see the results for yourself!
Final Thoughts:
Quality and safety in pet supplements are crucial, and VRS focuses on clinical evidence and rigorous testing – in pets – to ensure effective and safe products. We select ingredients backed by gold standard studies and all of our products are formulated by veterinarians, leaving you with nutraceuticals you can trust for your pet’s long-term health.