The Prescription Label Is Not a Marketing Tier
A therapeutic diet earns its classification through clinical function, not ingredient prestige. Regulatory bodies in most markets require that a food carrying a veterinary prescription claim demonstrate, through feeding trials or nutritional analysis, that it achieves a specific physiological effect, dissolving struvite crystals, reducing phosphorus load on failing kidneys, limiting the antigenic proteins that trigger an immune response in the gut. A premium bag on a retail shelf, however high its ingredient quality, is formulated to meet maintenance nutritional standards for a healthy animal. It is not designed to intervene in a disease process, and it cannot legally claim to do so.
