Turn your health benefits into evidence that sells.
For Private Labels, Pet Supplements & Nutraceuticals, Pet Cosmetics & More
Lab4Paws runs lab-based tests on your ingredient or product and tells you exactly which health claims you can make — and defend. No animal testing. No guesswork.
- Independent Claim Testing Lab
- Pharma-level science.
- Built for pet food.
Differentiate with Proof: the trust positioning
This isn't just about having better copy on your packaging. It's about what a defensible, science-backed claim does to your entire commercial position.
Market share
Stand out from competitors still using vague claims. Give distributors and retailers a reason to choose you.
Pricing power
Science-backed claims justify premium pricing. When you can prove your product works, you stop competing on price.
Margin improvement
Higher prices. Stronger positioning. Lower churn. Validated claims improve margins across the board.
Customer trust
Consumers, distributors, and retail buyers trust brands that can back their claims. Trust converts to loyalty. Loyalty converts to repeat purchase.
Veterinary channel access
Vets stock and recommend what they can defend clinically. A validated claim with supporting test data is the credential that opens that conversation — for independent practices and corporate clinic groups alike.
One test. One validated claim. A completely different commercial conversation.
Embeddable certification
Show the proof right where customers decide
A lightweight widget you drop onto your product page. It carries your validated in-vitro claims from our lab straight to the shelf — with the detail behind each one a click away.
Live on your store in minutes
Same widget, wherever you sell.
ShopifyOne-click app install
WooCommercePlugin for WordPress
Any websitePaste one line of code
What your customers see
01
The trust badge
A compact, tap-to-open badge sits on the product page. It names the lab, counts the validated claims, and links straight to the proof.
02
The full proof panel
Open the panel and every validated claim is laid out in detail — cell model, challenge, readout, and the measured response against an untreated control and a reference comparator.
03
You choose what shows
From your dashboard, toggle which validated claims appear on each product. Only claims from a completed study can be shown — a claim you did not test has no toggle, by design.
Your Claims Are Holding You Back — And You Might Not Know It
Most ingredient manufacturers and pet food brands use claims extrapolated from scientific literature.
The problem: if it's published, everyone can use the same claim.
We analysed 15,855 pet food products. The top four claim themes appear on 40–71% of all products. If your brand is using any of them without validation, you are one distributor conversation away from a problem.
Commoditization
When every brand on the shelf makes the same vague claim — 'supports immune health', 'promotes vitality' — yours disappears. No claim, no differentiation. No differentiation, no premium.
Distributor and retailer pressure
Distributors and retail buyers are increasingly asking for substantiation. If you can't back your claim with data, you're negotiating on price — not value.
Strategic paralysis
Without clarity on what your product actually does, your marketing strategy is guesswork. New packaging, new channels, new products — all expensive bets when the real fix is knowing what you can honestly claim.
Vet Channel Barrier
Vets don't recommend products they can't explain. With a validated claim and a test report, you give the vet data they can actually use to recommend your product to patients and colleagues
The reality of the market:
growing comoditization
Every brand on these shelves is making the same four claims. None of them have data behind them. Be the first brand in your category that does, on shelf, and in the vet clinics.
What If You Knew Exactly What Your Product Can Claim?
Lab4Paws tests your active ingredient or actual finished formulation and tells you which health claims are scientifically defensible. In 4–6 weeks.
Step 1
Choose Your Benefit
You choose the health benefit you want to claim — immune support, antioxidant protection, circulation, vitality, healthy ageing and more.
Step 2
Product Preparation & Assays
We test your ingredients or prepare an extract or fraction of your finished product and run it through validated biological assays using lab-based canine or feline cell models.
Step 3
Real Biological Data
Real biological data shows exactly what your formulation does — validated, quantified, defensible.
Step 4
Receive Science-Backed Claim
You receive a science-backed claim statement and supporting test report — ready for packaging, marketing, distributor conversations, and veterinary channel presentations — in 4–6 weeks.
Nine Functional Panels. One Goal: Health Claims You Can Defend
Each panel is a defined set of readouts in canine and feline cell models. Claims are scoped to exactly what the panel measures. For each panel, 2 products or formulations are tested against each others.
Readouts on gut-barrier integrity, digestive enzyme activity and how efficiently nutrients cross the intestinal wall. Supports claims around digestive support and improved nutrient uptake, scoped to the cell models tested.
Markers linked to skin-barrier function, hydration and coat condition. Supports claims around skin comfort and coat quality, limited to the measured markers.
Immune-cell signalling and inflammatory markers quantified in relevant models. Supports measured, scope-limited claims about immune regulation and inflammatory response.
Sensitisation and allergic-response markers assessed in canine and feline models. Frames claims around tolerance and reduced reactivity, scoped to what was tested.
Antioxidant capacity and oxidative-damage markers. Supports cellular-protection and antioxidant claims based on the readouts measured.
Lipid handling, energy metabolism and metabolic-signalling markers. Supports metabolic-support claims within the tested pathways.
Markers of cartilage and joint-cell health alongside local inflammation. Supports mobility and joint-comfort claims, scoped to the panel.
Endothelial and vascular-function markers. Supports circulation-related claims limited to the measured endpoints.
Cellular-ageing and stress-resilience readouts combined. Supports general wellbeing and longevity claims, scoped to the markers tested.
Experience from Pharma.
Now for Nutraceuticals, Pet Food & Supplements.
For your customers, this means trust your competitors cannot match.
Lab4Paws works alongside veterinary pharmaceutical companies on the development of new drugs, diagnostics, and medicaments. This means two things for you: our testing standards are pharma-grade — the same rigour applied to clinical drug development — and we have first-hand, real-time access to the latest feedback from the pharma and clinical world. When we validate your claim, it's not validated to pet food industry standards. It's validated to pharma standards. That's your competitive moat.
Human-grade quality testing protocols
Our standards meet the rigorous demands of pharmaceutical development, ensuring your pet food claims are based on the highest scientific integrity.
Pharma and clinical-world insights applied to pet nutrition
In-vitro lab testing only — no live animal testing, ever
Our commitment to ethical and efficient research means all testing is conducted in a lab, providing faster, more reproducible, and humane results.
Ethical, Fast, and Reproducible Results
All our testing is lab-based and in-vitro — meaning we test on cell models, not live animals. This is not only a more ethical approach — it's also faster, more reproducible, and increasingly preferred by regulators and consumers alike.
The Scientists Behind the Claim
When you send us your product, these are the people testing it.
Davide Confalonieri, PhD
Founder & CEO
Davide is a biotechnology entrepreneur and scientist with a background in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and preclinical research. He founded Lab4Paws to close the infrastructure gap in veterinary science — and applies the same scientific standards to pet food claim validation that his lab uses daily for pharmaceutical clients. His experience spans scientific research, international commercial strategy, and building scalable platforms for veterinary preclinical science.
Shrinidhi Thottangal Mohan, MSc MSc
Head of Laboratory Operations
Shrinidhi holds a Master's degree in Microbiology and Molecular and Cellular Biology. She leads laboratory operations at Lab4Paws, specialising in the isolation and expansion of animal primary cells, development of in vitro models, and optimisation of cell culture systems. The biological assays behind every validated pet food claim run through her hands.
WHY LAB-BASED TESTING
Why lab testing - and how it compares to clinical studies.
Your way to proofing health benefit.
The formulation screening advantage
In the lab you test candidates. In a trial you test a finished product. If you want to optimise before you manufacture, the lab is the only option.
Lab lane:
50+ formulations/day, starting from the raw materials
Start months before production
best performer out
optimise, retest, go to production
Clinical lane:
1 finished product , dependent from production
3–6 months trial
pass or fail
if fail: start over
What lab results tell you
If it doesn't work on the cells, it won't work in the animal. A negative lab result kills a bad claim before you invest in it.
If it works on the cells, it can work in the animal — depends on the mechanism. We'll tell you what works before you spend money.
Not all clinical evidence is equal. A controlled trial with measured biomarkers is strong data. A pet parent questionnaire is an anecdote. Both get called "studies." They're not the same.
Screen in the lab first. Optimise. Then go clinical if you need to.
The Alternatives Are More Expensive Than You Think
Most brands facing this problem try one of these paths first — and most of them cost more and deliver less than a single science-backed test.
Competing on price
Margin erosion with no end in sight. You win on price, you lose on brand.
Generic claims and better packaging
Looks different on the shelf. Says the same thing. Retailers and savvy consumers see through it.
Launching new products
High development cost, same underlying problem — no validated claims to differentiate the new SKU either.
Exploring new channels
Entering the veterinary channel without substantiation — Vets require data, not marketing copy. Showing up without validated claims doesn't just fail. It closes the door.
Doing nothing
The brands with validated science-backed claims take your shelf space, your distributors, and your customers.
A single lab test costs less than a packaging redesign — and gives you something packaging never can: proof.
Calculate Price Estimate
Pick the species, format and claim areas that matter to you to calculate your price estimate.
- 01SP
- 02FM
- 03PL
- 04QT
- 05CT
01
Which species are you testing for?
2–3 Weeks From Sample to Claim
Week 1
Sample preparation and cell culture setup
Week 2
Testing and biological analysis using validated canine and feline cell models
Week 3
Data interpretation, scientific reporting, and claim formulation
Delivery
Final validated claim statement + supporting test summary ready for packaging and marketing use
What the law actually requires — in the EU, UK, and US
Health claims on pet food and supplements are not unregulated. In every major market, the person putting the product on the market is legally responsible for being able to substantiate what they claim — on request, at any time, to the competent authority. Most brands are not ready for that conversation.
EU
Under EU Regulation (EC) No 767/2009, Article 13(1)(b), health claims on pet food must be backed by scientific evidence — available before the product goes to market, not after a challenge arrives. The FEDIAF Code of Good Labelling Practice confirms that in-house and proprietary data counts. An in-vitro biological study on your finished formulation is valid substantiation under this framework.
UK
The principles of the EU feed regulations were retained in UK domestic law after Brexit. The FSA is responsible for controlling claims and the implementation of safety measures. The substantiation standard is the same: scientific evidence, available on request, before market entry.
US
The FDA, AAFCO model regulations, and FTC truth-in-advertising standard all require the same thing: claims must be truthful and supported by competent scientific evidence. In-vitro biological data on finished formulations is accepted as part of a substantiation package for functional and structure/function claims.
Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about our testing process, results, and how we can help your brand succeed.
How long does testing take?
What if I don't know which claim to test?
Do I need to disclose my recipe or proprietary formulation?
Is this animal testing?
What if results show something I didn't expect?
Can I test multiple products?
Can a vet use our test results to justify recommending our product?
We want to approach vet clinics or a clinic group. Is this the right starting point?
Download our Guide to Proving Health Benefits.
For Pet Food Ingredients & Supplements Manufacturers
Don't know where to start?
Download here a working manual for generating real biological evidence behind cat and dog health claims.
Everything a formulator's compliance team will ask you for, and how each answer is produced.
