Test your product. Get the data that wins trust and sales.

For Private Labels, Pet Supplements & Nutraceuticals, Pet Cosmetics & More

For Pet Supplements/Nutraceuticals For Private Labels

You want to prove your product is different? 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.

Who it's for

Who Lab4Paws is for

Pet food & supplement brands

Prove a claim before a vet or distributor asks you to.

→For Pet Supplements/Nutraceuticals

Ingredient & botanical suppliers

Give your brand customers a claim they can defend, so they keep reordering your ingredient.

→For Ingredient Suppliers

CDMO & private label

Hand your clients efficacy proof that helps their product sell through.

→For Private Labels

You know your product works.

You just have no data for it.

Most pet food and supplement claims trace back to human, rodent, or livestock studies — not a dog or cat.

We analysed 15,855 pet food products: the top four claim themes appear on 40–71% of them. If your brand uses any of those claims without species-specific data, a distributor or a vet can ask a question you can't answer. Competing on price erodes margin with no floor. A validated claim doesn't just differentiate — it's the credential a vet needs before recommending your product to a client.

Every month in that loop, your launch stock ages and a competitor gets there first.

No proof

Slow sell-through

No reorder

No budget

If you already experienced one of these, you are in the right place:

Your claim sounds like everyone's else, so buyers pick on price.

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.

Your evidence is an ingredient study in humans or mice. And someone always ask "but in dog?"

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.

A vet or distributor wanted proof, and you didn't have it.

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

Why a validated functional claim?

One test. One validated claim. A completely different commercial conversation.

Pricing power

Science-backed claims justify premium pricing. When you can prove your product works, you stop competing on price.

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.

Ingredient interaction

One ingredient, tested alone, isn't your product

Most claim literature tests one ingredient in isolation. Combine two actives that share a pathway and the effect can cancel out, add up, or multiply — a single-ingredient study can't tell you which one you got in your formulation.

Predicted vs. actual combined effect

Predicted (sum of the two ingredients alone)Actual measured combined effect

AntagonismActual below predicted

AdditiveActual equals predicted

SynergyActual above predicted

General pharmacology exampleCurcumin + piperine

Piperine (from black pepper) slows the metabolism of curcumin and raises its bioavailability by a large margin (Shoba et al., Planta Medica, 1998). Neither ingredient's own literature predicts that shift — it only shows up when the two are measured together.

Testing the finished formulation is the only way to know what your actual combination does — which is what every Lab4Paws panel tests.

THE EVIDENCE LADDER

Three ways to back a health claim (instead of clinical trials)

Level 1: Ingredient literature
Studies run in humans or rodents, then assumed to apply to dogs and cats.
Level 2: In-vitro on human or generic cells
Real lab work, but not on the species you sell to.
Level 3: Species-specific canine and feline cell testing
Your formula, tested on dog and cat cells. This is what Lab4Paws does.

Measure us against the shelf, not against a clinical trial. A clinical trial answers a medical question. This answers whether you can defend the claim to a vet, a buyer, or a pet parent.

Planning a clinical trial? Tell us and we'll show you where cell testing fits first.

Nine Functional Panels. One per health area you want to claim.

Each panel is a defined set of readouts in canine and feline cell models. Claims are scoped to exactly what the panel measures. Test one formula on its own, or compare two. Three ways to run a panel: against your own reformulation, against a named competitor, or against a biological control only. A comparator is optional.

Get a Quote

Need a readout the panels don't cover, or mechanistic depth? Get in touch for a Quote!

Pricing

Get a Quote

Pick the species, format and claim areas that matter to you to receive a dedicated quote.

01TS
02HA
03RX
04SP
05FM
06SK
07CT

What are you testing?

Not sure yet?

Download our Sample Report

Not sure where to start yet or if it's the right fit for you?

Download our anonymised report to get a full overview of the data and claim information you will get at the end of testing.

Company

Built on Pharma Testing Standards.

Lab4Paws runs alongside veterinary pharmaceutical clients on drug and diagnostic development. The same cell isolation and assay validation standards used there apply to every pet food panel — in-vitro only, no live animal testing at any stage.

Pharma-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.

Planning a clinical trial? Tell us and we'll show you where cell testing fits first.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

2-3 weeks from sample submission to final validated claim statement.

What if I don't know which claim to test?

Contact us at customer-service@lab4paws.com for a strategy call. We help you identify the most commercially valuable claim your formulation can support.

Do I need to disclose my recipe or proprietary formulation?

No. We test your finished product as-is. No formulation disclosure required. For more advanced testing it might be necessary to disclose the formulation. In this case, we'll sign a NDA before discussing any proprietary information.

Is this animal testing?

No. All our testing is in-vitro — conducted on cell models in a laboratory setting. No live animals are used at any stage.

What if results show something I didn't expect?

We work with you to identify an alternative claim the data supports — one that's equally defensible and commercially compelling.

Can I test multiple products?

Yes. We can co-run multiple SKUs, contact us for bulk pricing with the "Check Pricing" form above.

Can a vet use our test results to justify recommending our product?

Yes. The test report we provide includes the methodology, cell models used, and quantified biological outcomes. It is written to be scientifically legible — meaning a veterinarian can read it, evaluate it, and explain the mechanism to a client or colleague. It is not a marketing summary. It is a scientific document.

We want to approach vet clinics or a clinic group. Is this the right starting point?

It is the most important starting point. Vets are trained to ask 'how do you know this?' If your answer is 'our supplier says so' or 'it's on the label,' the conversation ends. A validated claim with a test report gives you a credible, specific answer to that question — in terms a vet recognizes.