Therapeutic and veterinary diet

A therapeutic diet, also called a veterinary diet, is a food formulated to support the management of a specific diagnosed condition, such as kidney, urinary, or digestive disease, or excess weight, through a deliberately adjusted nutrient profile. In the European Union these products sit within a defined legal class, foods intended for particular nutritional purposes, governed by a dedicated regulation, and their labels carry a recommendation for use under veterinary supervision (Regulation (EU) 2020/354). In the United States, the comparable category is generally made available only on a veterinarian's written recommendation, with the [FDA CVM](/glossary/fda-cvm) overseeing how foods presented as acting on disease may be labelled (FDA CVM, 2022). The nutritional adjustment is concrete: a renal diet, for instance, characteristically reduces phosphorus and moderates protein to ease the load on failing kidneys. A point that matters for safety is that these diets are designed to alter the course or symptoms of an illness, which means a profile tailored to a sick animal is, by definition, not appropriate for a healthy one, so using them without a diagnosis can be unsuitable or even harmful. This is exactly what separates a veterinary diet from an everyday [OTC food](/glossary/otc-food): the medical purpose and the expectation of supervision. The term therapeutic does not always carry an identical strict legal definition across countries, which is another reason professional guidance is central. For more on food categories, see the [Petipedia glossary](/glossary).

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General documentary information. For an individual animal, a veterinarian's advice takes precedence over any online content.