Nutrition
& Diet
Food labels 101
by
Jean Hofve, DVM
 Take
our crash course on finding a good food
Packaged pet food is a great convenience,
but how do you know you’re getting
a good quality product? The best way is
to learn how to read the labels, but if
you’re like most people, you probably
find the terminology more than a little
confusing, if not downright indecipherable.
For example, how does “meat”
differ from “meat meal”? And
what the heck is “animal digest?”
Which ingredients are healthy choices,
and which should you avoid?
Ingredient names are defined by law in
most regions, based on definitions accepted
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) and the Association of American
Food Control Officials (AAFCO). While
not all areas have legally adopted these
definitions, all national pet food companies
follow them. Here’s a look at some
of the most common pet food label terms,
and what they actually mean.
MEAT
is “the clean flesh derived from
slaughtered mammals, and is limited to
that part of the striate muscle which
is skeletal or that which is found in
the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart,
or in the esophagus…”
Meat is a fresh product, and the term
is limited to cattle, sheep, goats, and
pigs. Choose a food that specifies the
meat, like “beef” or “lamb.”
If the label just says “meat,”
it may contain a mixture of species.
POULTRY
is “the clean combination of flesh
and skin with or without accompanying
bone, derived from the parts or whole
carcasses of poultry or a combination
thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads,
feet and entrails.”
Unlike meat, poultry may include bone.
The chicken used in pet foods is typically
“backs and frames” left over
from processing broiler chickens into
breasts, legs, and wings for human consumption.
“Backs and frames” include
the spine and ribs with whatever meat
is attached. It may also include the bone
and skin left over from processing “boneless
skinless” chicken parts.
MEAT
MEAL is
“the rendered product from mammal
tissues, exclusive of any added blood,
hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure,
stomach and rumen contents except in such
amounts as may occur unavoidably…”
Look
out for “number one”
Some poor quality dry foods proclaim
that a meat, such as fresh chicken,
is “the #1 ingredient.”
This is just a clever bit of marketing.
Ingredients are listed by weight;
chicken is 70% water and thus quite
heavy, so a very small amount of chicken
will put it at the top of the list.
In actuality, the food usually is
based on cheaper, more concentrated
ingredients, such as by-product meal
or corn gluten meal. |
Meat meal,
like all animal meal products, is rendered
– cooked to remove the fat and moisture
– leaving a dry powder that is nearly
100% protein. Note that “added”
blood, hair, horn, hoof, etc., is not
permitted, but there is no requirement
for the removal of such contaminants as
may naturally be present. Bone may comprise
a considerable proportion of this product.
POULTRY MEAL
is “the dry rendered product from
a combination of clean flesh and skin
with or without accompanying bone, derived
from the parts of whole carcasses of poultry
or a combination thereof, exclusive of
feathers, heads, feet and entrails.”
This definition is consistent with the
definitions of poultry and meat meal.
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Published
in the April/May 2005 issue of Animal
Wellness
|
