Nutrition & Diet
Food labels 101
by Jean Hofve, DVM

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MEAT BY-PRODUCTS “is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hooves.”

Basically, by-products are “parts that aren’t meat.” They are fresh, not rendered. Some pet food companies specify the by-products they will accept, such as kidneys, liver, and lungs. Either way, by-products are best avoided.

POULTRY BY-PRODUCTS consists of “non-rendered, clean parts of carcasses of slaughtered poultry such as heads, feet, viscera, free from fecal content and foreign matter…” This recently revised definition states that fecal content must be removed. The old definition did not have this requirement.

POULTRY BY-PRODUCT MEAL is “the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines, exclusive of feathers…”

Poultry by-product meals are very common in poor quality dry foods. Most poultry in the U.S. is processed at “captive” renderers, meaning that the slaughterhouse and rendering facility are privately owned and located together. “Mega” chicken growers and processors, such as Tyson and Foster Farms, are the primary sources of chicken meat, meal, by-products, and by-product meal for big pet food makers.

MEAT AND BONE MEAL (MBM) is “the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents…”

MBM is a convenient catch-all term for whatever offal and refuse happens to be rendered that day. This is where the worst stories about pet food come from. Many renderers accept for processing such items as road kill, euthanized pets from shelters and veterinary clinics, downers and animals who died on the farm, during transport, or at the slaughterhouse, cut-away cancerous tissue, fetuses, out-of-date supermarket meats, restaurant waste, and other unappetizing ingredients. Needless to say, the presence of MBM on a label is a signal that the food is of inferior quality.

ANIMAL DIGEST is “material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably…” Animal digest comes in a liquid or powder form that is typically sprayed onto finished kibbles to add flavor. It is found primarily in low quality foods.

CORN MEAL AND CORN GLUTEN MEAL are high-protein residues of processed corn, and are used as high-calorie fillers and substitutes for animal protein sources in cheap pet foods; they should be avoided.

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Published in the April/May 2005 issue of Animal Wellness