Years ago, you didn’t hear the words “natural,” “organic,” “raw” or ” human-grade” in the same sentence as “dog food.” But now the market for healthful dog food is growing faster than a Great Dane pup, and the lexicon has greatly expanded. The only problem: What does it all mean?
“It’s basically a multibillion-dollar industry that’s self-regulated,” warned Ann N. Martin, who has written books on the topic, including “Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food” (NewSage, $13.95).
A handbook from the Association of American Feed Control Officials defines a “uniform code” that most manufacturers use, but AAFCO isn’t a government agency; it’s an independent organization with members that include pet food manufacturers.
The Food and Drug Administration, according to its Web site, “ensures that the ingredients used in pet food are safe,” but headlines earlier this year proved that this isn’t always so. And it bases its regulations on the AAFCO code, which is voluntary.
State departments of agriculture randomly test the food to make sure the ingredients correspond with the labels, according to a spokesman for the Illinois agency.
Terms such as “natural” are meaningless. In fact, this word was on many of the packages recalled starting last March, when pet food from China was found to be contaminated with an industrial chemical.
“Human-grade” means the dog food has met government regulations for human food, and “raw” means it is uncooked, but are these products nutritional for dogs?
A dog food can meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s definition of “organic” for human food but may lack nutrients that dogs need. “Made with organic ingredients” doesn’t necessarily mean all ingredients are organic.
“Poop is organic!” said Debra Thomas of Chicago-based Animal Affinity, which provides dog owners with nutritional counseling. “Beware of that term. Look for the food with the least amount of ingredients and ingredients that you recognize.”
Understanding ingredient labels takes homework, too, but Martin’s “Food” book walks you through it.
“Meat” (or the animal name, such as “chicken”) means “clean flesh from slaughtered animals.” This, Martin said, is what you find in better dog foods.
“Meat byproducts” are parts other than the “clean flesh,” such as feet, beaks, heads and animal carcasses deemed unfit for humans.
“Meat meal” is rendered animals and can include roadkill, diseased livestock, livestock found dead, rotten meat from grocery stores, restaurant grease and — brace yourself, dog lovers — dead pets and the barbiturates used to euthanize them.
“Pet-food companies deny that any of their products contain rendered companion animals,” Martin wrote in “Food.” “They claim to ask their suppliers not to include cats and dogs; however, I have yet to find a pet food company that actually tests the raw material that it receives from a rendering plant to ascertain the sources of the protein.”
Other common protein sources in dog foods, all blessed by AAFCO, include hydrolyzed hair (hair from slaughtered livestock), food-processing waste from institutions such as hospitals, and dried swine and poultry excreta.