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Say Bye, Bye to Pet Foods With By-Products 6-27-08
A common ingredient found in dog food and cat food is by-products. When you
look at your pet food or pet treat label, you might see by-product, chicken
by-product, turkey by-product meal, or a few more variations. Most pet owners
have never been told exactly what by-products are. If you don't know, don't feel
bad about it... my guess is that even the pet food manufacturers themselves
can't tell you exactly what by-products are in their own brand of pet food.
To give you an understanding of by-products, I'd like to compare it to pies. How
many different types of pies can you think of? There are apple pies, cherry
pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, pi in math, cow pies
(yuck!) –- I think you get my point. Now imagine if you were to purchase your
dinner at the grocery and you looked at the ingredients and you see 'pie' listed
as the first ingredient in your dinner. You wouldn't know if it was apple pie or
mud pie or even cow pie. All you would know is that your dinner contained 'pie'.
I'd guess if you knew that 'pie' could be any kind of pie, you wouldn't be
buying your dinner with 'pie' listed in the ingredients.
Thank goodness we don't have to worry about 'pie' being a puzzling ingredient in
people food. But there is the worry of the 'pie' ingredient in pet food –- and
that's by-products.
Wikipedia describes a by-product as "a secondary or incidental product deriving
from a manufacturing process..."
The AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials –- the organization
responsible for all animal feed manufacturing rules and regulations) defines
by-products as "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 hoofs. It shall be suitable for use
in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond
thereto."
So with respect to pet food, a by-product is a catch-all ingredient name. My
guess would be that AAFCO decided that 'chicken lungs' or 'cow intestines'
listing on a pet food label wouldn't sound very appealing to the pet owner. The
company probably wouldn't sell a lot of that food.
Instead, all these less than appealing left-overs are clumped into one
ingredient name: by-product. There is no certainty of what you are feeding –-
one batch of pet food might be more intestine by-products while the next batch
of pet food might be more liver or bone by-products. There is no consistency to
what is actually contained in the pet food ingredient by-product.
Without consistency of ingredients, there is no consistency to the quality of
nutrition. Without consistency of quality nutrition, there is no consistency to
your pet's health.
The Center for Veterinary Medicine states that "animal feeds provide a practical
outlet for plant and animal by-products not suitable for human consumption." I
can only imagine the conversation when that decision was made -- 'What are we
going to do with all these left over intestines and spleens? Ah, what the heck,
let's put them in pet food. We'll call it something else -- no one will know --
and then we don't have to go through the expense and trouble of getting rid of
the stuff.'
Personally I hope there will soon be a day for truth in pet food labeling. If
some manufacturers are going to put intestines and spleen in their foods and
treats, ok then, just tell us. If you've got a clinical study showing pets
thriving on these left-overs –- show us your results. Just don't put this stuff
in my pet's food bowl and tell me it's premium and choice.
Please read your pet's food and treat labels. Read the ingredients. Say bye, bye
to by-products!
About the author
Susan Thixton is internationally recognized as the pet food expert helping pet
owners understand how to find the safest and healthiest dog and cat foods and
treats. She's been called courageous, perseverant, even a "pet lovers Savior"
for her 16 year study of pet food.
Susan Thixton is the author of hundreds of pet industry articles and the 2006
released book Truth About Pet Food (currently being updated for a second
edition). She is the publisher of the ONLY pet product consumer magazine
Petsumer Report. And is a frequent speaker and radio guest all over the U.S. and
Canada with more than 70 appearances in the last 2 years.
If you are looking for straight forward pet food information that can have an
almost immediate impact on your pet's health - subscribe to the free newsletter,
and subscribe to Petsumer Report to see reviews on close to 600 dog and cat
foods and treats (adding 40+ each month).
Susan Thixton's 'truth' will help you find a safer, healthier dog or cat food
that could add years to your pet's life.
Comment:
As one of a handful of Veterinary Nutritionists, this article hits close to home! We also remember the regulations of the FDA; byproducts must contain: head, poop, feat and feathers! Yum! Now the average dog loves these ingredients because they are tasty to them. However Cheeto's are tasty but terrible too!
To find the best pet food you must look at each ingredients of each bag or can you are interested in buying and check it every time you buy. This is very important because pet food companies are bought out all the time and change everything and you don't know it until your pet is sick or suddenly refuses to eat! There are some many cute dogs and kittens all over the bags, but your pet cant see it, that's all for your benefit!
Visit our Pet Place page and you will get all the information you need to have a healthy pet.