I just had the distinct pleasure of having Dr. Donna Spector as a guest on CAT CHAT®, to discuss the challenges of giving advice on the HALO Purely for Pets website, answering customer questions on their blog. I wanted to know what it was like as a veterinarian to answer questions from strangers without any personal contact — sort of like I do on the air and in emails. In the course of our interesting conversation it came out that Dr. Donna is a specialist in internal medicine, meaning she did four years of training beyond the basic vet degree — and her area of interest is why so many diseases are afflicting our pets and what we can do to protect them. The topic of the interview came around to the ingredients in commercial dog food (as it always seems to do with me!) and my comment that I switched my dogs to HALO kibble for life, when I learned that HALO’s kibble is very high protein (33%) and made from meat fit for human consumption. For me this was the ultimate dividing line — making Halo’s commitment different from all other pet foods that use meats of dubious quality and meals made from rendered protein sources, frequently of unknown origin.
No sooner had I gotten off the air than I received the following email from Smokey’s Dad Bob in Atlanta, a long time DOG TALK® listener, whom I didn’t know also has SiriusXM!
Dear Tracie,
I happened to hear your show on Cat Chat® tonight where the subject of meal and rendered meat came up with your guest, and I am afraid that I have to disagree with your premise that “meal ” automatically means rendered and not fit for human consumption. As an example, the food that I feed my dog is Canidae. The meal in Canidae kibble is made entirely from meats that are human grade. They would not dare to state this on their web site unless it was true, since the legal ramifications of misstating this would be enormous. I did not check any of the other premium foods that are available like Solid Gold, Innova, etc… but I am positive that they are also made of human grade meat meal.
I was interested to have Bob’s feedback and checked out the Canidae website, where sure enough it states the meat sources are human grade — which is fabulous news! How wonderful to know there is more than one pet food company making this pledge about their meat source. It should also be noted that all pet food contains some ingredients which are fit for human consumption — along with others which are downright scary. Halo’s pledge is that all of it began as human edible. However, Bob makes two assumptions which are woefully inaccurate. One is that there would be some “enormous legal consequence” if a pet food company were to tell an untruth on their literature. Sadly, there are no pet food police. It is a false sense of security to imagine that anyone is watching what pet food companies claim on their bags (where actually they are free to say whatever they darned well please), much less watchdogs (so to speak!) over what actually goes in the bags. The pet food industry is overseen by an honor system — and we all know what sort of honor there is in any profit-driven marketplace, since profits are highest where ingredients cost the least. The other incorrect declaration Bob makes is that he “is positive other premium foods are made of human grade meal” — a faith I know to be completely unwarranted. In fact, a quick check on the websites of the other brands he mentioned does not have the word “human” attached to any of their protein sources. As for his use of the phrase “human grade meal,” Dr. Donna explained on the air that “meal” and “meat fit for human consumption” do not belong in the same sentence.
Bob continued, citing the Dog Food Project as his source of the definition of “meal.” I guess he doesn’t know that Sabine Contreras, who IS the Dog Food Project, is the Official Nutrition Consultant on DOG TALK® and someone with whom I have corresponded and spoken for years. I obviously value her opinion and respect her knowledge, but there are certainly conflicting views on meat meal — for example, Ann Martin, the guru of pet food ingredients with her book FOOD PETS DIE FOR absolutely claims that any meal is toxic waste. She also says that by-products can be useful nutritionally and are not necessarily bad, being organ meats. Bob cited Sabine’s definition of “meal:”
Here is a mention of meal on the Dog Food Project website.
“Contrary to what many people believe, meat sources in “meal” form (as long as they are from a specified type of animal, such as chicken meal, lamb meal, salmon meal etc.) are not inferior to whole, fresh meats. Meals consist of meat and skin, with or without the bones, but exclusive of feathers/hair, heads, feet, horns, entrails etc. and have the proper calcium/phosphorus ratio required for a balanced diet. They have had most of the moisture removed, but meats in their original, “wet” form still contain up to 75% water. Once the food reaches its final moisture content of about 9-12%, the meat will have shrunk to sometimes as little as 1/4 of the original amount, while the already dehydrated meal form remains the same and you get more concentrated protein per pound of finished product. Preferably a food contains quality meat meal as well as some fresh meat.”
The above is Sabine’s opinion from the Dog Food Project. Bob concluded by saying that “it is easy to confuse ‘meals’ with ‘rendered by product meal’ but they are two entirely different ingredients. I guess I was surprised that your guest this evening was not aware of this. I think it is totally unfair to the makers of good quality dog foods to put them in the same category as a company like Purina which does use rendered by products in many of their foods.”
While I was glad to hear about the ingredients in the food he gives Smokey, I certainly don’t share his concern that it is unfair to give pet owners the power of knowledge by telling the truth about commercial pet food ingredients — so I turned his comments over to Dr. Donna Spector forfurther clarification about her statements about meal:
FROM DR. DONNA:
Please note this direct quote from the FDA website.
(It is under the heading “Net Quantity Statement” and is in the third paragraph.)
According to the FDA and AAFCO legal definitions, meat meals are rendered. I would quote those websites over the others any day.
“Meat meal is not meat per se, since most of the fat and water have been removed by rendering. Ingredients must be listed by their ‘common or usual’ name. Most ingredients on pet food labels have a corresponding definition in the AAFCO Official Publication. For example, ‘meat’ is defined as the ‘clean flesh of slaughtered mammals and is limited to… the striate muscle… with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh.’ On the other hand, ‘meat meal’ is ‘the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents.’ Thus, in addition to the processing, it could also contain parts of animals one would not think of as “meat.”
And at http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/….
“Rendered animal feed ingredients include the various poultry, meat and marine products which result from the rendering of these animal tissues. Rendering of poultry and other animal tissues has been practiced for over a hundred years as a means of salvaging valuable protein and fat content from otherwise waste material. For many years end products from rendering have been used to feed animals. The rendering industry utilizes packinghouse offal, meat processing waste, restaurant waste and animal tissues from other sources including animals that have died otherwise than by slaughter.
There are two types of processes in use by the rendering industry to process this material. They are dry rendering, used by the largest portion of the industry, and wet rendering. Both rendering processes were designed to ensure that the resultant animal feed ingredients pose no threat of disease transmission to animals which are fed the material or to the health of humans consuming their edible products (meat, milk, and eggs). Included are such products as poultry by-product meal, meat meal, meat and bone meal and fish meal.”
Even if the meat protein source is lamb or chicken, it still goes through the process of rendering to create a meal. Obviously the other unsavory things (packing house offal, restaurant waste, etc) can go into the lamb or chicken meal….
P.S. I happen to agree with Ann Martin on the by-products… I love including butcher quality liver (clearly a by-product) into pet diets for its nutritive value.
