I got a nice email from supporter Ann who asked what's up with my pet food testing, and I realized I haven't updated you guys in a long while. I guess Cleo's right ... I am pretty forgetful sometimes. Read full post.

Now we move on from something there often isn't enough of in pet food (protein) to something that there tends to be way too much of: grain.

The majority of the grain that goes into pet food is considered unfit for human consumption. Pet food manufacturers like grains because they're a cheap source of calories, but those calories are mostly empty.

Pet food manufacturers can list each type of grain in lots of different ways, depending on which part of the grain they're using and how it's prepared, but whichever way you slice it it's still grain. Most pet foods have more than one grain-based ingredient. Read full post.

I asked my fellow pet crusaders for some delicious and healthy pet treats, and my email inbox filled up with tons of yummy concoctions. Below are some of the best recipes as tested by me and Cleo.

So the next time you get bummed out by the icky ingredients on pet food labels, don't despair--put on your chef hat! Read full post.

This morning the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine released their latest Veterinarian Newsletter with these recalls that our furry and feathered friends should know about. Forgive me for listing the cat vitamin recall first; I am a bit partial to my own species!

Cats & Kittens: salmonella in Hartz Vitamins

Hartz Mountain Corporation of Secaucus, NJ, is carrying out a firm-initiated Class I recall of 888 bottles of Hartz Vitamin Care for Cats and Kittens chewable tablets. The product, which was distributed nationwide, tested positive for the presence of Salmonella. Read full post.

Today's topic is meat meal. It's a common ingredient in dry pet foods, where it might be labeled "meat meal" or "meat by-product meal."

It's made at rendering plants, where animal carcasses are cooked in vats at very high temperatures. The grease is skimmed off (and added back in later, as fat), and what's left is dehydrated until it's a dry product. Then, the rendering plant ships the meal to brokers, who sell it to pet food manufacturers, who mix it with other ingredients, package it, and send it off to your food bowl.

If we could trust that all the meat making it into the rendering vat was up to AAFCO's standards, this ingredient might not be so bad. Their definition is a little vague -- for example, it requires meat meal to be "exclusive of any added" hooves and hair and horns and whatnot -- but that's nothing compared to the reality of rendered meat meal. Read full post.

Let's begin our foray into the world of commercial pet food ingredients. I'll feed it to you in small bites, because it's a lot of information! Read full post.

Ever noticed that box full of phrases and numbers called a guaranteed analysis? Every pet food has one, but I for one never knew what it meant until I started doing this research.

AAFCO asks pet food manufacturers to list guaranteed amounts for certain nutrients. Under their model regulations (which are actually just recommendations), pet food manufacturers are expected to list guaranteed minimum amounts of protein and fat, and maximum amounts of fiber and moisture. The idea is to give consumers a way to compare pet foods and know that their pet's food contains plenty of the core nutrients they need.

But here's the big problem: AAFCO's nutrient profiles don't guarantee the source or digestibility of ingredients. Just because a pet food contains a minimum of 8% protein doesn't mean a cat can actually digest it or access its important amino acids. In fact, in a documentary I watched a couple of weeks ago, one woman made a "pet food" out of sawdust, motor oil and old shoe leather. And that slop would meet AAFCO's requirements! Gross.

On top of that, AAFCO doesn't ask or expect products to meet their nutrient profiles. All manufacturers have to do is list how much of each nutrient their product contains.

Manufacturers can choose to include other guarantees based on AAFCO's nutrient profiles. For example, cat foods often list a guaranteed maximum for ash. Ash is left on meat after it's been cooked at high temperatures, and it's made up of important minerals, but for years scientists thought it was bad for feline urinary tracts. The link between ash and urinary crystals isn't as strong as the scientists used to think, but some people still choose low-ash food. Manufacturers are also instructed to include guarantees for vitamins or minerals in any pet food that's marketed as a vitamin or mineral supplement.

Sometimes pet foods contain nutrients that AAFCO hasn't investigated, and they may want to put these in the guaranteed analysis. For example, omega-3 fatty acids might be very good for pet health, but they aren't recognized by AAFCO. When manufacturers put omega-3s on the guaranteed analysis, they have to include a note saying that the nutrient is "Not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO Dog (or Cat) Food Nutrient Profiles."

So, while it's good to know what percentage of your pet food is fat and protein and how much is filler, it's just as important to know what the source of those nutrients is, and that's why you have to look at (wait for it. . .) the ingredients. That's the subject of my next Pet Food Confidential post, so stay tuned!

Photo by dawgfanjeff.

You want answers!

That has been the overwhelming response to my Pet Food Confidential series so far. You're happy about all the information I'm digging up about pet food, but in the meantime, what are you supposed to eat?

The thing is, I'm still doing my research -- and I've got a lot of research to do! I'm learning everything I can about different ingredients, like "meat by-product" and "brewer's rice," and I'm also researching food additives and preservatives. I'm even going to cover different kinds of diets pets can eat.

With all that research left to do, I can't recommend any specific brands of pet food right now. I just don't know enough.
But I can tell you this:

Choose pet food without the chemical preservatives BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin, vary cats’ diets to limit their exposure to mercury in seafood, and choose organic or free-range ingredients rather than “by-products.”

I'll keep revising my recommendations and getting more specific as I do my research. There's so much to find out! I hope you'll hang in there and learn along with me.

Wags,
Eddie

Photo by wmsch_kiwi.

Pet food labels are a lot like fast food commercials. They make the product look downright mouthwatering, but once you've got the real thing in front of you it doesn't look the same at all. What's that about?

To find out, I had to do some pretty heavy reading. The American Association of Feed Control Officials publishes what they call a "model bill" for pet food labeling. The model bill itself doesn't carry any weight, but it provides recommendations which many states use in their regulations. The recommendations also apply to pet food companies, but there's no guarantee that any particular manufacturer follows them.

Fifty pages later, I can tell you this: A lot more thought goes into labeling pet food than I ever imagined! It starts off great, but then it takes a turn for the worse. Here are the highlights. Read full post.

Hello, and welcome to my new series: Pet Food Confidential. I've been doing lots of research on pet food, and over the next several weeks I'll be filling you in on who controls pet food, what the ingredient labels mean, and what the other options are. If you've got questions, leave them in the comments and I'll try to answer them later in the series!

Okay, so, think back to the last pet food commercial you saw. Dog food commercials are all about good buddies, and cat food commercials are about treating feline friends to the very best. Watch those commercials and you'd think, "gee, they're really looking out for us!"

That's what I thought, right up until last year's widespread pet food recalls. Obviously whoever was supposed to be looking out for us then had fallen asleep at the wheel. So who was it? Whose responsibility is it to make sure our food is safe a healthy?

There are three different organizations who split some responsibility for pet food: the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), and the Pet Food Institute (PFI).

FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine
The Center for Veterinary Medicine is the branch of the FDA the deals with all things animal. Well, not all things; actually, they only control drugs, devices and food additives for livestock and companion animals like you and me. That means they're in charge of approving pet food preservatives, coloring and flavorings. They don't have any regulatory control over the source of pet food ingredients, which means that pet food companies can include gross animal "by-products" (like feathers and fur, brains, and other bits that have no nutritional value and may even be bad for us) without fearing interference from the CVM.

CVM investigates pet food in cases of widespread pet illness or death. They also investigate health claims on pet food -- for example, if kitty food says it's good for kitty bladders, CVM has to make sure it's true. The CVM doesn't regularly test pet food to make sure it's safe and healthy. That means that the government's only pet food authority is really no authority at all.

American Association of Feed Control Officials
So if the government isn't regulating pet food, who is? CVM relies on AAFCO, an organization made up of representatives from government, pet food companies, the Pet Food Institute and the rendering industries. AAFCO has no regulatory authority, but state governments rely on them to set model standards which the states can adopt. AAFCO also defines food ingredients; they're the ones who decide what counts as "by-products" in your pet food. AAFCO's definitions are considered standard, but they're not enforced.

Unlike CVM, AAFCO does run some tests on pet food. They analyze new foods to make sure they contain the ratio of protein, fat, fiber and minerals that they state on the label. Like CVM, though, AAFCO doesn't care where that protein, fat, or fiber comes from, or if it's digestible and safe, as long as it's there. They also do feed trials, where new pet foods are fed to animals to make sure they keep the animal healthy--but feed trials are only done for foods labeled as "complete and balanced." And the trials only have to include 8 animals minimum, 25% of them can be removed from the test, and the remaining animals can lose up to 15% of their starting body weight. Boy, I sure am glad they're being so thorough.

Pet Food Institute
The Pet Food Institute is the pet food industry's trade group. They represent the interests of 98 percent of all pet food manufacturers. Their whole job is to represent the pet food industry to the public and the media and lobby Congress on the Industry's behalf. They, along with pet food manufacturers, play a major role in setting AAFCO's standards. They exist to protect the pet food industry, not pets -- talk about the fox guarding the hen house!

State standards
States are the only ones who have any real control over pet food standards, and since they base their standards on AAFCO's recommendations, they're minimal to say the least. The amount of regular testing done on pet food varies from state to state, but state standards are written in such a way that tests are likely to miss major pet food problems -- like, say, the presence of toxic amounts of melamine.

So, who's protecting pets?
Are you seeing the loopholes here? There are almost no pet food regulations, and the regulations that do exist are hardly enforced. Right now, it's up to our people to look out for us -- and considering how little information about pet food is widely available, that's not easy. What we really need are strong government standards for pet food that address everything from raw ingredients to pet food preservatives, and a transparent labeling system to allow our people to choose what's best for us without guessing!

Photo by macb3th. Read full post.