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Mystery Meat Pet Foods
- 3-15-2009
- Categorized in: Pet Food Ingredients
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There are several pet food ingredients that if you knew exactly what they were, it would probably send you running. It’s sort of like what people say about bologna, ‘if you knew what went into it…’ – times ten. The bigger problem is that only a handful of individuals (rendering industry employees) really know what goes into popular pet food ingredients such as by-product meal, meat and bone meal, beef and bone meal, animal fat, and animal digest; and they’re not talking.
The rendering industry turns the nastiest garbage into sellable products; pet food is one of the biggest purchasers. Since the deadly 2007 deadly pet food recall, many pet owners have learned to read the ingredient list on their pet foods and treats and to avoid less than high quality ingredients. In response to increased public awareness, some pet food companies are camouflaging less than optimal ingredients by adding descriptive terms. If their tricks weren’t so ridiculous, they would be funny.
The FDA website provides a report titled ‘Report on the risk from pentobarbital in dog food’ http://www.fda.gov/cvm/FOI/DFreport.htm. Briefly, in the late 1990’s the FDA, under pressure from practicing veterinarians, tested dog foods (no cat foods were tested) to determine if they contained pentobarbital (the drug used to euthanize animals). Their findings were that many popular dog foods do indeed contain pentobarbital, thus these popular pet foods contain some type of euthanized animal. The FDA determined that the common pet food ingredients ‘Meat and Bone Meal’, ‘Beef and Bone Meal’, ‘Animal Fat’, and ‘Animal Digest’ appeared to be the link to the presence of pentobarbital.
You’d think that after the FDA report was published in 2002, every pet food manufacturer that used these ingredients would change their formulations utilizing a seemingly safer ingredient or at the very least provide pet owners with certified laboratory tests on their websites proving that their pentobarbital suspect ingredients are clean of the lethal drug. You’d think that, but that’s not the case.
Instead, many pet food manufacturers, many of the top selling brands in the U.S., continue to use meat and bone meal, beef and bone meal, animal fat, and/or animal digest in their pet foods and treats; choosing to ignore the FDA research and as well choosing not to provide their customers with any ingredient safety information.
However, one popular dog food manufacturer has decided to add pleasant descriptive language on their ingredient list following one of the FDA recognized pentobarbital suspect ingredient animal digest.
On the label of one variety of dog food, the ingredient list states “animal digest (source of chicken flavor)”. On another variety of dog food, the ingredient list states “animal digest (source of grilled flavor)”. It’s difficult to imagine that a diseased euthanized animal, ground up into tiny pieces, thrown into a large vat and cooked with other euthanized diseased animals could be a source of any flavor – never the less to provide multiple flavors like ‘chicken’ and ‘grilled flavor’.
We have to assume that since large corporations don’t do anything without substantial consumer research, they learned that consumers felt the words ‘animal digest’ alone sounded a bit offensive. We can guess that consumer research told them “animal digest (source of chicken flavor)” and “animal digest (source of grilled flavor)” sounded much more appealing. We also have to assume that this pet food company feels that as long as these descriptive terms sell dog food, who cares if it’s stretching the truth and who care’s if this ingredient might contain a euthanized animal.
So if you notice on your pet food or pet treat label ‘chicken flavor’ or ‘grilled flavor’, you might want to check the ingredient list to see if it contains anything on the FDA list of pentobarbital suspect ingredients. The ‘mystery meat’ flavoring might not be what you want to feed your dog or cat.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Truth about Pet Food
Petsumer Report
www.TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Bravo for you for investigating a pet food ingredient and demanding answers. Thank you! Please let us know what you discover.
Susan
"I want to assure you we do not use animals put down in shelters in our pet foods. All of our ingredients are listed on the bags and cans of our products as required by law. All of our products are made by leading manufactures of premium brand dog foods, who also would never do that.
I hope this will put your concerns to rest. "
Nope. I'm still concerned. Ya' know, I wouldnt be a bit suprised if some of the Public Relations people in the Pet Food Industry arent even aware of what ingredients go into the making of pet foods. The industry isnt regulated....atleast not adequately, which explains how some moronic Chinese business people managed to slip Melamine into the pet food without anyone knowing.
Which is why EVERY BATCH of Pet Food leaving the warehouse should receive strict, serious attention, and be tested for "foreign ingredients" meaning any that are not allowed by law. Not that those allowed by law are much safer....
As the vendor to Wal*Mart for Ol’ Roy Complete Adult Dog, Ol’ Roy Hi-Protein Dog Food, along with Special Kitty Original and Gourmet formula cat foods, I have been asked to respond further to your concerns regarding euthanized pets in these products. You noted in your email some material from the internet dated to March 1998 and December 2000. A study was performed by the FDA of all pet food manufacturers during this period, and the results did include Ol’ Roy and Special Kitty, along with products from other pet food manufacturers.
The results of the FDA study changed the pet food industry. The following mandates are in place for Mars Pet Care today:
* Our Meat & Bone Meal Specification requires use of beef and pork sourced exclusively from USDA inspected meat processing facilities.
* Animal fat specification is limited to beef, pork, and poultry from pre-approved processing facilities that do not handle any rendered euthanized companion animals.
* We have notarized affidavits on file from all of our animal protein and fat suppliers certifying that they do not process any euthanized companion animals in any of their facilities.
* Mars Pet Care Quality Assurance and Purchasing management have conducted on site audits of every meat and bone meal as well as animal fat supplier to verify their process, procedures, and records are in accordance to our specifications.
* As part of our World Class Quality program, established in 1999, we pre-qualify, perform follow up audits, and randomly test our critical ingredient suppliers. Mars Pet Care routinely sends critical ingredients and finished products to independent laboratories for pentobarbital analysis to confirm that they do not contain pentobarbital.
* All animal digests are primarily poultry by products, which are not likely to contain any pentobarbital.
We believe that these mandates ensure that there are no euthanized pets in any Ol’ Roy or Special Kitty product purchased today. The pet food industry is always working to ensure that only the best and safest pet foods are available for our companion animals."
Not long after this "reassurance", these words meant nothing, as the Pet Food Recall story broke, and pets died, thus proving that the statement promising that "The pet food industry is always working to ensure that only the best and safest pet foods are available for our companion animals", was bull poop.
Furthermore, it took four emails for my question to be answered. I felt like i had just asked a two year old to tell me who the MVP of Super Bowl VII was (blank stare). These people didint seem to know how to answer my question, and how to get an answer to my question.
Basically, they're just there for "lip service": "Yes, our products are great...try them wont you?"