Judging by their colorful images, commercial pet food products seem to contain nothing but juicy beef, whole chickens or fresh grains. But what are the real ingredients used by the pet food industry? How are dog and cat foods made and in what way do wet and dry foods differ?
Pet Food Ingredients
Generally speaking, pet food products are an extension of the human food and agricultural industries, turning leftovers and waste products into profit. Thus, meat used in pet food usually consists of slaughterhouse offal such as scraps of meat, organs like lungs, kidneys or liver, intestines, skin, bones, heads, udders, hooves and possibly dead or diseased animals. Due to economic reasons, grains and corn used are also often of very low quality and might even be moldy or rotten.
Pet Food Labels Explained
Ingredients on pet food labels are listed in descending order of weight. Labeling such as “with chicken” means that at least 3% of the food weight (excluding water) has to be chicken. The “flavor” rule allows a food to be designated as a certain flavor as long as it contains a small quantity imparting a distinctive characteristic. Thus, a beef flavor may not contain any actual beef at all but simply be an extract or even an artificial flavor. Ingredient names are legally defined, with definitions listed in the AAFCO’s Official Publication.
How Dry Dog or Cat Food Is Made
Pet food is sold as either dry or wet food. Dry food is made by first blending the materials such as rendered meat-and-bone-meal, poultry by-product meal, corn, grains, flours or other. The dough is then steamed, pressed and cut into pieces in a fully-automatic process under high air pressure. After drying, it is usually sprayed with fat or other compounds to make it more palatable before being bagged.
Wet Canned Pet Food
The first step in making wet or canned pet food consists of grinding the ingredients mixed with additives. After cooking and canning, the sealed cans are sterilized. Some manufacturers also cook the food after it has been canned. In contrast to dry pet food, wet dog or cat food consists of fresh ingredients. Although they may be by-products as well and have been frozen for transport, they are not rendered or processed. Wet foods tend to contain much more protein than dry foods and, of course, more moisture.
Comparing Wet and Dry Pet Food Types
The most obvious difference between wet and dry pet foods is of course their water content. Dry food has less than 10% water in it while wet foods usually contain over 80%. This difference in moisture makes it almost impossible to directly compare the ingredient labels of wet and dry foods.
Protein and Water Content of Wet and Dry Food
Thus, the percentage numbers on the label can be very deceiving. For instance, a canned food containing 10% protein actually has much more protein than a dry food with 30% protein. Because of the variation in water content, it is impossible to directly compare labels from different kinds of food without a mathematical conversion to “dry matter basis.”
Source:
What’s really in pet food. Article on Born Free USA.
Links:
Association of American Feed Control Officials' Website.
Martin Bohn - As a certified yoga teacher, I enjoy freelancing for various yoga magazines in different countries. In my main profession, I work as a ...
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