Packaged pet food is a great convenience, but how do you know you’re getting a good quality product? The best way is to learn how to read the labels, but if you’re like most people, you probably find the terminology more than a little confusing, if not downright indecipherable. For example, how does “meat” differ from “meat meal”? And what the heck is “animal digest?” Which ingredients are healthy choices, and which should you avoid?

Ingredient names are defined by law in most regions, based on definitions acc4epted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Association of American Food Control Officials (AAFCO). While not all areas have legally adopted these definitions, all national pet food companies follow them. Here’s a look at some of the most common pet
food label terms, and what they actually mean.

MEAT is “the clean flesh derived from slaughtered mammals, and is limited to that part of the striate muscle which is skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus…”

Meat is a fresh product, and the term is limited to cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. Choose a food that specifies the meat, like “beef” or “lamb.” If the label just says “meat,” it may contain a mixture of species.

POULTRY is “the clean combination of flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of poultry or a combination thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet and entrails.”

Unlike meat, poultry may include bone. The chicken used in pet foods is typically “backs and frames” left over from processing broiler chickens into breasts, legs, and wings for human consumption. “Backs and frames” include the spine and ribs with whatever meat is attached. It may also include the bone and skin left over from processing “boneless skinless” chicken parts.

MEAT MEAL is “the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably…”

Meat meal, like all animal meal products, is rendered – cooked to remove the fat and moisture – leaving a dry powder that is nearly 100% protein. Note that “added” blood, hair, horn, hoof, etc., is not permitted, but there is no requirement for the removal of such contaminants as may naturally be present. Bone may comprise a considerable proportion of this product.

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