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Pet Food Regulations

AAFCO Day Two and Final Notes

The last day of the AAFCO meeting was the Pet Food Committee meeting. Again, more interesting events to share.

The last day of the AAFCO meeting was the Pet Food Committee meeting. Again, more interesting events to share.

There was several small discussions regarding work in progress – such as the AAFCO website (information specific to pet food consumers) and future workshops for industry to be hosted by AAFCO (pet food labeling requirements). Of interest was the discussion on tartar control claims of pet food/treats.

A veterinarian representative of the American Veterinary Dental Association (AVDA) spoke and provided the room with a perspective that AAFCO regulations need to be strengthened on tartar control claims. His suggestion was not received well by industry – several spoke out against any changes to regulations. An AAFCO member and State Department of Agriculture representative shared his own story of purchasing a dog treat based on tartar control claims and he felt the labeling was misleading and the product was basically useless. An industry representative disagreed and blamed any misunderstanding of the label on the consumer.

It was left that the veterinarian from the AVDA will join a AAFCO working group to provide input to potential changes in regulation.

The long awaited updated nutrient requirements for cats and dogs was discussed as well. It will be a 2 year wait for these new nutrient regulations to go into effect – as industry requested they need time to change their formulas. It occurred to me that industry pushes to get quick approvals for new ingredients (such as waste leftover from the production of biodiesel fuel), but they need years to implement any other changes. Several years back at an AAFCO meeting, one industry representative stated ‘they’ needed 15 years to put calorie statements on their labels…same group pushed for approval of waste ingredients in 180 days time.

And during this session there was discussion (again) of ingredients that are used in pet foods/animal feeds that have not gone through the FDA process for approval. This FDA representative was reminding industry that these food ingredients must go through the approval process. And at one point when he said ‘food’ – he followed with “I’m using the term food loosely”. What he was meaning was ‘feed’ – but he termed it as food. I felt this was a step in the right direction – small step – but still good. They know we know there is a significant difference between feed and food. And they are just beginning to acknowledge it too.

Several topics were discussed if existing pet food regulations need to be changed – such as any reference to quality or grade of ingredients in the list of ingredients on a pet food label (example prime beef). As well, the topic of images or graphics on a label was mentioned to perhaps update. Dr. Jean Hofve – who was unable to attend but participated in the meeting via conference call – spoke up in favor of providing consumers with more information to quality of ingredients and not allowing misleading pictures on the label – as did I. I used the example of images of grilled meat on pet food labels when in each case the meat in the pet food is not grilled. An FDA representative provided comment that I did not agree with – stating these images are “a matter of free speech”.

If free speech is the issue, then I have to ask why pet foods made with 100% human grade ingredients are forced to jump through numerous FDA and AAFCO hoops to state ‘human grade’ on their labels? Why wouldn’t that be free speech as well?

In my private meeting with AAFCO President and the chair of the Pet Food Committee I shared with them lack of enforcement of existing regulations is a huge concern to consumers. Through this meeting (the entire AAFCO meeting) there was much time spent on asking industry to go through the proper process to gain ingredient approvals. I asked them why this wasn’t stopped by regulatory authorities? I used the example (that I’ve complained about before) of the ingredient pea protein. Pea protein has been used in pet food for five years or so now – and it only just became an official legal pet food ingredient. I asked why regulatory authorities didn’t just pull those pet foods using an illegal ingredient from store shelves? Fine the manufacturers that continue to use illegal ingredients. I was asked…’So if we fine a company (example) $30,000 for using illegal ingredients you think that will stop them?’ My response: “Bingo!”

There is a reason people don’t speed when there is a cop with a radar gun tracking their car.

Overall, I think we are making progress. Slow, but progress. They know we are here for the duration – we are not going away, we are not going to be silent, and we are watching their every move.

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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11 Comments

11 Comments

  1. Mary Huber

    January 17, 2015 at 12:13 pm

    Susan, I read every communication from you and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you are doing on behalf of our animals and us, too. Truly, you are amazing!
    ~~ Mary Huber

    • Susan Thixton

      January 17, 2015 at 12:15 pm

      Right back at ya! I think all of you are amazing…together we make a good team.

  2. Valerie Noyes

    January 17, 2015 at 1:01 pm

    Baby steps but important ones. For FDA to actually make the statement about using the term “food” loosely, that’s a wonderful step in the right direction. It’s going to be a long, long fight.

  3. Michelle

    January 17, 2015 at 1:52 pm

    God Bless You! You have taught me so much. At least now I feel that I have some information to protect my fur family. I wish I had know what I know now when my heart dog Ace got sick. I didn’t know that what I was feeding him “to get better” was actually poison. I feel like I killed him…my heart will be forever broken.

    Thank you for what you do to fight this fight and all of the people that fight this fight with you.

  4. Dori

    January 17, 2015 at 2:46 pm

    Thank you Susan for all you do for our dogs. Just as Mary Huber stated, I read each and every one of your emails and am delighted with your tenacity when it comes to dog food. Also, thank you, thank you, thank you for your dog food list. I’m always ecstatic when I see foods that I am already feeding on one of your lists. Yay! I’m basically a commercial raw food, dehydrated and freeze dried rotational feeder. Through your efforts I’m hoping to add more and more foods into rotation for my girls.

  5. Carol

    January 17, 2015 at 7:35 pm

    Thank you for your fortitude and courage, Susan, in investigating and asking the questions that need to be answered. It is so easy for people to ctiticize when they can’t be bothered to even do personal research. Someday, people will see that you were a leader in pet food advocacy and a true front line animal activist.

    I used to live in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and discovered Rodney’s store and his expertise when I began to question what my vet was telling me to feed my dogs. It was too late for Austin, but Rodney helped me save Kylee from a digestive system that had shut down because of a reaction to anesthesia after a dental.

    Thank you, Rodney, and others who truly do the right thing.

    Carol

  6. Dean

    January 18, 2015 at 11:12 am

    Susan, good information. I think it would be beneficial to clarify a couple of things for your readers and the FDA.

    Like the terms ‘food’ and ‘feed’. From what I am reading, I think you are using the term ‘food’ to indicate a diet for life. Where as the term ‘feed’ would be used to describe the diet for animals used in food production, where the economics of growth per $ spent on inputs carry the priority. When doing presentations to the vet classes at the university I make this distinction and get a mystified reaction; because people don’t seem to accept the notion that these 2 diets are very different in requirement/outcome. AAFCO’s view, is in fact that they are the same, and is driving the outcome you see.

    As far as we can see the kibble industry is one of the largest undefined recycling projects in the world and pet owners are the unknowing accomplices. Redistributing many tons of industrial food waste into their own local landfills through their pets.

    • Susan Thixton

      January 18, 2015 at 12:25 pm

      Hi Dean – no, I was referring to the same feed/food dilemma that you are. I’ve discussed this with FDA personally (at the July 2014 AAFCO meeting) – feeling that unless a pet ‘food’ abides by ‘food’ law, it should be called dog feed or cat feed. But I couldn’t agree more with you in that many pet foods (perhaps most) are part of “the largest undefined recycling project in the world”. Though most consumers don’t know – because of lack of enforcement and labeling laws – they are buying recycled waste. I’m confident this is why the FDA representative at the meeting stated he was using the term ‘food’ loosely (he was part of the meeting in July).

  7. Kim Willis

    January 19, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    Thank you Susan for the work at the meeting. We were all there in spirit and proud with you when you spoke up for all our cherished companions and us.

    That free speech comment was ridiculous on their part. The FDA censors when it suits them and does not when it suits Big Corp. Blatant censoring will be in place as long as we let it. Censoring as such creates uneducated people, which creates more money for Big Corp. The single most effective way to put them in their place is to stop false and deceptive advertising. Maybe starting a fund for a class action lawsuit would be a good start. If we shut their ability to lie everything else will have to fall inline.

    I LOVE Dean’s description,
    “As far as we can see the kibble industry is one of the largest undefined recycling projects in the world and pet owners are the unknowing accomplices. Redistributing many tons of industrial food waste into their own local landfills through their pets.”

    Also it is nice the dental vet was there to speak out about the misleading dental label and that he is part of the working group now, but face it we all know that the guilty ones here know what they are doing wrong and our wonderful govt. lets them do it. The alliance is with Big Corp not the people who pay everyone’s bills. We need to make as big a deal about it as they feel the need to do. The conversation should be to tell them there is no free speech when it comes to purposeful deception for the dollar. We do have laws against that as well as false advertising. Do we have a lawyer in our group to root out purposeful deception laws? We need you.

    Shut down their ability to lie to the owners and we have a different platform to move on.

    My challenge remains to all. Educate one person a day on what this industry does and how to feed better. Ask them to join us. If we get even 25% to listen we have done very well. Then they can continue the same. You can see the results of this “better health for our pets” movement in the many better dog foods that are now coming out.

    We are the “Whale Wars” of the dog food industry with a great leader and we never give up.

    Kim Willis

  8. Laura

    January 19, 2015 at 9:28 pm

    What did the FDA representative say when you asked him that question about free speech?

  9. B Dawson

    January 20, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    I wasn’t sure where to post this, so I’ll chose the thread on AAFCO since my point deals with food.

    Veterinary Practice News just published an article on intestinal surgeries. Seems they feel there’s a lot of unhealthy alimentary tracts out there. I’ll provide the full link at the end of my comment, but I’m not sure if it will work since its a subscription situation. The gist is that vomiting, in conjunction with other symptoms, in cats should trigger vets to look for more serious problems, and that a study of 100 cats who presented with persistent vomiting and diarrhea found the following:

    “Pathology results were as follows in Norsworthy’s 100 cats:

    One cat had no significant findings.
    49 cats had chronic enteritis. Those cats were 1 to 16 years old, with a mean age of 10.
    46 cats had lymphoma. These cats were 1 to 18 years old, with a mean age of 12. n Four had other types of intestinal cancer: three mast cell tumors and one adenocarcinoma.
    Even though the age ranges look similar, a statistical difference existed between the two groups. Cats with chronic enteritis tended to be younger—under 8 years old—and cats over 8 tended to have either enteritis or intestinal cancer.

    Conclusions from the study:

    Weight loss was the most common sign, sometimes without vomiting or diarrhea. About 70 percent of cats presented with weight loss. Conclusion: Weigh cats at every visit.
    Any cat presented with vomiting, diarrhea or weight loss should ideally have an abdominal ultrasound to measure the thickness of the intestine. If measurements reveal increased thickness, then surgical biopsies are indicated.
    The most important conclusion: Vomiting more than twice a month is not normal in cats.”

    As an animal herbalist, I spend a fair amount of time adjusting digestion but this really shocked me. Since immunity has its foundations in the gut and based on these results of an admittedly small study, food never looked so important. I’d give my eye teeth to know what the diets of these cats were like!

    I do question the push for expensive testing and biopsies, but that’s just my opinion. A discussion between client and vet is the best course of action.

    Here’s the link (warning, some graphic images are in the article): http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/What-Crucial-Facts-You-Must-Remember-About-Intestinal-Surgery/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=vpn_2015_01_19%20(1)&

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