Federal law requires complete disclosure of condemned animal material, that is up until the condemned, diseased, and 4D meat becomes a pet food ingredient.
The USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) is the federal agency charged with enforcing food safety laws for meat and poultry in the US, specific for human consumption. The USDA has no authority over pet food. But…
Federal laws that USDA are charged with enforcing have clear disclosure requirements regarding condemned (“inedible”) material from slaughter facilities.
“When transported from an official establishment or in commerce under this paragraph (e), the outside container of such inedible products shall be marked conspicuously with the words “Inedible—Not Intended for Human Food” in letters not less than 2 inches high, in the case of containers, such as cartons, drums, tierces, barrels, and half barrels, and not less than 4 inches high in the case of tank cars and trucks used to transport such products not in other containers.”
Example of this legally required labeling:
The USDA has no jurisdiction over where this inedible, condemned material goes – such as pet food – their only legal requirement is that the material is clearly labeled as inedible and does not enter human food distribution.
But in another USDA law, the agency gives official suggestions to where 4D animals (dead, dying, disabled and diseased) can be disposed of…
The law states no person can sell 4D animals…”unless such livestock and parts are consigned and delivered, without avoidable delay, to establishments of animal food manufacturers, renderers …”
Through all points of distribution, including being shipped to pet food/animal food manufacturers, inedible meat material/condemned meat material/non-slaughtered dead animals are required by law to be clearly labeled as inedible/condemned/not inspected or non-slaughtered.
But the transparency stops abruptly when these highly inferior ingredients enter a pet food plant.
Coming into the pet food plant these ingredients are
distinctly labeled as inedible/condemned.
Going out of the pet food plant (in a pet food)
they are labeled as chicken, beef, pork, and so on.
How can this be allowed?
The agency solely responsible for this consumer deception is FDA. The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine refuses to require pet food label disclosure of inedible, condemned, diseased animal material.
We (Association for Truth in Pet Food) submitted a request to FDA for pet food label disclosure in June 2022. Even though FDA is required by law to respond to our request within 120 days, 1,333 days later – the agency said “No“. The FDA response stated they did not believe pet food label disclosure of condemned, inedible, diseased animal material “is necessary to maintain the integrity of the food, or ensure that the food meets consumer expectations.”
We have asked FDA to reconsider, quoting federal laws as foundation for our pet food label disclosure request. We continue to wait for their decision.
The American Pet Products Association reports that our pets provided the US government $21.6 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue in 2024.
And this pet food label deception is what US pet owners get in return for providing billions annually in tax revenue.
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Consumer Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
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Bethany
July 8, 2026 at 12:39 pm
There is regulatory capture of so many government agencies, the FDA is just one more. They are clearly protecting the interests of Big Pet Food and the nonhuman flesh, milk, and egg industries, who get billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies every year. How many consumers would buy a pet food that disclosed “inedible, condemned, diseased animal material” on the label? My guess is very few.