The meeting started off with a speech from FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine Dr. Timothy Schell – acting director. Dr. Schell gave an interesting speech…yet from a pet owner perspective we cannot agree with his message.
Dr. Schell explained that everyone attending the meeting was/is there for the same reason – safe animal food. He described situations where we come from different perspectives at AAFCO, but again all for the same reason (safe animal food). Personally – I disagree. Some are at AAFCO in search of better ways to profit from animal food/feed. When you are defining ingredients such as chicken feces to be fed to cattle, and diseased animal material to be fed to pets (undisclosed to the consumer) – you are not in search of safe animal food…you are working for cheap ingredients to improve your bottom line.
Dr. Schell shared that FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine is facing a loss of 20 to 30 percent of employees. He shared the agency is “trying to build back”.
During the Current Outreach session AAFCO announced a possible new program – a “AAFCO Certified Retailer Program”. The program is only in discussion at this point, but AAFCO explained it would be to provide education for pet store participants to how pet food is regulated. We assume this will be a fee based program, and we feel confident that the program will provide a biased perspective of how pet food is regulated. Such as explaining the laws themselves, but not how or if laws are actually enforced potentially providing pet owners with a false sense of security.
The Current Outreach session also briefly discussed a potential consumer outreach program. AAFCO stated they had one individual willing to participate in this potential consumer outreach program, it is unknown who that is or if the program will move forward. We were asked to participate in this program, we declined (believing AAFCO’s effort was not genuine, based on years of experience with them).
During the Ingredient Definitions Committee session, a couple of issues were discussed that I’ve heard many times over the years at AAFCO. They were discussing a legal definition of jerky treats (there is no current definition of jerky treats even though they have been sold to consumers for decades). An AAFCO representative stated they had reached out to the jerky treat industry for a suggestion of a legal definition. In other words, AAFCO wants industry to tell regulators what they are selling to pet owners. It is beyond frustrating when you hear regulators say ‘You tell us how to define what you are selling’ – instead of the other way around ‘we’ll tell you what is safe for you to sell’.
Another discussion during this session was ingredients that contain seeds when the ingredient is safe for an animal to consume, but not the seeds. It was stated “it is the responsibility of the firm (ingredient manufacturer) to have good manufacturing practices” (to remove the seeds). This would be fine – IF – regulatory authorities consistently inspected ingredient manufacturers to assure they are not including seeds (or any other dangerous ingredient). BUT…inspections rarely happen.
Day one of the AAFCO meeting ended with a presentation from Kansas State University which now holds the responsibility of approving new pet food/animal feed ingredients for AAFCO. FDA used to perform this role for AAFCO. From the copy of a presentation slide below, you can see the number of industry representatives that were included in the development of AAFCO’s pet food/animal feed ingredient approval process.
Allowing industry to have a voice in developing an ingredient approval process comes with serious concerns.
On Tuesday August 5, 2025 was the Pet Food Committee session, which included another presentation from a Kansas State University professor (and former Hill’s Pet Food employee) regarding pet obesity. The presenter pointed out some issues that AAFCO could (should) address such as lax regulatory oversight of feeding directions on pet food labels. Time will tell if AAFCO decides to take any action.
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
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T Allen
August 6, 2025 at 8:14 pm
Thank you Susan for sitting through these meetings to keep us informed. We know it’s not a fun thing to do so we appreciate it even more!
Christine
September 1, 2025 at 10:24 am
Colonel Sanders is watching the chicken coop in most regulatory agencies. Until that stops, nothing changes.