A cat diet study discovered something unexpected; they found that commercial cat foods did not consistently use the ingredients listed on the label or in consistent amounts.
If you’ve ever baked a cake from a recipe, you’ve probably learned that should you vary the recipe even slightly your cake doesn’t turn out as you planned. The recipe called for 3 eggs, and you only had 2. It will be ok, right? Wrong. Your cake didn’t rise and certainly didn’t taste like it should.
Pet foods have specific recipes too. However, pet foods have recipes for much more important reasons than taste. Pet food recipes are necessary to make certain the pet food is as the label claims – “Complete and Balanced” – providing all of the required nutrients a cat or dog needs and in the proper levels. Thus when a pet food manufacturer doesn’t follow their recipe, nutritional failures can happen that can adversely effect the pet consuming the food.
A recent study from North Carolina State University and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences depended on pet food manufacturers consistently following a recipe, depended on pet foods providing pets consistent nutrition. But as it turned out, the researchers found that the pet foods were far from consistent.
From ScienceDaily.com the study is explained: “A common way to understand the composition of animal diets is to collect samples of fur, nails, or blood from an animal and analyze its carbon and nitrogen isotopes. All organic materials contain isotopes of elements that get locked into body tissues, following the basic principle that you are what you eat. For example, the ratios of nitrogen isotopes present in carnivores are dependably distinct from those of plant eaters.”
“For this study, researchers collected isotopes from things a cat might eat, including different brands and flavors of cat foods. They predicted cats that only ate from their food bowls would have an identical isotopic match to the food, while differences between cat and pet food would indicate a cat supplementing its diet with wild prey.”
“We really thought this was going to be an ideal application of the isotope methodology,” says Roland Kays, a co-author of the study and scientist at NC State and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.”
“This assumes that cat food producers use consistent types and amounts of ingredients. As it turns out, that is not the case.“
From the study: “The high level of variation between different cat food, including many of the flavors produced by the same manufacturers, was quite surprising.”
“The samples received from participants and the wet food purchased from stores in the Raleigh, NC area made up a total of 27 brands, and 55 individual flavors of food. Purina™ was the most frequent brand of cat food received and was made up of 14 different flavors of cat food. Some isotopic variation between flavors would be expected here, but surprisingly, δ13C values varied more than 5‰ across Purina™ dry foods. Even foods within the same flavor could be variable, for example, samples of Meow Mix™ Original Choice flavor varied 2‰ in δ13C values. This suggests that large scale pet food manufacturers vary the ingredients over time.”
Regulatory authorities from FDA and each state should be holding manufacturers accountable to consistent nutritional requirements. Unfortunately, this study and multiple other studies in the past (DNA analysis studies proving protein label claims do not match analysis) proves they are not. With no enforcement – and as shown by this study – many pet food manufacturers do as they please, changing ingredients and the nutritional values of pet food with no concern for the pet consuming the food.
Pet owners should not hesitate to email FDA (AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov) and/or their State pet food regulatory authorities (locate here) asking them to properly monitor pet food nutritional values. Provide them a link to this study (https://peerj.com/articles/8337/) and asking them to explain why pet food manufacturers are allowed to be so inconsistent.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Duncan
March 4, 2020 at 11:22 am
Anyone who has a cat can back that up! Not from scientific analysis but from observation: cats can detect changes in their usual food–and will usually refuse something that had previously been acceptable.
Cannoliamo
March 4, 2020 at 12:34 pm
That is certainly consistent with my experience (I have 7 cats). After selecting a food that they all (or at least most of them) like I’ll buy 3 or 4 cases and then none of them will eat it. I’ve contacted FDA (terrible experience) and they took my information and told me they would investigate. (This particular incident involved Nutro Chunky Chicken). Then they told me I couldn’t get any information unless I filed a FOIA request. I contacted Mars and sent them 3 of the cans and they kept saying they would get back with me (This is 8 phone calls over 6-month period) but I never heard from them. This food was then removed from their product line … again with no notification or explanation.
I live in Alabama and the AAFCO rep here told me that each company only has to provide a list of ingredients used in their pet foodS, NOT THE SPECIFIC INGREDIENTS LISTED FOR EACH FOOD. There is no requirement that the food in the can or package has to meet the ingredients on the AAFCO label, only that it can’t contain any ingredients that are not included on their generic list. There is still a requirement for including 3% on product “with” specific labelled ingredients like chicken or turkey or tuna and 25% if that’s what the name states.
VERY SAD state of affairs when it comes to buying any cat food by reading the AAFCO labels and having any assurance that the ingredients are what’s listed on the label. This is probably the most annoying pet food experience I’ve ever had since I am only about 60-70% effective in selecting foods that are safe and healthy for my cats by reading the AAFCO labels and that my cats will reliably eat. 30-40% of all the cat food I buy is donated to local shelters because my cats simply won’t eat it. I’m guessing that’s less of a concern for the manufacturers than it is for me.
Tina
March 4, 2020 at 11:21 pm
Wow. Thanks for sharing.
Shannon Hohlt Latzke
March 4, 2020 at 4:19 pm
Manufacturers use either a fixed or variable formula. Variable formulas change the recipe, but end up with the same values for the nutrients listed on the guaranteed analysis (which frankly doesn’t mean much). Fixed formulas use the same ingredients in the same amounts regardless of fluctuations in ingredient availability or market pricing; this is something that higher quality brands do.
Dianne Grosjean Thornton
March 4, 2020 at 8:42 pm
Inconsistency has been obvious to me for a long time; one time my cats like a food and then the next time it is served they refuse to eat it. My golden rule is they know best and if I have more of the same batch date on hand – back to the store it goes! Retailers often do not want to take food back – receipt or not! Very hard for us who love and care for our beloved fur babies! I already supplement their diet with salmon, chicken and beef straight off the our grill!
Intend to do more cooking for them soon – stews etc. The way I see it, nothing I cook for them can be as bad as most of the commercial pet foods.
Claudia Loomis
March 5, 2020 at 4:07 pm
I am sorry to hear that your experience has been that most retailers will not take food back. I am an independent pet supply retailer and we have a satisfaction guarantee on all pet food and treats. If for any reason your dog or cat does not eat the food, or has an adverse reaction to it, we take it back. We will only work with pet food manufacturers who honor this policy. Oh course we do not sell grocery brands like Friskies, Fancy Feast, Sheba or MeowMix. There are pet retailers out there that do the right thing by our four legged and two legged customers!
Judi Cullina
March 4, 2020 at 9:43 pm
It’s almost as if the FDA/manufacturers/AAFCO try very hard to make it an us against them game and I bet they laugh during all their meetings about the “idiot consumers,” which should anger all of us. Or are they thinking “so what if we kill a few, the shelters are overflowing,” which is also a horrendous thought when you think about how much we all love our fur babies. I just wish we could find a government sponsor to help get the ball rolling in the right direction. It’s OUR government and yet they shut us out. Sorry to rant, it just angers me.
Jessie Frederiksen
March 5, 2020 at 10:35 am
The way I can tell if a cat food supplier is using inferior meat is when my cats (20) use the litter box after eating, boy let me tell you they can clear the whole room. I’m talking that their #2 smelled so bad , I got really concerned. When my cats use to eat friskees wet food was when I first noticed rancid, putrid stench. Not long after I started changing their diets with somewhat better quality foods until I found this website and switched to a brand from The List. another way I can tell if that a product has either changed an ingredient is with my cat coats. Especially my black cats. Their coats start changing colors. Their black coats are not black anymore.
All this deceptive lack of transparency on behalf of the all government agencies is done on purpose. The powers that be don’t care about us nor our pets, they hate us with a vengeance and are doing everything within their power to exterminate is from the planet. Agenda 21 is how their are doing it.
Concerned
March 6, 2020 at 11:59 am
It’s plain and simple…..our 4 legged companions are the distributed landfills in the USA for human consumer product waste. It’s cheap to make, don’t really have to test, if it is tainted so what recalls are extremely limited at most and they make a lot of money off the people that buy their products. Don’t buy their products is the easiest way to send the message.