Are you confused to what human grade pet food is? Is it for real? Worth the money? The ‘truth’ about human grade pet food.
“I’m going to feed the dog, and feed the cat.”
“Yes, you probably are. Feed the noun. You are probably feeding them feed.”
Quality food is significantly important to the well-being of those that consume it. Food – if not sourced, processed, and handled properly – can be the cause of serious health risks. Because food is so significant to the well-being of those that consume it, and because if not sourced, processed and handled properly food can become a serious risk, there are many laws governing food.
Trouble is, those food safety laws are not applied to pet food (or any animal food). That is, with the ONLY exception of human grade pet food. The only pet food that abides by food safety law is human grade pet food. All other pet foods are feed. All other pet foods (with one exception explained below) do not meet food safety laws.
Many in pet food and most in regulatory perceive human grade pet food as an extravagance. But actually, it’s not an extravagance at all. Human grade pet food is – very simply – just food. Human grade pet food is food as we know food specific for a cat or dog (containing the nutrients as needed by cats and/or dogs). Human grade pet food IS NOT smoke and mirrors feed making consumers believe it is food. It is food that has been sourced, processed and handled properly…it is food as we know food, providing our pets with the nutrients they require.
Industry has tried to make consumers believe that human grade pet food is the result of us pesky pet owners humanizing our pets. Nielsen – of survey fame – has a published report titled The Humanization of Pet Food stating “Nielsen explored how far consumers are willing to take this trend—identifying areas of opportunity for “humanized” pet foods…” Human grade pet food is not consumers trying to ‘humanize’ our pets, not in the least. Human grade pet food is (again) consumers simply giving their pets food, real food.
The ‘truth’ is, commercial pet food began as human grade. The first canned pet food in the U.S. was Ken-L Ration, the dog food was made from USDA inspected and approved meat; horse meat. From a historical website documenting the town Ken-L Ration was manufactured in, we are told the meat used in the pet food went through the same inspection process as human food. The website states the food was manufactured according to the Pure Food Law, the early version of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Even advertising of the pet food stated “US government inspected”.
But somewhere between the early beginnings of pet food (1920’s for Ken-L Ration) to present day, the FDA decided laws governing food were no longer applicable to pet food. Today, (most) pet foods are regulated as feed with all regulatory authorities openly allowing pet food to ignore food law. Today most pet foods do not follow/abide by food law.
And then history repeated itself. Along came human grade pet food, again. And regulatory authorities lost their minds.
Human Grade Pet Foods have caused more sleepless nights and anxiety for regulatory authorities than they want to admit. The mere thought of a pet food being food (human grade) is so foreign to regulatory authorities of today, they don’t understand them. Remember, it’s been 90+ years since food law was actually enforced with pet food; pet food has not been held to food law within the lifetime of any current regulatory authority.
So, we sort of have generations of regulatory authorities (regulatory employees, the employees that trained them, and the employees that trained them) that were trained to understand that pet food is not food, its feed. It was accepted as tradition that pet food does not abide by food law; the same way it’s been done for several regulatory generations. Every regulatory authority has forgotten the original days of pet food, when pet food was actually held to food law.
Human Grade pet food is food. It is that simple. It is the only pet food that abides by food law. But…there is one exception, raw pet food. Emphasis – some – raw pet foods.
Going back to the mindset of regulatory authorities, those in charge believe (have been trained for generations to believe) that only humans eat food (animals eat feed). With that regulatory mindset, humans don’t eat raw meat. In turn, they believe raw meat pet food is not food, because…humans don’t eat raw meat. Thus, regulatory authorities cannot understand human grade raw pet food and refuse to allow the Human Grade claim on raw pet food labels.
Maybe in a few years the light bulb will turn on for them. In the meantime, a Human Grade Raw Pet Food is one that is made under constant USDA inspection, contains human grade supplements, and is handled as required for food. But it will not state Human Grade on the label until pet food regulators agree to human meat standards for pet food (the light bulb).
The verb needs to change…
“I’m going to food the dog, and food the cat.”
“Yes, food. The only true pet food.”
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
What’s in Your Pet’s Food?
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The 2016 List
Susan’s List of trusted pet foods. Click Here
The Other List
The List of pet foods I would not give my own pets. Click Here
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Kathryn S
August 15, 2016 at 12:32 pm
I purchase my animals food at the same retailers that I purchase food for our table; the local meat market, farmers markets, grocery stores, etc. If I would not eat it, I will not feed it to my dogs. Simple.
Susan Thixton
August 15, 2016 at 12:39 pm
Me too!
Jane
August 15, 2016 at 1:45 pm
There are actually 2 types of meals we feed our dogs: human grade or garbage in a pretty bag. I tell everyone: if it is not safe for YOU to eat, it is not safe for your dog.
“But wolves eat all kinds of things!” Yes: and a 7 year old wolf is considered very old.
Beth Marousek
August 15, 2016 at 1:48 pm
I’m showing my age… I remember Ken-L-Ration on the super market shelves. At some point the public began to express some outrage that the meat in the product was horse meat, not cow. I suppose that was the beginning of the end for them. About raw meat: I recently wound up at a vet’s office, someone I did not know, with an emergency cat issue. They asked what I fed my cat. When I mentioned raw meat as part of his diet, the vet literally
turned red with indignation. She went on and on about how dangerous that was, due to pathogens in the raw meat. When I mentioned that I understood carnivores had enough acid in their digestive tract to handle such things, she said (I swear she said this) “Would YOU eat it”? I politely said “No, but I’m an omnivore, not a carnivore”. At that point she dropped the conversation. What is wrong with vets that they are so easily swayed by Big Pharma and Big Pet Feed? Don’t they think for themselves? Frustrating!!!
Tracey
August 15, 2016 at 3:33 pm
That actually is a myth. My cat got salmonella from raw chicken and dogs can get sick from the new super-bugs as well. Wolves don’t run into sick animals in the woods that have the same deadly bacteria that are found in our food supply. These ” new” bacteria have been evolving for thousands of generations in animals raised in the same dirty barns and feedlots. They are not your grandmothers’ or even mother’s salmonella. They are in the USDA inspected meat you buy. That is why it’s critical to cook all meat properly before you eat it. You need to take the same precautions with your pets. ALL poultry should be at least partially cooked so the outside of the leg or the ground product is above 124*. All ground meat should be cooked to a minimum of 124* if you buy it at the grocery store. If you buy direct from a butcher,Beef, lamb, pork can be fed raw assuming you trust the butcher. Cook fish to kill parasites.You still are at risk of having a sick pet but that’s a chance you take anytime you feed raw milk, eggs, meat, poultry etc. Signed: a vet tech and former USDA meat Inspector.
I’m not saying don’t feed raw, just be careful and understand that vets have seen the unfortunate results of uneducated people feeding all kinds of “stuff” to animals.
Mary Meyer Johnson
August 15, 2016 at 4:28 pm
I agree with Tracey on this issue. The problem is with the uneducated feeding raw, as they may not be as careful as the more knowledgeable consumers are on this site.
Mary
August 15, 2016 at 9:03 pm
Absolutely correct.
I have a sanctuary for dogs. I am a nurse fully dedicated to holistic health. Mi would NEVER feed raw meat from any store.
When I am able to do so, I will be raising my own meat for th dogs…..just as my family raised our meat for many decades. Only then will these dogs eat raw meat.
The microorganisms found in or on meat today is absolutely virulent, due to the gross abuse of antibiotics in factory farms.
Dean
August 15, 2016 at 9:13 pm
Ummm… actually the point about stomach acidity is real… we did some simple testing in our lab and found that when you mix similar masses of raw pet pet food and kibble in similar volumes of HCL (hydrochloric acid) the relative Ph level on the raw stayed well below the kill range… with the kibble though it rose to levels that may not… we believe this to be the result of the kinds of binders used… FYI…
Yvonne McGehee
August 18, 2016 at 12:40 pm
Interesting! What kind of lab was this?
Dean
August 18, 2016 at 1:10 pm
This was in our own in-house lab that is used primarily for doing samples testing and product development…
We are currently working on developing a proper standard for determining bone content in raw food, as the determinations being made by most are seriously flawed.
Beth Marousek
August 15, 2016 at 10:17 pm
I should clarify: we live in the country. The raw I feed comes from my own goats and chickens, and deer if we get them. The dogs get raw chicken thighs every day. Raw milk is from our goats and we and friends have used it for years. Beef is organic, from a farmer I know. It all depends on your dedication to cleanliness when you butcher and common sense. I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years and I will never stop feeding raw as part of my dogs’ diet unless they are compromised by other illness. My large dogs have lived to be 13 and 14 years old, and the vet always raves at their amazing health and beautiful teeth in their old age. There are multiple sides to everything and much depends upon details.
Victoiria Deming
August 15, 2016 at 10:17 pm
Raw is the way to go provided its made correctly. As far as rancid rotting flesh scraped off boots and the floor, then go with kibble. Rotten decomposing maggot ridden products make kibble what it is today!
Michelle
August 15, 2016 at 1:51 pm
Me too! Supermarket organic meat section.
Dean
August 15, 2016 at 3:00 pm
Pet food is the largest undeclared recycle/reuse process in the world, and the prejudices attached to pet food are based on knowing the typical sources for its inputs… these prejudices are being transferred to raw pet food with out separating one company from another…
As with most unregulated business (directly or through lack of enforcement) you have the ‘good’ companies with good intent and ethics… then there are the parasites. Those that ride the coattails of those who build a new market based on good intent and ethics. These parasites bleed money and credibility from those who ‘are doing the right thing’; with no other intent than to take money out of the system. Some call it competition, they are not competitors, they are parasites.
Raw food and its low bar to entry is littered with these companies disguising there less than credible process with euphemisms like ‘All Natural’,’Grass Fed’,’Locally Made”Farm Raised’… Or claim ‘Human Grade’ because the input materials are bought from an inspected facility; but do not give any consideration to what they are doing with/to the product on their own premises.
What is even more troubling is the there is a growing number of ‘un-inspected abattoirs’ out there buying up animals off the farms that would not make it to the slaughter house or are slaughtering animals that do not go into the ‘human food’ chain like Llamas and Wild boar. What level of control do you think would happen there?
As much as people hate regulation it also does a good job of shining light on problems like this…
Victoiria Deming
August 15, 2016 at 6:01 pm
Thank you for posting this! I remember how different things were years ago. I remember dogs living into their late teens and early 20’s. I remember Cancer being a rare thing in dogs. I do remember. If only we could go back for the sake of our animals. Keep doing this work!
Carolyn Hansen
August 15, 2016 at 6:08 pm
Now I am conflicted..I have looked through your 2016 list of trusted pet foods, I have also been a subscriber to Petsumer Report for the past few years, I have read Buyer Beware and I receive the Truthaboutpetfood emails. After several years of feeding my five rescue cats a premium diet I was on the verge of introducing them to a partially raw diet. Now I am not sure anymore if a Human Grade Raw Pet Food would be reasonably safe.
Victoiria Deming
August 15, 2016 at 7:47 pm
Be sure you go through a reputable company for your RAW. I find BARF World the best out there because they do a mix that is complete, they quality test their food for correct nutritional values and they ship directly to your home the food flash frozen.
Terri Janson
August 17, 2016 at 12:27 pm
I buy my dog food at the meat counter, produce counter and dairy counter where I also get my food from. Yes I can and would eat their food because it is also my food. 🙂
Debbie Haynes
August 21, 2016 at 4:09 am
I noticed that Royal Canin was not recommended on your list, but when I switched from Hill’s Science Diet to Royal Canin Special 33, my cats all blossomed. Shiny coats, clear eyes, hardly any coughing or sneezing. Just all around better health. And they really love it. Now the horrible revelation I’m facing is the fact that I fed the Science Diet to them for so long, thinking that I was doing a good thing.
.
Susan Thixton
August 21, 2016 at 8:27 am
Royal Canin is not a human grade pet food.
Ally
March 18, 2017 at 3:44 pm
I am not sure you have done your research into cat food or read reviews on here. Royal Canin is still an awful cat food there are so many carbs and Royal Canin is not a great manufacturing company. You don’t have to feed raw but there are many other options our there in the commercial world that are so so so much better.
Scott
July 5, 2018 at 1:16 pm
Anyone know 100% for sure if weruva. Is. Really a good cat food ? Made in a human facility doesn’t impress me , If the food source itself. Could or might be contaminated as in made in Thailand. With. ?????? Polluted water supply to the chickens ?????? Any knowledge out there ?
scott
July 5, 2018 at 1:26 pm
I forgot to add that I did contact weruva about my concern and kindly did NOT receive a reply to my concerns
Steph
January 4, 2019 at 10:34 pm
Is pet food that is USDA Certified Organic considered human grade?
Susan Thixton
January 4, 2019 at 10:37 pm
Not necessarily. A USDA certified organic pet food could be – if they met the legal requirements. Which are: 100% human edible ingredients and supplements, and manufactured in a licensed human food facility. But there also could be feed grade organic.