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Pet Food Regulations

Unanswerable Pet Food Questions

Is it food? Yes and no. Is it legal? Yes and no. A $23 billion dollar a year (in the U.S.) ‘regulated’ industry that has more holes in it than a colander.

Is it food? Yes and no. Is it legal? Yes and no. A $23 billion dollar a year (in the U.S.) ‘regulated’ industry that has more holes in it than a colander.

With inspiration from the famous Abbott and Costello skit ‘Who’s on First?’…

Pet Owner: Susan, tell me about pet food.

Susan: Pet food or pet feed?

Pet Owner: What’s pet feed?

Susan: Most pet foods are pet feed. It says food on the label, but it’s really feed.

Pet Owner: Most pet foods are pet feeds? What in the world is a pet feed?

Susan: FDA allows all animal foods to violate federal law – allowing all kinds of terrible waste to be recycled into animal food ingredients. Illegal recycled waste – that’s feed. But they call it food. Oh, and feed can also be food, good wholesome food ingredients, but there’s no way to know which is which.

Pet Owner: They call it food but it can be feed and some animal feeds violate law? And I can’t tell which pet foods – which are really feeds – use this illegal waste?

Susan: You can’t.

Pet Owner: #&*$%!

Susan: I completely agree.

 

Last week, your consumer advocates (myself, Dr. Jean Hofve and Mollie Morrissette) had a meeting with the President of AAFCO and the AAFCO investigator for all animal ingredients (pet foods and livestock feeds – such as meats). We were provided this meeting to gain some clarification to how pet food could be allowed to violate federal and state law. We did not get clarification. Instead we learned that a $23 billion dollar a year industry in the US (pet food) has regulations with more holes in it than a colander.

The law says (federal law and state law in 14 states) that a pet food would be considered adulterated/illegal if it contains any part of a non-slaughtered animal.

The problem: the law doesn’t seem to have defined what a slaughtered animal is.

The bigger problem: without a clear legal definition for slaughter, we are told no one can enforce the laws that declare a food adulterated if it contains a non-slaughtered animal.

I find it hard to believe that this hole in law actually exists. My reasoning is human food. A human food would be recalled faster than a New York minute should it be found to contain any part of a non-slaughtered animal. How can pet food escape this same protection? This law IS enforced with human food, the question…why isn’t it enforced with pet food?

Questions have been sent to FDA – how is this law enforced? I asked how FDA enforces this law in relation to pet food and human food. When/if FDA responds, their information will be shared.

As it stands, unless a pet food is made in a human food manufacturing facility, pet food consumers purchasing a pet food are not told…

  • If meat is sourced from a diseased animal;
  • If meat is sourced from a non-slaughtered animal;
  • If meat has been denatured with some type of chemical or dye (to learn more about denaturing, read Mollie Morrissette’s post by clicking Here);
  • What exactly that denaturing agent is;
  • If vegetables are food grade or rotting surplus vegetables;
  • If fruits are food grade or rotting surplus fruits;
  • If vitamins and minerals are human grade or feed grade;

And…even if the pet food meat is sourced from a slaughtered animal, consumer are not told what part of the animal is used. Guess what is discarded into pet food/animal feed directly from slaughter facilities? Animal intestines and their contents (and more waste material). Pet food consumers are not told this either.

Add to the above – with all pet foods the consumer is not told…

  • Exact amounts of protein;
  • Exact amounts of fat;
  • Exact amounts of every vitamin and mineral;

This is wrong. Very wrong. How can the pet food industry – a $23 billion dollar a year US industry – be allowed to violate law? How can laws be written with no clear definitions to enforce those laws? AAFCO has been developing pet food regulations since the 1950’s…how long is it going to take to get this right, to provide consumers with disclosure to what they are purchasing?

Our pets are paying the price for this…our pets and the families that love them. Consumers deserve to know what they are purchasing, and we won’t let up until that happens. We don’t know what the next step will be, that is going to depend on what FDA tells us. But I assure all, we will not give up this battle until pet foods are truthfully labeled and existing law is enforced.

By the way – the AAFCO representatives could not have been more pleasant and helpful – honestly they were. They agreed with our concern, agreed that consumers need to understand what they are purchasing in a pet food. Our collective problem, is figuring out how to do that. We know the need, we know the problem, now we need to figure out a resolve.

 

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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The 2016 List

Susan’s List of trusted pet foods.  Click Here

 

Have you read Buyer Beware?  Click Here

Cooking for pets made easy, Dinner PAWsible

Find Healthy Pet Foods in Your Area Click Here

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Nina Wolf

    March 7, 2016 at 6:17 pm

    What is the FDA’s reason for not enforcing the laws on the books? Has any FDA official stated that funding is the problem? If so, and the funding were provided, does that mean we could then expect all laws to be enforced?

    Yup there are surely holes to fix in definitions as well. Sigh.

    • Susan Thixton

      March 7, 2016 at 6:30 pm

      FDA has told me they “don’t believe this material is a risk”. That’s their excuse.

    • Nancy

      March 8, 2016 at 12:25 pm

      I just read that the FDA has been taken over by Big Pharma. Really, what difference does it make?
      We all know what they both are about. No one holds a gun over our head saying we have to buy
      pet food. Does anyone really believe the likes of the FDA and companies like Blue Buffalo can change? My dog’s vet bill was $4000.00 plus. Ongoing for the rest of her life. What amazes me is
      everyone trying to get them to change and become concerned, caring, organizations. The sooner
      everyone realizes this, the sooner you can all get on with your life and start making your own pet food. All this back and forth trying to make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear is for naught. Stop wasting your time and take responsibility for making sure your pet’s food is safe! Yes, it’s work, but
      so is everything else in life.

  2. Tammy Baugh

    March 7, 2016 at 6:43 pm

    My guess is $. Could big pet food companies be paying off fda to be lax in not inforcing the laws on the books ?

  3. Laurie Raymond

    March 7, 2016 at 7:21 pm

    Besides the obvious link to corporate influence, it may be worth asking if the extreme distrust of government as government, and the assumption that smaller government is always better, might not be responsible for some of this. Below the very top layer, where the revolving door ensures that government watchdogs come from the industries they are supposed to be regulating, these prejudices mean that, on the one hand, bureaucrats are recruited from – let’s just say, NOT the top tier of talent applying. They are the people who are content to work for a much lower salary because they don’t give two figs about excellence, don’t want to get embroiled in conflicts that would ensue if they were zealous in their jobs, have been around the same block too many times. OR, they are young and inexperienced and quickly learn where it is acceptable to be zealous (when it furthers the interests of the industry in which they hope to find real employment some day. I think we get not only what we pay for, but what we expect when we look down on government. There are officious bureaucrats who inspect and “ding” the very best producers of goods and services because they don’t have enough knowledge to have good judgment. These are the folks who have, over the last 10 years, put the small slaughterhouses and mobile slaughter facilities out of business, with terrible costs to small ranchers and consumers’ interest in local, healthy meat, and most of all, costs to the livestock who must be shipped to giant CAFO associated slaughterhouses. When we respected inspectors, hired experienced people with good judgment and acted on their findings, we had meaningful oversight of industries. It didn’t come without costs of various kinds — but at least you didn’t have corruption expected and regarded as the new normal. Something to think about.

  4. Kathleen Pirri

    March 10, 2016 at 2:52 pm

    Which would you choose?

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Human Grade & Feed Grade
Do you know what the differences are between Feed Grade and Human Grade pet food? Click Here.

 

The Regulations
Pet Food is regulated by federal and state authorities. Unfortunately, authorities ignore many safety laws. Click Here to learn more about the failures of the U.S. pet food regulatory system.

 

The Many Styles of Pet Food
An overview of the categories, styles, legal requirements and recall data of commercial pet food in the U.S. Click Here.

 

The Ingredients
Did you know that all pet food ingredients have a separate definition than the same ingredient in human food? Click Here.

Click Here for definitions of animal protein ingredients.

Click Here to calculate carbohydrate percentage in your pet’s food.

 

Sick Pet Caused by a Pet Food?

If your pet has become sick or has died you believe is linked to a pet food, it is important to report the issue to FDA and your State Department of Agriculture.

Save all pet food – do not return it for a refund.

If your pet required veterinary care, ask your veterinarian to report to FDA.

Click Here for FDA and State contacts.

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