Some pet foods are using dried powdered meat labeling it as ‘Made with Real Meat’. And no regulatory authority is doing anything about the deception.
Pet owners are all too familiar with the marketing on many pet food labels and websites alluding to whole fresh foods included in their pet food. Below are just a few examples…
So…what if you learned that some pet foods were making these “real meat” claims but including NO real meat in their pet food? How do you feel about pet food manufacturers using dried powdered meat in their pet foods and not disclosing this significant ingredient change to pet owners?
Is this pet food fraud?
Below is a screen shot of a Dried Powdered Meat Ingredient supplier’s website:
The above ingredient supplier tells potential customers:
“Would you like your label to include real chicken? Dried chicken and meat powders have a more consistent nutrient profile than fresh or frozen meats. Using dried chicken meat powders as alternatives to fresh or frozen meats reduces storage and handling requirements; reduces contamination between wet and dry areas; improves yields; and reduces labor, waste, and energy use.”
Is a dried powdered chicken “real chicken”?
What is FDA’s stance on dried powdered meats in pet food labeled as whole food ingredients? Questions were sent to ASK CVM (FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine) on 7/19/20, the Agency has not responded.
What are the regulations and labeling laws regarding dried ingredients? Questions were sent to the AAFCO Animal Protein Ingredient Investigator Stan Cook (Missouri Department of Agriculture) on 7/21/20, Mr. Cook has not responded.
Currently, there are NO definitions for dried powdered meat pet food ingredients even though these ingredients are commonly used and not labeled as a dried ingredient.
Pet food regulations REQUIRE every single ingredient to be defined by AAFCO before they are ever sold to industry. But somehow, AAFCO and FDA has just looked the other way with dried powdered meat ingredients. While AAFCO hasn’t bothered to define these dried powdered meat ingredients, the organization has defined many other dried animal feed/pet food ingredients. The legally defined dried ingredient list includes: “Dried Apple Pectin Pulp, Dried Apple Pomace, Dried Bakery Product, Dried Beans, Dried Black Soldier Fly Larvae, Dried Bovine Colostrum, Dried Buttermilk Feed Grade, Dried Cheese, Dried Cheese Product, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Chocolate Milk, Dried Citrus Meal, Dried Citrus Pulp, Dried Corn Syrup, Dried Cultured Skim Milk, Dried Cultured Whey, Dried Cultured Whey Product, Dried Whey Product Concentrate, Dried Whey Solubles, Dried Fermentation Biomass, Dried Fermentation Product, Dried Fish Protein Digest, Dried Fish Solubles, Dried Hydrolyzed Casein, Dried Hydrolyzed Whey, Dried Insects, Dried Kelp, Dried Lactalbumin, Dried L-Lysine Fermentation Product, Dried Meat Solubles, Dried Milk Feed Grade, Dried Milk Protein, Dried Potato Products, Dried Poultry Litter, Dried Poultry Waste, Dried Poultry Waste NPN Extracted, Dried Ruminant Waste, Dried Seaweed Meal, Dried Shellfish Digest, Dried Skimmed Mil Feed Grade, Dried Spent Hops, Dried Swine Waste, and Dried Tomato Pomace“. But again, no definition for dried powdered meat.
Without a legal definition, a pet food containing a dried powdered meat ingredient (disguised as a whole food ingredient) could easily be considered adulterated, mislabeled.
Human food labeling laws DO ALLOW a dried ingredient to be declared as a whole food ingredient on labels. Such as: “Dried whole eggs, frozen whole eggs, and liquid whole eggs may be declared as “eggs”.” And “Milk, concentrated milk, reconstituted milk, and dry whole milk may be declared as “milk”.” BUT, pet food isn’t regulated the same as human food, so these labeling laws allowing a dried ingredient to be labeled as a whole food ingredient cannot be applied to pet food. Pet foods using a dried meat ingredient labeled as a non-dried ingredient could be/should be considered adulterated, mislabeled.
But the biggest mislabeling issue is the pictures. Pet food regulations state “A vignette, graphic, or pictorial representation on a pet food label shall not misrepresent the contents of the package.” Any pet food’s pictorial representation of fresh meat is blatantly misleading pet owners if the meat is actually dried powder.
Which pet food manufacturers are using dried meats without disclosing the truth to pet owners? We don’t know. Because FDA and AAFCO have done absolutely nothing regarding defining or controlling the use and disclosure of these dried meat ingredients, pet owners don’t know which manufacturers are using a dried meat while advertising a fresh whole food meat.
Thanks to an insider tip we are told that many pet foods do not include fresh or roasted meat as their advertising claims, instead they are using dried powdered meat ingredients and NOT DISCLOSING the use to pet owners. It appears to be about saving money, not quality of ingredients. As the supplier’s website stated, dried powdered meats saves manufacturers money for the cost of freezers; “Using dried chicken meat powders as alternatives to fresh or frozen meats reduces storage and handling requirements.” We are told that most pet food manufacturing facilities have NO refrigeration or freezer units – none. Refrigeration or freezer units are required for ‘real meat’, the meat would go rancid without them. The insider shared “they don’t have freezers, just ask them“. So…
We need to ask every single pet food manufacturer to:
Show me the freezer!
Pet food manufacturers that include fresh/frozen meats in their pet foods will have refrigeration/freezer units within their manufacturing facility, we can safely assume they will be proud to show us pictures of freezers to validate. Any pet food that refuses to provide consumers evidence of freezers, we can safely assume are using dried meat powders.
So let’s ask them.
Please ask your pet food manufacturer to ‘Show Me The Freezer’. Email them, Tweet them, message them on Facebook. Ask them to provide you photographic evidence of freezers in their pet food plant(s). We all deserve to know which pet foods are using ‘Real Chicken’ (and any other meat) and which pet foods are using an undefined dried powdered chicken. #ShowMeTheFreezer
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Beth Marousek
July 23, 2020 at 1:42 pm
I’d be happy to ask the pet food companies this question, but how do we know they are showing us THEIR freezers? I guess at least they’ll know we are on to the scam. Any other thoughts on this are welcome.
Susan Thixton
July 23, 2020 at 6:15 pm
Hi Beth – I think asking them to provide the evidence of freezers does at least put them on notice.
Gertrude Wilson Smith
July 23, 2020 at 4:56 pm
Oh my, I could have shown you my freezers and fridge with me right in the picture (but as you say, even pictures can be photoshopped)! I made every meat or fish product from the animal//part. Cut it, dehydrated it, packed it,… BUT, after 2008, and thanks to the lack of real industry oversight, my business couldn’t recover.
Companies often extend their claims to just beyond the legal limits, and even change them according to marketing trends and enforcement. E.g., they might change claims from ‘raw dehydrated’ to ‘dehydrated’ if there’s a wave of stricter enforcement of raw food companies, in that case the raw claim is substituted with the probably more realistic ‘dehydrated’ claim; or they call their foods ‘organic’ when only a few cheap ingredients are organic, or none at all – As long as they don’t use the USDA organic symbol or make ‘certified organic’ claims they get away with it.
MY tip is to look for certified organic foods (mine were; so I know how much/little it costs and what is involved, incl. inspections of label claims, ingredient sourcing, storage, etc. It is more work than just to pretend you’re using organic ingredients w/o yearly inspections of books and facility, but very well doable, esp. if you are a bigger company with staff and higher budged. If I was able to do it, everybody should be able to make certified organic foods.
Be alert esp. with companies that offer dry, ‘dehydrated’ (and sometimes ‘raw/dehydrated’) foods. These companies don’t want to start with fresh animals/animal pieces and then add them to other dry food ingredients — too much work, too much time, too high a cost, i.e., less profitable.
Ask especially if the company makes the foods themselves (ask: Where is your manufacturing facility located; ask for the address. Then compare that with the ‘head quarters’ address. If there are two different locations, if the addresses are far apart, ask why the locations are that far apart and how they can do quality control if the facility is e.g., in another town or state. if you have the contract manufacturers address, you could even contact them to see if they are using fresh meats.
Many companies you come across over and over again, contract out the manufacturing to other companies. E.g., one (T.. H..est K..chen) contracted their manufacturing out to a 3rd party that was located out of state when I still had to bother with them as competitors; still you would never have known about it from looking at their website and marketing materials; I only learned about it from pet food industry journals (same with their raw and dehydrated claims). Some companies are unscrupulous and use any way to make more profit on your and your pets’ backs. The largest investment of companies that use contract manufacturing probably goes towards marketing and that’s why you find them everywhere and have to look for the pearls among the XXXX to find a good trustworthy company. However, there are some good larger and well-known companies, you just need to look for them and know how the marketing game can be played in a more or less unregulated play field.
Be alert. Keep asking. Check for the USDA organic label that guarantees that all books, ingredients, processing, and the facility are inspected annually. As long as there are almost no regulations and enforcement of claims, it’s up to each of us to be the detective and put our money and our pets’ health only where the truth lies (as far as we can find it).
In general, it’s best to make your own food and use (hopefully certified organic) commercial foods only occasionally. This way you know what’s in the food and how it was prepared.
Just wait until the cheap genetically engineered (GE) ‘meat-like’ ingredients enter the pet food market. Then you need to be even more careful than with ‘just’ meat meals. These lab grown meats can crawl into any pet (and human) food as easily as have pesticide ridden GE ingredients (e.g., plant ingredients, hormones, fish) we’re finding in many pet (and human) foods today. Unless of course, regulations would change; but so far it doesn’t look like it.
MJ's Lucky 7
August 3, 2020 at 7:30 pm
Hello, Gertrude. I’ve been feeding my cats T.. H…est K….en for quite a while now. I know it rolled off Susan’s annual pet food list, but is it still considered “human grade?”
Dianne & Pets
July 23, 2020 at 7:41 pm
Your list of dried ingredients includes chocolate milk. Are manufacturers seriously adding dried chocolate milk to their pet feed?
Susan Thixton
July 23, 2020 at 7:43 pm
The definitions are for all animal feeds – not just pet food. Yes – they are allowed to add dried chocolate milk in animal feed.
Cherry
January 14, 2021 at 11:41 am
What the……..WHAT they allow dried chocolate milk in pet food how is this possible?
Susan Thixton
January 14, 2021 at 11:46 am
Dried chocolate milk is a legally defined feed ingredient. That doesn’t necessarily mean it would be used in a pet food. It’s more likely to be included in a livestock feed (but still just as horrible).
Laurie Roosa
July 23, 2020 at 7:42 pm
I would also be happy to ask, but they could show us a freezer from anywhere? Knowing how deceitful these pet food manufacturers are will any of us get the truth? Yes; we can pressure them into letting them knowing we are aware of the powdered meat.
Purrrfectly Holistic
July 25, 2020 at 5:57 pm
I LOVE this hashtag Susan!!
Tanya
July 26, 2020 at 12:58 pm
I feel lied to about the human food laws allowing dried eggs to be called eggs and reconstituted milk to be called milk! Let alone the pet industry not having any regulation about it, ugh. Both human food and pet food suffer from a lack of regulation but never have I seen so much secrecy as in pet food. I am still angry we can’t even see ingredient definitions even if they DID define powdered meat. It STILL would not help transparency for consumers. At least human food enforces that labels show the food as it really is, not allowing some fantastic roasted meat feast when it’s a powdered meat product. That would never fly in human food.
We just do not have enough people who are aware of the issues. I have friends who think horrible foods are great. My own family just cannot believe what I tell them, “that can’t be true, they’re trying to scare you, no one would do that”. It’s nuts.
Now, question for you, Susan. If a pet foods website says “Our Canadian-made pet food starts with 100% fresh chicken (we use the muscle & flesh, not by-products) plus chicken liver & eggs. No meat or vegetable meals, ever.“ is that good enough to know they don’t use powdered meat? Is powdered meat significantly different from a “meat meal”?
Thanks for your time writing this article!
Susan Thixton
July 26, 2020 at 1:25 pm
There are no regulations for pet foods manufactured in Canada and sold in Canada. Pet foods manufactured in Canada and sold in the US would have to abide by US regulations. The ‘fresh chicken’ should mean no powdered meat. But I would ask them to be certain. And we don’t know if powered dried meat is different than meat meal because there is no legal definition for it. At this point (with no definition) it could be identical to a meat meal.
Tanya
July 26, 2020 at 9:19 pm
Really, no regulations for food manufactured and sold in Canada? That seems like a big omission.
But I’m glad at least US has some regulations (I’m in the US and the company sells in the US). But they should not allow ingredients that are not defined to be used. Is powdered meat GRAS or anything?
Susan Thixton
July 27, 2020 at 8:09 am
I’m still waiting on a response from FDA and from AAFCO. I assume it has to be legally defined just like any other pet food ingredient and currently it is not defined.
T.
July 28, 2020 at 10:45 pm
Forgive the ignorance of my question. How does dried, powdered meat differ from dehydrated raw? Am I being duped purchasing and feeding dehydrated raw single protein dog food?
Susan Thixton
July 29, 2020 at 7:48 am
Because dried powdered meat has no legal definition, it can be anything. Each supplier of the ingredient could process it differently with no standard for the ingredient they are required to follow.
John
July 14, 2021 at 4:53 pm
Meat powder is real meat. I don’t care that they show pictures of raw chicken but instead put in powdered chicken. Powdered chicken started out as raw chicken. Frankly, I prefer my dogs not eat rancid chicken meat mixed up in dog food sitting around in a bag at room temperature. If it were that big a deal to me I’d just give them the raw meat outright. Some people do.
I don’t feel it is any sort of false advertisement whatsoever to refer to powdered meat as real meat because again it IS real meat.
Frankie
August 8, 2020 at 1:10 pm
That’s American business for you…. scamming people and raping your bank account.
Maria Castellano
August 18, 2020 at 3:36 pm
I have recently discovered your website after watching the documentary ” Pet Fooled” just last night. Our Boxer pup not yet one year old had a bad reaction to Acana dog food that was highly recommended by the store manager at our local Petco. In looking up what to do we found the documentary and watched it….we are appalled….we are disgusted but most of all sad that unknowingly over the years we have brought our pets to their deaths with a slow and often painless practice of feeding which should actually be a fun and joyful and wonderful time for them instead of making them sick. Our boxer was quick to react after just a few weeks on this food. This is scary….we need to find out our other options…looked on a list of natural food stored in NH and none were listed….more research to be done. Thank you for bringing this light to our eyes.
haz
December 21, 2020 at 8:44 pm
“dried powdered meat isnt real meat” you do realize that they make the dried meat out of fresh meat right. like theyre literally the same thing but one has water and one doesnt.
Susan Thixton
December 22, 2020 at 8:56 am
Actually in pet food dried powdered meat has a completely different legal term – chicken meal. This term is transparent to pet owners. Dried powdered meat certainly is not the same thing as fresh meat. That’s sort of like trying to say that condemned meat is the same thing as edible meat. Nope. They are two very different classifications.
Cortney
March 11, 2021 at 4:06 pm
How is this ‘dried powdered meat’ different from meat meal? I see that they’re named differently…but what’s the real difference between them? They’re both dried, a powder and made from meat. Aren’t they just two different terms for the same thing?
Susan Thixton
March 11, 2021 at 4:28 pm
I don’t think there is much difference between dried powdered meat and meat meal – with the exception that the pet owner isn’t told about the dried powdered meat ingredient. That ingredient is labeled as ‘chicken’ as example where the meat meal ingredient is labeled as chicken meal.
A Lover Of Fur Children
August 25, 2021 at 4:22 pm
I have a theory about chicken meal. Do you know how in the egg industry male chicks are deemed worthless and gassed or ground? I think chicken meal might be made of them O-O. It makes sense because they already send hens that are done producing eggs to become pet “Food” or animal feed.