In early 2007 several major brands were found to contain tainted ingredients in their dog foods. These food contaminations lead to the illness and death of thousands of dogs and cats, and caused widespread panic and distrust towards the pet food industry. The culprit was discovered to be wheat gluten imported from China, tainted with the chemical compound melamine, a poisonous fertilizer. Millions of bags and cans of pet food was eventually found to be contaminated, with almost every major maker of pet food affected in some way.
While the widespread panic of the pet food recall has abated, the event brought to the surface many concerns about the content and ingredients in dog food, and now more than ever determining what constitutes a healthy diet for your dog is a confusing and daunting task.
The Association of American Feed Control Officials, known as AAFCO, regulates all commercially available dog food, and the pet food industry at large. According to their own definition, the AAFCO “provides a mechanism for developing and implementing uniform and equitable laws, regulations, standards and enforcement policies for regulating the manufacture, distribution and sale of animal feed”. AAFCO provides guidelines for pet foods, and administers testing of new brands to ensure quality. Unfortunately, AAFCO testing protocols do not require foods be tested on the specific population they are geared towards, such as testing puppy foods on puppies, senior foods on senior dogs, etc.
It is for this reason that understanding the label on your dog food is so important. Labels can be confusing, but if taken apart, you can decipher much of the hidden meaning in the nutritional value of your dogs food.
What’s in a name? When it comes to dog food, quite a bit. If a food is named specifically for it’s main ingredient, such as “Chicken Dog Food”, the named ingredient, chicken, must make up at least 70% of the total weight of the food. If a food name contains the word “dinner” or “formula”, such as “Beef Formula”, the named ingredient must only be at least 25% of the total weight of the food- and filler is frequently used to make up the rest of the content.
By-products are ingredients found commonly in many poorer quality dog foods. Meat by-products are the parts of the animal that is left over after slaughter, unfit for human consumption. In poultry, this can mean the feet, intestines, organs, and diseased animals.
“Crude Protein” is generally made up of the hair, hooves and tendons of animals, as well as beaks and feathers of poultry. Very little of this “protein” can be absorbed by the dog.
Cereal grains, referred to as “meal” (wheat meal, corn meal) are the leftovers of grain processed for human use, and have very little nutritional value.
“Glutens” such as the wheat gluten found in the tainted pet foods, are a byproduct of human food processing, and used mostly as a binder in the food.
On the ingredient label, there are often more than twenty ingredients listed. Ingredients are required to be listed on the label in order of weight content- so the first few ingredients listed are going to be the major components of the food.
For example, the first ingredients of one food might look like this: “Corn meal, ground wheat, meat meal, chicken fat, wheat gluten”. Another brand might read “Turkey, chicken, chicken meal, barley, brown rice”. In this example, the first food is made primarily of corn and wheat, with a meat source as the third largest ingredient. The second food has true meat as a much greater proportion of its content. Because protein in the form of meat ingredients is the most important component of a dogs diet, between these two labels it becomes obvious that the second food is of much higher nutritional value.
Once you have been armed with the knowledge to decipher a dog food label, it’s time to take a look at what you’ve been feeding Fido. Maybe it’s time to do some more research, and find a different food? If so, keep in mind a few other food choices while you are at the pet store.
Foods that claim to be “organic” can fall into two categories. A food advertised as “made with organic ingredients” is required to contain only 70% of actual organic ingredients. True “organic” labeled dog food contains at least 95% organic ingredients.
Home cooked diets have been steadily increasing in popularity for years, and that popularity has burgeoned since the pet food recall. Homecooked diets can be cooked, or more increasingly, are served raw. Homecooked diets are typically made of 50% human grade meat, with vegetables, oats, rice or potatoes, and cottage cheese or yogurt.
Despite the advantages of control over the quality of ingredients in a home cooked diet, it requires a much greater investment of time, money and energy to create a balanced homemade diet, and is not feasible in many circumstances. By carefully researching the ingredients in dog food, you can find a food that offers you peace of mind, and gives your dog the valuable nutrition he needs to live a long and happy life.