Can you guess how much beef is in this pet food?

From the pet lover perspective, pets are family. And big business is well aware we think that way. The $26 Billion dollar a year pet food industry caters to our love of pets, sometimes leading us to believe a can or bag of pet food is equivalent to a home cooked meal from Mom. But when you sift through the marketing tactics, you learn the truth can be far from a meal Mom would make.

So take a guess how much beef this dog food has in it. I´ve changed the name to protect the guilty, but this canned pet food tells the exact same story as many popular dog and cat foods found on store shelves all across the U.S. and Canada. From XYZ Pet Food, we´re looking at Chunky Premium Dog Food with Beef. In a 13 oz. can of XYZ´s Chunky Premium dog food with Beef – what percentage of the can is beef? Now remember, it says premium – this isn´t everyday pet food, its premium. And in big bold letters across the label it says ´Chunky´ and ´with Beef´ along with pictures of choice cuts of meat. Take a guess – what percentage of the can is beef? 50%?, 25%?, 10%?...what´s your guess?

There are many tricks of pet food marketing and some are very, very slick. Pet food labeling is just one example. Compliments of the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO – the organization that develops all animal feed rules and regulations) pet food manufacturers are allowed many advertising liberties other industries are not. For example, one liberty allowed pet food manufacturers states "The label of a pet food or specialty pet food…may include an unqualified claim, directly or indirectly, such as ´complete and balanced´, ´perfect´, or ´100% nutritious´." Pet food manufacturers are legally allowed to make ´unqualified claims´ on a pet food label – isn´t that nice.

Next, our friends at AAFCO have what is called the 3% rule. When a pet food name includes ´with beef´ the ingredients must contain at least 3% beef exclusive of water. A canned dog or cat food is mostly water (or moisture) – in fact, most canned dog and cat foods are an average of 75% to 85% moisture. That leaves around 20% of the can being actual ingredients. Now think about that 3% rule again. XYZ´s Chunky Premium Dog Food with Beef contains only 3% beef – not 3% of the entire can – 3% of the can exclusive of water. Only 3% of the 20% of ingredients (minus the moisture of 80%) in this can of dog food has to be beef to make the claim ´with Beef´ on the label. 3% of 20%...wow, that´s not much beef, is it?

When you do the math, our pretend can of dog food – XYZ´s Chunky Premium with Beef actually contains only .6% worth of beef. Yet blazoned across the can is ´with Beef´ along with pictures of prime cuts of steak. Only .6% beef protein is provided in this entire can of pet food; the same food that gave us the feeling we are feeding our pet a home cooked meal just like mom used to do for us.

Now you should know that the Guaranteed Analysis of our XYZ Chunky Premium dog food tells us that the can contains 8% protein. Since ´with beef´ makes up a minimum of .6%, where is the other 7.4% protein coming from? The ingredient listing will give us a better idea.

Pet food ingredients are listed on the label in pre-cooking weight – heaviest to lightest. The first five ingredients in our pretend example pet food (the majority of the can of food by weight) are ´Water, chicken by-product meal, animal fat, corn gluten meal, beef´. The remaining 7.4% protein comes from chicken by-product and probably corn gluten. Just in case you don´t know – by-products are left over pieces of slaughtered animals that are not suitable for human consumption such as intestines, chicken feet, spleens, and similar. By-products are NOT meat. And neither is corn gluten – however both of these ingredients can analyze as protein providing XYZ Chunky Premium with Beef the total 8% protein as stated on the label.

So the truth behind the XYZ Chunky Premium with Beef dog food label is that it contains only .6% actual meat for your dog. That´s less meat than about a tenth of a kid´s fast food hamburger meal. It contains more left over chicken parts like chicken feet than it does beef. But as you can imagine, a dog food whose name is Chunky Premium with Chicken Feet probably wouldn´t sell very well.

I think pet owners have a very trusting nature. We believe ´with Beef´ means a significant portion of beef is in that pet food and we believe those other tag lines like ´Premium´ and ´Healthy´. The problem with those beliefs when shopping for pet food is that pet food manufacturers who provide far less than premium pet foods – are capitalizing on our beliefs at the expense of our pet´s health.

Fight temptation to believe what you read on a pet food label. ´With Beef´ or ´with Chicken´ doesn´t necessarily mean you are providing your pet with much beef or chicken. Do a little homework and find canned and dry foods that contain lots of real meat in them. There are many quality pet foods out there that contain lots of human quality meat (and all U.S./Canadian ingredients) instead of those that just imply they contain meat. If you see by-products or similar common pet food ingredients on the label, your pet might be asking you ´Where´s the Beef?´

Wishing you and your pet the best,

Susan Thixton

Truth About Pet Food

Petsumer Report

www.TruthAboutPetFood.com