Pet food slogans such as organic, human grade, holistic and natural may increase sales, but miss the point. A new approach is required if pet health is your goal.
About 25 years ago I began formulating pet foods at a time when the entire pet food industry seemed quagmire and focused on such things as protein and fat percentages without any real regard for ingredients. It was evident that pet food quality is not determined by the percentages of "ideal" pet foods. Boot leather and soap can be used to make pet food. I was as convinced then as I am today that the ingredients in a food are what make it. Since this ingredient idea has caught on in the pet food industry, it has taken on a commercial life that distorts and perverts the meaning of the underlying philosophy of food quality and proper feeding practices. Does the health of a product depend on its ingredients? No, it's not. Here's why.
AAFCO Approval
The official Publication of the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) gives wide latitude for ingredients that can be used in animal foods. As I have pointed out in my book, The Truth About Pet Foods, approved ingredients can include*:
dehydrated garbage
undried processed animal waste products
Polyethylene roughage (plastic)
Hydrolyzed feathers of poultry
hydrolyzed hair
Hydrolyzed leather meal
poultry hatchery by-product
meat meal tankage
peanut hulls
ground almond shells
*Association of American Feed Control Officials Official Publication, 1998
Simultaneously, this same regulatory agency prohibits the use of many proven beneficial natural ingredients that one can find readily available for human consumption such as bee pollen, glucosamine, L-carnitine, spirulina and many other nutraceuticals. It is easy to assume that the law does not apply when it comes down to what can and cannot be officially used in pet food.
The regulators operate on the simple nutritional concept that food value is based on percentages, and that no ingredient has a special place in the world. They deny the tens of thousands of scientific research articles proving that the kind of ingredient and its quality can make all the difference in terms of health. They also are silent about the damaging effect of food processing and the impact of time, light, heat, oxygen and packaging on nutritional and health value.
The regulators will not be able to tell you how to feed your pet for their health. For their way of thinking, as long as a packaged food achieves certain percentages, regardless of ingredients, the manufacturer can claim the food is 100% complete. Pet owners then proceed to www.petdoghk.com/dogshop.html confidently feed such guaranteed foods at every meal thinking all the while they are doing the right thing for their pet. This old school nutritional view is standard practice in human hospitals as well where official dieticians feed diseased and metabolically starved patients a fare of jello, instant potatoes, powdered eggs, white flour rolls and oleomargarine because their charts say such diets contain the correct percentages of certain nutrients. If you want to be sick, hospitals are the place to go!