WHAT'S IN PET FOOD?
The 95%, 25% and 3% Rules
AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) has provided certain rules for "truth in advertising" in pet foods. "Gourmet", "feast" "premium" and other such fancy words don't mean much.
Because of the variation in water content, it is impossible to directly compare
labels from different kinds of food without a mathematical conversion to “dry
matter basis.” The numbers can be very deceiving. For instance, a canned
food containing 10% protein actually has much more protein than a dry food with
30% protein.
To put the foods on a level playing field, first calculate the dry matter content
by subtracting the moisture content given on the label from 100%. Then divide
the ingredient by the dry matter content. For example, a typical bag of dry
cat food contains 30% protein on the label, but 32% on a dry-matter basis (30%
divided by its dry matter content, 100-6% moisture = 94%). A can of cat food
might contain 12% protein on the label, but almost 43% on a dry-matter basis
(12% divided by its dry matter content, 100-72% moisture = 28%). Dry food typically
contains less than 10% water, while canned food contains 78% or more water.
Similar materials listed as separate ingredients may outweigh other ingredients that precede them on the list of ingredients. For example, chicken may be listed as the first ingredient, then wheat flour, ground wheat, and wheat middlings. The consumer may believe that chicken is the predominant ingredient, but the three wheat products--when added together--may weigh more than the chicken.
* The 95% Rule
A pet food may labeled "Chicken for Dogs/Cats," or "Chicken Dog/Cat
Food," must contain 95% or more chicken by total weight of the product.
(or 70% excluding water for processing). Because this rule only applies to ingredients
of animal origin, ingredients that are not from a meat, poultry or fish source,
such as grains and vegetables, cannot be used as a component of the 95% total.
For example, a "Lamb and Rice Dog Food" would be misnamed unless the
product was comprised of at least 95% lamb.
* The 25% Rule
Foods labeled "Chicken Entree," "Chicken Dinner," "Chicken
Feast," "Beef Platter," "Beef Formula"or the like,
must contain at least 25% of the named meat. (excluding water sufficient for
processing). That means that only a quarter of "Beef Dinner for Dogs"
has to be beef. listed in order of quantity, and the second meat listed must
comprise at least 3% of the total weight. (Where's the beef?)
If more than one ingredient is included in a "dinner" name, they must
total 25% and be listed in the same order as found on the ingredient list. Each
named ingredient must be at least 3% of the total, too. Therefore, "Chicken
n' Fish Dinner Cat Food" must have 25% chicken and fish combined, and at
least 3% fish. Also, unlike the "95%" rule, this rule applies to all
ingredients, whether of animal origin or not. For example, a "Lamb and
Rice Formula for Cats" would be an acceptable name as long as the amounts
of lamb and rice combined totaled 25%.
* The 3% Rule
A food labelled " Stew with Chicken" must contain 3% or more chicken.
("With" is the optimum word here.)
The "3%" or "with" rule was originally intended to apply
only to ingredients highlighted on the principal display panel, but outside
the product name, in order to allow manufacturers to point out the presence
of minor ingredients that were not added in sufficient quantity to merit a "dinner"
claim. For example, a "Cheese Dinner," with 25% cheese, would not
be feasible or economical to produce, but either a "Beef Dinner for Dogs"
or "Chicken Formula Cat Food" could include a side burst "with
cheese" if at least 3% cheese is added. Recent amendments to the AAFCO
model regulations now allow use of the term "with" as part of the
product name, too, such as "Dog Food With Beef" or "Cat Food
With Chicken." Now, even a minor change in the wording of the name has
a dramatic impact on the minimum amount of the named ingredient required, e.g.,
a can of "Cat Food With Tuna" could be confused with a can of "Tuna
Cat Food," but, whereas the latter example must contain at least 95% tuna,
the first needs only 3%.
* "Flavor"
Barely worth mentioning here, but if you see something similar to "chicken
flavored," the product is unlikely to contain any chicken at all, as long
as there is a "sufficiently detectable" amount of chicken flavor.
These "flavors" may be the result of digests or by-products of the
named animal, or even an artificial flavor, without containing any actual meat
at all. Only a small amount of a "chicken digest" is needed to produce
a "Chicken Flavored Cat Food," even though no actual chicken is added
to the food. Stocks or broths are also occasionally added. Whey is often used
to add a milk flavor.
AAFCO describes meat by-products this way: “The non-rendered clean parts, other than meat … lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hooves.”
A look at some of the other ingredients listed on the pet food label
* Meat and bone meal
The rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents. To render, as defined in Webster's Dictionary, is "to process as for industrial use: to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting."
* Animal digest:
Material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed.
* Animal by-products
Proteins that have not been heat processed (unrendered) and may contain heads, feet, viscera and other animal parts. Chicken By-Product Meal: consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.