What's Really in Pet Food
The
Animal Protection Institute (API),
a nonprofit national animal advocacy group that was founded in 1968 in order
to advocate for the protection of animals from cruelty and exploitation,
publishes several helpful fact sheets and investigative reports. Their
concern for the feeding of our companion animals resulted in their
providing the following publication:
Plump whole chickens, choice cuts of beef, fresh grains, and all the
wholesome nutrition your dog or cat will ever need.
These are the images pet food manufacturers promulgate through the media
and advertising. This is what the $11 billion per year U.S. pet food
industry wants consumers to believe they are buying when they purchase their
products.
This report explores the differences between what consumers think they
are buying and what they are actually getting. It focuses in very general
terms on the most visible name brands — the pet food labels that are
mass-distributed to supermarkets and discount stores — but there are many
highly respected brands that may be guilty of the same offenses.
What most consumers don't know is that the pet food industry is an
extension of the human food and agriculture industries. Pet food provides a
market for slaughterhouse offal, grains considered "unfit for human
consumption," and similar waste products to be turned into profit. This
waste includes intestines, udders, esophagi, and possibly diseased and
cancerous animal parts.
Three of the five major pet food companies in the United States are
subsidiaries of major multinational companies: Nestlé (Alpo, Fancy Feast,
Friskies, Mighty Dog, and Ralston Purina products such as Dog Chow, ProPlan,
and Purina One), Heinz (9 Lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits,
Nature's Recipe), Colgate-Palmolive (Hill's Science Diet Pet Food). Other
leading companies include Procter & Gamble (Eukanuba and Iams), Mars (Kal
Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree, Sheba, Waltham's), and Nutro. From a business
standpoint, multinational companies owning pet food manufacturing companies
is an ideal relationship. The multinationals have increased bulk-purchasing
power; those that make human food products have a captive market in which to
capitalize on their waste products, and pet food divisions have a more
reliable capital base and, in many cases, a convenient source of
ingredients.
There are hundreds of different pet foods available in this country. And
while many of the foods on the market are similar, not all of the pet food
manufacturing companies use poor quality or potentially dangerous
ingredients.
Ingredients Although the purchase price of pet food does not always determine
whether a pet food is good or bad, the price is often a good indicator of
quality. It would be impossible for a company that sells a generic brand of
dog food at $9.95 for a 40-lb. bag to use quality protein and grain in its
food. The cost of purchasing quality ingredients would be much higher than
the selling price.
The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources. When
cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are slaughtered, the choice
cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human
consumption. However, about 50% of every food-producing animal does not get
used in human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass — bones, blood,
intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally
consumed by humans — is used in pet food, animal feed, and other products.
These "other parts" are known as "by-products," "meat-and-bone-meal," or
similar names on pet food labels.
The Pet Food Institute — the trade association of pet food manufacturers
— acknowledges the use of by-products in pet foods as additional income for
processors and farmers: "The growth of the pet food industry not only
provided pet owners with better foods for their pets, but also created
profitable additional markets for American farm products and for the
byproducts of the meat packing, poultry, and other food industries which
prepare food for human consumption."1
Many of these remnants provide a questionable source of nourishment for
our animals. The nutritional quality of meat and poultry by-products, meals,
and digests can vary from batch to batch. James Morris and Quinton Rogers,
two professors with the Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of
California at Davis Veterinary School of Medicine, assert that, "There is
virtually no information on the bioavailability of nutrients for companion
animals in many of the common dietary ingredients used in pet foods. These
ingredients are generally by-products of the meat, poultry and fishing
industries, with the potential for a wide variation in nutrient composition.
Claims of nutritional adequacy of pet foods based on the current Association
of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutrient allowances ('profiles')
do not give assurances of nutritional adequacy and will not until
ingredients are analyzed and bioavailability values are incorporated."2
Meat and poultry meals, by-product meals, and meat-and-bone meal are
common ingredients in pet foods. The term "meal" means that these materials
are not used fresh, but have been rendered. What is rendering? Rendering, as
defined by Webster's Dictionary, is "to process as for industrial
use: to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber,
etc., by melting." Home-made chicken soup, with its thick layer of fat that
forms over the top when the soup is cooled, is a sort of mini-rendering
process. Rendering separates fat-soluble from water-soluble and solid
materials, removes most of the water, and kills bacterial contaminants, but
may alter or destroy some of the natural enzymes and proteins found in the
raw ingredients. Meat and poultry by-products, while not rendered, vary
widely in composition and quality.
What can the feeding of such products do to your companion animal? Some
veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to animals increases
their risk of getting cancer and other degenerative diseases. The cooking
methods used by pet food manufacturers — such as rendering, extruding (a
heat-and-pressure system used to "puff" dry foods into nuggets or kibbles),
and baking — do not necessarily destroy the hormones used to fatten
livestock or increase milk production, or drugs such as antibiotics or the
barbiturates used to euthanize animals.
Animal and Poultry Fat You may have noticed a unique, pungent odor when you open a new bag of
pet food — what is the source of that delightful smell? It is most often
rendered animal fat, restaurant grease, or other oils too rancid or deemed
inedible for humans.
Restaurant grease has become a major component of feed grade animal fat
over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held in fifty-gallon drums,
may be kept outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no
regard for its future use. "Fat blenders" or rendering companies then pick
up this used grease and mix the different types of fat together, stabilize
them with powerful antioxidants to retard further spoilage, and then sell
the blended products to pet food companies and other end users.
These fats are sprayed directly onto extruded kibbles and pellets to make
an otherwise bland or distasteful product palatable. The fat also acts as a
binding agent to which manufacturers add other flavor enhancers such as
digests. Pet food scientists have discovered that animals love the taste of
these sprayed fats. Manufacturers are masters at getting a dog or a cat to
eat something she would normally turn up her nose at.
Wheat, Soy, Corn, Peanut Hulls, and Other Vegetable Protein The amount of grain products used in pet food has risen over the last
decade. Once considered filler by the pet food industry, cereal and grain
products now replace a considerable proportion of the meat that was used in
the first commercial pet foods. The availability of nutrients in these
products is dependent upon the digestibility of the grain. The amount and
type of carbohydrate in pet food determines the amount of nutrient value the
animal actually gets. Dogs and cats can almost completely absorb
carbohydrates from some grains, such as white rice. Up to 20% of the
nutritional value of other grains can escape digestion. The availability of
nutrients for wheat, beans, and oats is poor. The nutrients in potatoes and
corn are far less available than those in rice. Some ingredients, such as
peanut hulls, are used for filler or fiber, and have no significant
nutritional value.
Two of the top three ingredients in pet foods, particularly dry foods,
are almost always some form of grain products. Pedigree Performance Food for
Dogs lists Ground Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, and Corn Gluten Meal as its
top three ingredients. 9 Lives Crunchy Meals for cats lists Ground Yellow
Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, and Poultry By-Product Meal as its first three
ingredients. Since cats are true carnivores — they must eat meat to fulfill
certain physiological needs — one may wonder why we are feeding a corn-based
product to them. The answer is that corn is a much cheaper "energy source"
than meat.
In 1995, Nature's Recipe pulled thousands of tons of dog food off the
shelf after consumers complained that their dogs were vomiting and losing
their appetite. Nature's Recipe's loss amounted to $20 million. The problem
was a fungus that produced vomitoxin (an aflatoxin or "mycotoxin," a toxic
substance produced by mold) contaminating the wheat. In 1999, another fungal
toxin triggered the recall of dry dog food made by Doane Pet Care at one of
its plants, including Ol' Roy (Wal-Mart's brand) and 53 other brands. This
time, the toxin killed 25 dogs.
Although it caused many dogs to vomit, stop eating, and have diarrhea,
vomitoxin is a milder toxin than most. The more dangerous mycotoxins can
cause weight loss, liver damage, lameness, and even death as in the Doane
case. The Nature's Recipe incident prompted the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) to intervene. Dina Butcher, Agriculture Policy Advisor for North
Dakota Governor Ed Schafer, concluded that the discovery of vomitoxin in
Nature's Recipe wasn't much of a threat to the human population because "the
grain that would go into pet food is not a high quality grain."3
Soy is another common ingredient that is sometimes used as a protein and
energy source in pet food. Manufacturers also use it to add bulk so that
when an animal eats a product containing soy he will feel more sated. While
soy has been linked to gas in some dogs, other dogs do quite well with it.
Vegetarian dog foods use soy as a protein source.
Additives and Preservatives Many chemicals are added to commercial pet foods to improve the taste,
stability, characteristics, or appearance of the food. Additives provide no
nutritional value. Additives include emulsifiers to prevent water and fat
from separating, antioxidants to prevent fat from turning rancid, and
artificial colors and flavors to make the product more attractive to
consumers and more palatable to their companion animals.
Adding chemicals to food originated thousands of years ago with spices,
natural preservatives, and ripening agents. In the last 40 years, however,
the number of food additives has greatly increased.
All commercial pet foods must be preserved so they stay fresh and
appealing to our animal companions. Canning is a preserving process itself,
so canned foods contain less preservatives than dry foods. Some
preservatives are added to ingredients or raw materials by the suppliers,
and others may be added by the manufacturer. Because manufacturers need to
ensure that dry foods have a long shelf life to remain edible after shipping
and prolonged storage, fats used in pet foods are preserved with either
synthetic or "natural" preservatives. Synthetic preservatives include
butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT),
propyl gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version of
automotive antifreeze), and ethoxyquin. For these antioxidants, there
is little information documenting their toxicity, safety, interactions, or
chronic use in pet foods that may be eaten every day for the life of the
animal.
Potentially cancer-causing agents such as BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin are
permitted at relatively low levels. The use of these chemicals in pet foods
has not been thoroughly studied, and long term build-up of these agents may
ultimately be harmful. Due to questionable data in the original study on its
safety, ethoxyquin's manufacturer, Monsanto, was required to perform a new,
more rigorous study. This was completed in 1996. Even though Monsanto found
no significant toxicity associated with its own product, in July 1997, the
FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine requested that manufacturers
voluntarily reduce the maximum level for ethoxyquin by half, to 75 parts per
million. While some pet food critics and veterinarians believe that
ethoxyquin is a major cause of disease, skin problems, and infertility in
dogs, others claim it is the safest, strongest, most stable preservative
available for pet food. Ethoxyquin is approved for use in human food for
preserving spices, such as cayenne and chili powder, at a level of 100 ppm —
but it would be very difficult to consume as much chili powder every day as
a dog would eat dry food. Ethoxyquin has never been tested for safety in
cats.
Some manufacturers have responded to consumer concern, and are now using
"natural" preservatives such as Vitamin C (ascorbate), Vitamin E (mixed
tocopherols), and oils of rosemary, clove, or other spices, to preserve the
fats in their products. Other ingredients, however, may be individually
preserved. Most fish meal, and some prepared vitamin-mineral mixtures,
contain chemical preservatives. This means that your companion animal may be
eating food containing several types of preservatives. Federal law requires
preservatives to be disclosed on the label; however, pet food companies only
recently started to comply with this law.
Additives in Processed Pet Foods
Anticaking agents Antimicrobial agents Antioxidants Coloring agents Curing agents Drying agents Emulsifiers Firming agents Flavor enhancers Flavoring agents Flour treating agents Formulation aids Humectants Leavening agents Lubricants Nonnutritive sweeteners Nutritive sweeteners Oxidizing and reducing agents pH control agents Processing aids Sequestrants Solvents, vehicles Stabilizers, thickeners Surface active agents Surface finishing agents Synergists Texturizers
While the law requires studies of direct toxicity of these additives and
preservatives, they have not been tested for their potential synergistic
effects on each other once ingested. Some authors have suggested that
dangerous interactions occur among some of the common synthetic
preservatives.4 Natural preservatives do not provide as long a
shelf life as chemical preservatives, but they are safe.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
How Pet Food Is Made Although feeding trials are no longer required for a food to meet the
requirements for labeling a food "complete and balanced," most manufacturers
perform palatability studies when developing a new pet food. One set of
animals is fed a new food while a "control" group is fed a current formula.
The total volume eaten is used as a gauge for the palatability of the food.
The larger and more reputable companies do use feeding trials, which are
considered to be a much more accurate assessment of the actual nutritional
value of the food. They keep large colonies of dogs and cats for this
purpose, or use testing laboratories that have their own animals.
Most dry food is made with a machine called an expander or extruder.
First, raw materials are blended, sometimes by hand, other times by
computer, in accordance with a recipe developed by animal nutritionists.
This mixture is fed into an expander and steam or hot water is added. The
mixture is subjected to steam, pressure, and high heat as it is extruded
through dies that determine the shape of the final product and puffed like
popcorn. The food is allowed to dry, and then is usually sprayed with fat,
digests, or other compounds to make it more palatable. Although the cooking
process may kill bacteria in pet food, the final product can lose its
sterility during the subsequent drying, fat coating, and packaging process.
A few foods are baked at high temperatures rather than extruded. This
produces a dense, crunchy kibble that is palatable without the addition of
sprayed on palatability enhancers. Animals can be fed about 25% less of a
baked food, by volume (but not by weight), than an extruded food.
Ingredients are similar for wet, dry, and semi-moist foods, although the
ratios of protein, fat, and fiber may change. A typical can of ordinary cat
food reportedly contains about 45-50% meat or poultry by-products. The main
difference between the types of food is the water content. It is impossible
to directly compare labels from different kinds of food without a
mathematical conversion to "dry matter basis."5 Wet or canned
food begins with ground ingredients mixed with additives. If chunks are
required, a special extruder forms them. Then the mixture is cooked and
canned. The sealed cans are then put into containers resembling pressure
cookers and commercial sterilization takes place. Some manufacturers cook
the food right in the can.
There are special labeling requirements for pet food, all of which are
contained in the annually revised Official Publication of AAFCO.6
The use of the terms "all" or "100%" cannot be used "if the product contains
more than one ingredient, not including water sufficient for processing,
decharacterizing agents, or trace amounts of preservatives and condiments."
Products containing multiple ingredients are covered by AAFCO Regulation
PF3(b) and (c). The "95% rule" applies when the ingredient(s) derived from
animals, poultry, or fish constitutes at least 95% or more of the total
weight of the product (or 70% excluding water for processing).
Because all-meat diets are usually not nutritionally balanced, they fell
out of favor for many years. However, due to rising consumer interest in
high quality meat products, several companies are now promoting 95% and 100%
canned meats as a supplemental feeding option.
The "dinner" product is defined by the 25% Rule, which applies when "an
ingredient or a combination of ingredients constitutes at least 25% of the
weight of the product" (excluding water sufficient for processing) as long
as the ingredient(s) shall constitute at least 10% of the total product
weight; and a descriptor that implies other ingredients are included in the
product formula is used on the label. Such descriptors include "recipe,"
"platter," "entree," and "formula." A combination of ingredients included in
the product name is permissible when each ingredient comprises at least 3%
of the product weight, excluding water for processing, and the ingredient
names appear in descending order by weight.
The "with" rule allows an ingredient name to appear on the label, such as
"with real chicken," as long as each such ingredient constitutes at least 3%
of the food by weight, excluding water for processing.
The "flavor" rule allows a food to be designated as a certain flavor as
long as the ingredient(s) are sufficient to "impart a distinctive
characteristic" to the food. Thus, a "beef flavor" food may contain a small
quantity of digest or other extract of tissues from cattle, without
containing any actual beef meat at all.
What Happened to the Nutrients? Dr. Randy L. Wysong is a veterinarian and produces his own line of pet
foods. A long-time critic of pet food industry practices, he said,
"Processing is the wild card in nutritional value that is, by and large,
simply ignored. Heating, cooking, rendering, freezing, dehydrating, canning,
extruding, pelleting, baking, and so forth, are so commonplace that they are
simply thought of as synonymous with food itself."7 Processing
meat and by-products used in pet food can greatly diminish their nutritional
value, but cooking increases the digestibility of cereal grains.
To make pet food nutritious, pet food manufacturers must "fortify" it
with vitamins and minerals. Why? Because the ingredients they are using are
not wholesome, their quality may be extremely variable, and the harsh
manufacturing practices destroy many of the nutrients the food had to begin
with.
Contaminants Commercially manufactured or rendered meat meals and by-product meals
are frequently highly contaminated with bacteria because their source is not
always slaughtered animals. Animals that have died because of disease,
injury, or natural causes are a source of meat for meat meal. The dead
animal might not be rendered until days after its death. Therefore the
carcass is often contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella and
Escherichia coli. Dangerous E. Coli bacteria are estimated to contaminate
more than 50% of meat meals. While the cooking process may kill bacteria, it
does not eliminate the endotoxins some bacteria produce during their growth
and are released when they die. These toxins can cause sickness and disease.
Pet food manufacturers do not test their products for endotoxins.
Mycotoxins — These toxins comes from mold or fungi, such as vomitoxin in
the Nature's Recipe case, and aflatoxin in Doane's food. Poor farming
practices and improper drying and storage of crops can cause mold growth.
Ingredients that are most likely to be contaminated with mycotoxins are
grains such as wheat and corn, cottonseed meal, peanut meal, and fish meal.
Labeling The National Research Council (NRC) of the Academy of Sciences set the
nutritional standards for pet food that were used by the pet food industry
until the late 1980s. The NRC standards, which still exist and are being
revised as of 2001, were based on purified diets, and required feeding
trials for pet foods claimed to be "complete" and "balanced." The pet food
industry found the feeding trials too restrictive and expensive, so AAFCO
designed an alternate procedure for claiming the nutritional adequacy of pet
food, by testing the food for compliance with "Nutrient Profiles." AAFCO
also created "expert committees" for canine and feline nutrition, which
developed separate canine and feline standards. While feeding trials can
still be done, a standard chemical analysis may be also be used to determine
if a food meets the profiles.
Chemical analysis, however, does not address the palatability,
digestibility, or biological availability of nutrients in pet food. Thus it
is unreliable for determining whether a food will provide an animal with
sufficient nutrients.
To compensate for the limitations of chemical analysis, AAFCO added a
"safety factor," which was to exceed the minimum amount of nutrients
required to meet the complete and balanced requirements.
The digestibility and availability of nutrients is not listed on pet food
labels.
The 100% Myth — Problems Caused by Inadequate Nutrition The idea of one pet food providing all the nutrition a companion animal
will ever need for its entire life is a myth.
Cereal grains are the primary ingredients in most commercial pet foods.
Many people select one pet food and feed it to their dogs and cats for a
prolonged period of time. Therefore, companion dogs and cats eat a primarily
carbohydrate diet with little variety. Today, the diets of cats and dogs are
a far cry from the primarily protein diets with a lot of variety that their
ancestors ate. The problems associated with a commercial diet are seen every
day at veterinary establishments. Chronic digestive problems, such as
chronic vomiting, diarrhea, and inflammatory bowel disease are among the
most frequent illnesses treated. These are often the result of an allergy or
intolerance to pet food ingredients. The market for "limited antigen" or
"novel protein" diets is now a multi-million dollar business. These diets
were formulated to address the increasing intolerance to commercial foods
that animals have developed. The newest twist is the truly "hypoallergenic"
food that has had all its proteins artificially chopped into pieces smaller
than can be recognized and reacted to by the immune system.
Dry commercial pet food is often contaminated with bacteria, which may or
may not cause problems. Improper food storage and some feeding practices may
result in the multiplication of this bacteria. For example, adding water or
milk to moisten pet food and then leaving it at room temperature causes
bacteria to multiply.8 Yet this practice is suggested on the back
of packages of some kitten and puppy foods.
Pet food formulas and the practice of feeding that manufacturers
recommend have increased other digestive problems. Feeding only one meal per
day can cause the irritation of the esophagus by stomach acid. Feeding two
smaller meals is better.
Feeding recommendations or instructions on the packaging are sometimes
inflated so that the consumer will end up purchasing more food. However,
Procter & Gamble allegedly took the opposite tack with its Iams and Eukanuba
lines, reducing the feeding amounts in order to claim that its foods were
less expensive to feed. Independent studies commissioned by a competing
manufacturer suggested that these reduced levels were inadequate to maintain
health. Procter & Gamble has since sued and been countersued by that
competing manufacturer, and a consumer complaint has also been filed seeking
class-action status for harm caused to dogs by the revised feeding
instructions.
Urinary tract disease is directly related to diet in both cats and dogs.
Plugs, crystals, and stones in cat bladders are often triggered or
aggravated by commercial pet food formulas. One type of stone found in cats
is less common now, but another more dangerous type has become more common.
Manipulation of manufactured cat food formulas to alter the acidity of urine
and the amount of some minerals has directly affected these diseases. Dogs
also form stones as a result of their diet.
History has shown that commercial pet food products can cause disease. An
often-fatal heart disease in cats and some dogs is now known to be caused by
a deficiency of the amino acid taurine. Blindness is another symptom of
taurine deficiency. This deficiency was due to inadequate amounts of taurine
in cat food formulas, which itself occurred because of decreased amounts of
animal proteins and increased reliance on carbohydrates. Cat foods are now
supplemented with taurine. New research suggests that supplementing taurine
may also be helpful for dogs, but as yet few manufacturers are adding extra
taurine to dog food. Inadequate potassium in certain feline diets also
caused kidney failure in young cats; potassium is now added in greater
amounts to all cat foods.
Rapid growth in large breed puppies has been shown to contribute to bone
and joint disease. Excess calories and calcium in some manufactured puppy
foods promoted rapid growth. There are now special puppy foods for large
breed dogs. But this recent change will not help the countless dogs who
lived and died with hip and elbow disease.
There is also evidence that hyperthyroidism in cats may be related to
excess iodine in commercial pet food diets.9 This is a new
disease that first surfaced in the 1970s, when canned food products appeared
on the market. The exact cause and effect are not yet known. This is a
serious and sometimes terminal disease, and treatment is expensive.
Many nutritional problems appeared with the popularity of cereal-based
commercial pet foods. Some have occurred because the diet was incomplete.
Although several ingredients are now supplemented, we do not know what
ingredients future researchers may discover that should have been
supplemented in pet foods all along. Other problems may result from
reactions to additives. Others are a result of contamination with bacteria,
mold, drugs, or other toxins. In some diseases the role of commercial pet
food is understood; in others, it is not. The bottom line is that diets
composed primarily of low quality cereals and rendered meat meals are not as
nutritious or safe as you should expect for your cat or dog.
What Consumers Can Do
- Write or call pet food companies and the Pet Food Institute and
express your concerns about commercial pet foods. Demand that
manufacturers improve the quality of ingredients in their products.
- Call API with any information about the pet food industry, specific
manufacturers, or specific products.
- Print out a copy of this report for your veterinarian to further his
or her knowledge about commercial pet food.
- Direct your family and friends with companion animals to this
website, to alert them of the dangers of commercial pet food. Or request
copies of our Fact Sheet on
Selecting a Good Commercial Food.
- Stop buying commercial pet food. Or if that is not possible, reduce
the quantity of commercial pet food and supplement with fresh foods.
Purchase one or more of the many books available on pet nutrition and
make your own food. Be sure that a veterinarian or a nutritionist has
checked the recipes to ensure that they are balanced and complete.
- Check our
sample diets
you can make yourself.
Please be aware that API is not a veterinary hospital, clinic, or
service. API does not and will not offer any medical advice. If you have
concerns about your companion animal's health or nutritional
requirements, please consult your veterinarian.
For Further Reading about Animal Nutrition The Animal Protection Institute recommends the following books, many of
which include recipes for home-prepared diets:
The books listed above are a fraction of all the titles currently
available, and the omission of a title does not necessarily mean it is not
useful for further reading about animal nutrition.
What API is Doing
API is a liaison to the AAFCO Pet Food and Ingredient Definitions
Committees. By attending AAFCO meetings, we hope to learn more about the
industry itself and about potential avenues for bringing about change.
An API representative attends other petfood industry meetings to
give voice to our and the consumers' concerns about pet food.
API is involved in lobbying for the federal regulation of pet food
and the development of more stringent standards for the quality of
ingredients used.
API will continue to provide information to the public about the pet
food industry and the products it promotes.
API is preparing a detailed scientific paper documenting the
numerous problems associated with commercial pet food, for presentation
to veterinarians.
Who to Write
AAFCO Pet Food Committee Dr. Rodney Noel — Chair Office of Indiana State Chemist Purdue University 1154 Biochemistry Building West Lafayette, IN 47907-1154
www.aafco.org
FDA — Center for Veterinary Medicine Sharon Benz 7500 Standish Place Rockville, MD 20855 301-594-1728
www.fda.gov/cvm/
Pet Food Institute 2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 202-367-1120 Fax 202-367-2120
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Barfield, Carol. FDA Petition, Docket Number 93P0081/CP1,
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Cargill, James, MA, MBA, MS, and Susan Thorpe-Vargas, MS.
"Feed that dog! Part VI." DOGworld, December 1993, 36.
Case, Linda P., M.S., Daniel P. Carey, D.V.M., and Diane
A. Hirakawa, Ph.D.
Canine and Feline Nutrition: A Resource for Companion Animal Professionals.
St. Louis: Mosby, 1995.
Coffman, Howard D. The Dry Dog Food Reference.
Nashua: PigDog Press, 1995.
Corbin, Jim. "Pet Foods and Feeding." Feedstuffs,
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Knight-Ridder News Syndicate. "Nature's Recipe Recalls Dog
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Morris, James G., and Quinton R. Rogers. "Assessment of
the Nutritional Adequacy of Pet Foods Through the Life Cycle." Journal of
Nutrition, 124 (1994): 2520S-2533S.
Newman, Lisa. What's in your pet's food? Tucson &
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Parker, J. Michael. "Tainted dog food blamed on corn."
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Pitcairn, Richard H., D.V.M., Ph.D., and Susan Hubble
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Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats.
Emmaus: Rodale, 1995.
Plechner, Alfred J., DVM, and Martin Zucker.
Pet Allergies: Remedies for an Epidemic. Inglewood: Wilshire Book
Co., 1986.
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management,
Division of Agriculture. 1994 Report of the Inspection and Analysis of
Commercial Feeds, Fertilizers and Liming Materials. Providence: Division
of Agriculture, 1995.
Roudebush, Philip, DVM. "Pet food additives." JAVMA,
203 (1993): 1667-1670.
Rouse, Raymond H. "Feed Fats." Petfood Industry,
March/April 1987, 7.
Sellers, Richard. "Regulating petfood with an open mind."
Petfood Industry, November/December 1990, 41-44.
Smith, Carin A. "Research Roundup: Changes and challenges
in feline nutrition." JAVMA 203 (1993), 1395-1400.
Strombeck, Donald. R.
Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Foods: The Healthful Alternative. Ames:
Iowa State University Press, 1999.
Winters, Ruth, M.S.
A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives. New York: Crown, 1994.
Wysong, R. L. "The 'complete' myth." Petfood Industry,
September/October 1990, 24-28.
[Wysong, R. L.] Fresh and Whole: Getting Involved in
Your Pet's Diet. Midland: Wysong Corporation, 1990.
Wysong, R. L. Rationale for Animal Nutrition.
Midland: Inquiry Press, 1993.
Notes 1. Pet Food Institute, 2. 2. Morris, 2520S. 3. Corbin, 81. 4. Cargill, 36. 5. The conversion is: ingredient percentage divided by (100
minus moisture percentage). 6. Official Publication, Regulation PE3, 114-115. 7. Wysong, Rationale, 40-41. 8. Strombeck, 50-52. 9. Smith, 1397.
(Revised 08/04/04)
Copyright © 1997-2004 Animal Protection Institute
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