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Food Flavor
Food Flavor Mystery
How To Decode Pet Food Name Labels
The product name and packaging are what you first notice when shopping for pet food. They portray a certain quality about the content and likely influence your purchasing decision.
When you're in the grocery store produce section you can easily see bananas in the bin labeled bananas and oranges in the bin labeled oranges. With pet food the rules that apply to product naming are more deceiving than illuminating... unless you KNOW the rules. So here goes.
When it comes to pet food naming, AAFCO – the American Association of Feed Control Officials - writes the rulebook. AAFCO is a private advisory board to the FDA.
There are two different weights you should be aware of:
Dry weight
Total weight
Dry weight is simply 100 minus the moisture content.
For instance a package of dry food with 6% moisture content listed has a dry weight of 94% (100 minus 6). A can of wet food with 55% moisture content listed has a dry weight of 45% (100 minus 55). Canned food always has more moisture.
To calculate the protein, you divide the protein amount listed on the ingredient label into the dry weight. So in the dry food example above if the protein listed on the label is 12%, you divide 12% by the dry weight of 94%. The result is 12.77% protein.
Let's say the wet food label also lists 12% protein. In this case you divide 12% by the 45% dry weight. Therefore the wet food has 26.67% protein.
AAFCO has four naming rules:
95% / 70% Rule
25% or "Dinner" Rule
3% or "With" Rule
The "Flavor" Rule
The 95% Rule
The 95% rule applies to primarily meat, poultry or fish based products. That's generally limited to cans of pouches.This rule states that when a product name includes an animal ingredient without any further qualifiers, that ingredient must be at least 95% by dry weight and 70% by total weight
For instance:
"Tuna Cat Food". 95% of the dry weight and 70% of the total weight must be tuna.
"Beef for Dogs". 95% of the dry weight and 70% of the total weight must be beef.
In the case of multiple ingredients - such as "Beef And Liver Dog Food" - then: A) the total of both ingredients must be at least 95% of dry weight, and, B) the first listed ingredient must be greater than the second listed ingredient.
This rule applies only to animal ingredients (meat, poultry, fish). So a product named Lamb and Rice Dog Food must contain 95% lamb.
The 25% "Dinner" Rule
Add in the word "Dinner" and the named ingredient need only be 25% of dry weight. So "Beef Dinner For Dogs" instead of "Beef For Dogs" requires only 25% beef.
Sounds straightforward enough except - the specific word "dinner" isn't the only permitted word. Any "_qualifying descriptive term_" is allowable. Instead of dinner it can be named "platter", "entree", "nuggets", "formula", "meal". Essentially any word should raise your suspicion and encourage you to examine the ingredient list.
Ingredients are listed in order of weight. Common sense tells you if the ingredient of interest isn't the first ingredient in the list, it won't be 95% of the total weight.
The 3% "With" Rule
This rule states that any ingredient following the word "With" needs to be 3% of the dry weight. For example, "Cat Food With tuna" need have only 3% tuna.
Manufacturers strategically use the "With" rule for ingredients that are perceived to be special and/or expensive so that the product appears to be more premium.
Examples of the "With" Rule:
Lamb WITH Garden Veggies and Greens
Beef WITH CheeseOcean Fish WITH Crab
The word _with_ should sound an alarm for you. Still you can look at the ingredient list to get a clearer idea of how much of that named ingredient is in the product.
The "Flavor" Rule
The "Flavor" Rule has no minimum requirement. In fact it doesn't even require the actual ingredient to be in the product. The rule requires that animals trained to prefer a named flavor must react to the food. So cats who've been trained to prefer chicken must react favorable to chicken "flavored" food.
"Flavors" are often created from "digests" which are animal parts treated with enzymes and/or acids to create a concentrated flavor. A can of Lamb Flavored Dog Food could easily have less than a single bite of lamb... and that lamb flavor may have been derived from lamb bones.
What's IN A Name Examples...
Beef Dog Food - 95% Beef products
Beef Formula For Dog - 25% Beef products
Dog Food With Beef - 3% Beef products
Beef Flavor Dog Food - Perhaps no Beef at all
Now you have the pet food name decoder ring so you can be a more informed consumer and pet care taker.
About the Author
Separating fact from fiction when it comes to health and nutrition, Patti Clark is a health and wellness researcher and published writer for people and pets.
Learn safe and more natural pet care choices. Get the best information to make the wisest care choices for your companion at DogAndCatZone.com
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