Elizabeth Warren: So, what do you all do in your practice as it pertains to nutrition?

Susan: Have reps come in to talk to team
Phyllis: We had the Eukanuba rep come recently in to do a presentation. I also do a lot of reading about the foods.

Elizabeth Warren: Good. But it will help us when we are talking to clients and to reps if we have a grasp of the 'basics.'
First, who regulates the pet food industry including what ingredients can be put into pet foods? The government? Private groups?

Rosemary: Nobody does, at least not legally.

Elizabeth Warren: The pet food industry basically regulates itself. There are few laws regarding foods for domestic house pets. Though there are legal requirements for feeds going to food producing animals.
AAFCO is the American Association of Feed Control Officers and they produce the AAFCO guidelines and AAFCO feeding test protocols.

Rosemary: Is the AAFCO a government organization?

Elizabeth Warren: They are a group of government workers who get together and make up voluntary regulations for pet food manufacturers to follow. So, yes and no. Most of the 'rules' and 'regulations' within the pet food industry are entirely voluntary.
So, why would companies want to follow the rules if they don't have to? Peer pressure and public pressure are the primary shaping forces in determining what companies are successful, so these companies will follow the rules if and when it is profitable. This is also why you'll see some of the major pet food makers publicizing the fact that they follow AAFCO guidelines.
Now, in terms of the ingredients themselves, does anyone know how we can determine what is in that bag of kibble we are selling?

Rosemary: Read the label

Elizabeth Warren: There is an ingredients list on every label; law requires that much! Along with the guaranteed analysis, which lists the % of certain nutrients.
The ingredients are listed from most to least.
The ingredients themselves have specific definitions per AAFCO, and most pet food makers adhere to those standards.
One of the major problems we have is with how that list can be manipulated. For example, everything is listed by weight, and that includes water weight. So if equal quantities of a grain and meat are used, the meat gets listed first because it is the heaviest. Does that make sense?

Rosemary: Why don't the mfg give the K-cals per portion?

Elizabeth Warren: Some do, but it is usually because they don't think most people know what to do with that information, and they may be right.
You can get caloric densities of the premium brand foods from either the label, or the product guide, the website, etc.
I can also tell you how to a guesstimate of that number, when we're finished talking about ingredients. Let's start with the name of the food.

1. If a food is called ""X,"" such as 'Tuna' for cats or 'Beef' for dogs, it must be at least 95% of that named item. I have seen a few canned foods like this. I'm not really sure why you would want that, but it is available.
2. If there is a qualifier, such as 'dinner,' 'platter,' 'meal,' etc., then it must be 25% of that named item. Beef dinner, lamb and rice meal, etc.
3. If it says 'with X,' as in 'with beef,' the food must contain 3% of that named item.
4. And if it says 'X flavor,' as in 'BBQ flavor dog food,' there doesn't have to be any of the named item, just flavoring that can be recognized by the pet as 'X'

These labeling requirements have nothing to do with what is actually in the food, just how the label must read. This labeling scheme should give you some idea about the contents without even looking at the ingredients list. But let's check that out, now.
When we look at the list initially, we should have an idea of what the first ingredients will be based on the name of the food. If they aren't there, for example, if chicken is the first ingredient of a lamb and rice food, we'll want to investigate further.

** And always remember that meat ingredients are listed by their wet weight, which usually brings them up to the top of the list and dry ingredients such as grains are listed further down, regardless of the actual quantities.
** Another 'trick' that is used is splitting of ingredients, either to make them unrecognizable, or to get them further down on the list if the company doesn't want that ingredient listed up top.
For example, many pet foods contain TVP; do you all know what that is?

Rosemary: no
Lori: no, but I have a feeling it's not something I want to see in my dog food *G*

Elizabeth Warren: TVP (textured vegetable protein) is soybean meal, i.e. 'fake meat.' Some veggie burgers, veggie hotdogs etc are made of it, and there is nothing wrong with it per se, but a pet food maker may use TVP and make it into little meat chunk shapes, little bones and that kind of thing, so when you look at the food it *appears* to be meat, but it's not. Just because it's not meat doesn't mean it's not good.
One way to list TVP on the ingredients panel in disguise is to list soybean meal as one ingredient and 'water sufficient for processing' as another ingredient. Check out some of the canned grocery store foods for this, especially if it is supposed to have chunks of 'real meat' or vegetables in it. Even if TVP is the primary protein source, something else (wet) gets listed higher up on the ingredients list chicken, beef, lamb, whatever.
Have any of you seen this or seen TVP pieces shaped like meat or veggies in foods?

Lori: I don't know if it was TVP, but I've definitely seen those shapes, like your dog cares what it looks like!

Elizabeth Warren: And coloring agents are added too, as if the pet cares.
So let's talk about some definitions. What is a meat (beef, chicken, lamb, etc)?
Meat is the clean flesh of slaughtered animals, including muscle, organs, and skin.

What are meat by-products? What are by-products in general?

Lori: Anything not included in the 'meat' category that is from slaughtered animals. What about hooves and beaks?

Elizabeth Warren: No Lori, those aren't, it's just the clean flesh as described above. Basically what's left when meat or other products are prepared; by-products of the manufacturing of another product. These will include the organs such as the stomach with its contents, the head, feet, etc. But not hair and feathers.

What about meat digest?
These are the things that an animal wouldn't normally be able to use i.e. things that are not soluble in natural form, like hooves and beaks. A process using heat and moisture (pressure cooking) makes them digestible, hence the term.

What about meat meal?
Basically ground meat (clean tissue). So if you see poultry digest and fishmeal as ingredients, what do you have?

Bones can be ground up with the organs to make meal. Poultry digest may include pressure-cooked beaks; fishmeal may be ground fish heads. It will also be other rejects from human food manufacturing, guts, scales, etc.

Lori: okay... I think I get it now.... meal could be the whole critter, minus indigestible feathers/beaks/hooves, in ground up form?

Elizabeth Warren: Right, basically anything that humans won't eat can be thrown into the vat for making a pet food. Now, ask a pet food maker if that's what they do and you'll hear some definite hedging! That's how they can make the stuff so cheap, but you're supposed to believe there are T-bones in the bag. There's nothing wrong with using those parts, after all in the wild the dog/cat would eat them. It comes down to the impression that people have of what is acceptable to eat. Of course, in the wild they would also get those muscle meats so you have to consider the whole picture.

Lori: But, IMO, PussNBoots is a long way away from a Bengal Tiger

Elizabeth Warren: Lori, I agree with you, but I also think we should consider what standards we are applying to our pets--so many people say 'If I wouldn't eat it, my pet shouldn't either,' or 'what's good for me is good for Fido," and that's wrong.

Lori: especially considering those people probably live off of Fritos and pizza

Elizabeth Warren: Let's talk about grain products using corn as an example. Grains are typically included in pet foods as sources of carbohydrate and various other nutrients.

1. Ground corn or corn meal is the whole kernel ground or chopped.
2. Corn gluten meal is what's left after corn is processed; it's the residue (sticky) after the germ, bran, and starch are removed and it's used as a protein source and to hold ingredients together.
3. Flour is made when a grain is milled.
4. Brown rice is unpolished rice and white is polished.
5. Brewer's rice is fragments of rice that have been separated from the whole kernels.
6. Sorghum is a grass that is ground with its seeds to make grain sorghum.
7. Pasta is made from flour.
8. Seed and bean meals are often used as sources of nutrients such as fatty acids, proteins, and carbohydrates.
Grains commonly found in pet foods include corn, barley, wheat, oats, amaranth, alfalfa,

Lori: what's the advantage (if any) of brewer's rice?

Elizabeth Warren: None that I know of, I think it's just a by-product of milling.
Other ingredients commonly found in pet foods:

Vegetables(vitamins, proteins)/fiber: beet pulp, carrots, cellulose, gums, peanut hulls, peas, peppers, potatoes, soybeans, tomatoes
Fats: animal fats, tallow, vegetable/seed oils
Vitamins/minerals: calcium carbonate, choline chloride, dicalcium phosphate, dL-methionine, sodium chloride, L-lysine, monosodium phosphate, potassium chloride, taurine, biotin, lecithin, yeast culture, blue-green algae
Miscellaneous: casein/whey (from milk), eggs, glucosamine, probiotics, apple cider vinegar, shark cartilage

Examples of types of additives in pet foods: antioxidants and antimicrobials, coloring, drying, binding, emulsifying, firming, and texturizing agents, flavors (including sweeteners), stabilizers, humectants, and preservatives
Natural (antioxidant) preservatives: mixed tocopherols, ascorbic acid, rosemary-leaf extract, citric acid, brine
Synthetic preservatives: butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ethoxyquin, calcium propionate

Participants: Susan, Phyllis, Sherri, Rosemary, Debbie, Lori, Pat