Flint River Ranch!

[Cincy'sMom]

That's weird that you two say that. A friend of mine who has a website for dog foods told me that lamb meal or any *meat* meal could mean that the company just wanted a nicer word for by-products. Like I said, it could mean anything. No one REALLY knows what's put into dog food unless we mad it ourselves... which goes for any type of food, really.

I have heard different claims, so I thought I'd check out how the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) defines these terms:

Chicken:
Definition: Chicken is the clean combination of flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken- exclusive of feathers, heads, feet, and entrails.

Chicken Meal: chicken (see defination above) which has been ground or otherwise reduced in particle size."


Chicken by-product:
Definition: 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.


What I have heard from food sales reps (take it for what it is worth), is that the difference between listing chicken and chicken meal, is that the moisture and fat are removed prior to cooking, which means the actual meat content is higher in chicken meal then if it is just listed as chicken. This is also supported by several food comparison sites, and the definitions of the AAFCO.

(I used chicken as an example, but would apply to any meat)

[Kfamr]

I'll have to show my friend this thread...

[AllAmericanPUP]

There are two types of meat used in all foods, fresh and meat meal. Meat meal is pre-digested meat protein that is dehydrated and then added to the food formula. It’s a pure form of meat and high in protein. Fresh meat is just that, fresh meat. The draw back to using fresh meat is it loses half its weight in the cooking process. A lot of companies also SAY they use fresh meat because the consumer assumes that it’s better to use fresh than meal and it makes their food “read” better. If it’s true and they use fresh meat, and listing it first on the ingredient label , it is in fact the 6th or 7th ingredient after cooking . It may have started out as the most by weight prior to cooking but……….with meat meal, you are getting a lot more meat-based protein.