Let’s be honest, most food labels, being human or for our pets, are not really designed for your average Jo… you really do need specialist detailed knowledge if you wish to fully understand what you or your pet are eating. Human food labelling is slowly getting better, the regulations are changing and some labels are becoming straight forward, but what about pet food? Not so fast to change, so how do you go about deciphering that?
Well, this is a good question. Unclear terms and tons of marketing babble can make it really hard to truly understand what’s inside the packet.
Recently, I came across an article “Calls for clearer labelling on pet food” by Dogs Monthly, which features an infographic by Data Label. There was a part which really made me think.
What is Meat Meal?
Well, apparently there is no official definition of it, but it seems to be a high concentrated lower grade protein powder obtained from rendering down parts of an animal, which cost a fraction of the whole animal…
Every time you read on your label dehydrated, powder, dried, meal, concentrated… this is not whole meat, those are parts of the animal which are either surplus requirements in the human food industry or are not intended for human consumption… doesn’t sound very appealing, does it?
Now here is another pet food labelling dilemma. Let’s say, I just bought a puppy and I want to buy a high protein dog food to help him grow up big and strong… I look at the labels, I study all the numbers and tables and pick the one which shows the highest amount of protein… sounds good, right? Well, not really… it’s maybe not the right choice or even a good choice because I have no idea what type of protein they are using… protein from the whole chicken does not equal proteins obtained from say chicken beaks or feet… yet looking at the labels I will never know which grade of protein is in the pack.
A lot of people think that naturally the more expensive the food, then the better quality it is… I personally strongly DO NOT agree with this! I think if this would be the truth then there would be no need for mystery labelling… I think the company would be proud to clearly state what’s in their food for everyone to understand without having a degree in deciphering mystery labels. Don’t ever underestimate what a fully funded marketing department can achieve.
If you hoped this post will give you an answer as to how to read pet labels, well, I am sorry I couldn’t help…
Pet food labelling shouldn’t be a mystery, it should be clear, simple and understandable to everyone, to all customers.
I hope one day this will become a reality!
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More on the topic:
The Science of Pet Food Labels
Understanding Pet Food Labels
This is really interesting to read, we have Sal on a prescription diet, but it is definitely interesting to know how to decipher it all for future use.
Great read! I totally agree with your point that expensive dog food mean quality food. We need to do our own research.
I never thought about what food labelling on pet foods is like. They should definitely meet the same standards as the labels on our foods so owners can make the best choices just as we do.
An interesting r and I’ll be honest I’ve never paid much attention to the label on our dog food. This has given me food for thought tho
An interesting article. I feed my dog raw food from the butchers so I know exactly what’s gone into it. I don’t think I’d ever buy “dog food”.
Ami xxx
We feed our dogs raw but cats still get a “cat food”… not so easy to buy a good one 🙁
I didn’t realize how tough it can be to know whats in pet food x
I never realised that one needs to check so carefully while buying pet food.
Its scary to think how evasive they make their labeling so we do not question what really goes into the food. Scary thought! x
This is really handy - I never really would have thought to check labels
I didn’t realise buying pet food was so difficult, just assumed it would be labelled in a similar way to our food