Explaining The Meat Meal Myth
“Fresh Lamb.” “Whole Chicken.” “Deboned Whitefish.” These “wet-state” protein sources sound great, but, may in fact be a marketing tactic.
AAFCO label regulations require ingredients on pet food labels to be listed from heaviest to lightest before they are cooked into kibble. The order of ingredients has NOTHING to do with their quality or their processing, just their weight.
So, with this in mind, consider the grocery store and mass market dog foods for a moment. If they contain meals, they are pre-rendered meals whose sources are unknown. Today, however, you will usually see them touting those whole meat ingredients. Whole meats are wet and these wet-state proteins contain approximately 70% water and approximately 12% protein. This makes them heavier than their dry-state counterparts and allows grocery and mass market pet foods the ability to place meat at the top of their ingredient list. In reality, meat is not the main ingredient in these foods. These whole meats weigh more than the grains in the foods before they are cooked. After the moisture is removed, they weigh less, making grocery and mass market pet foods grain based, not meat based.
The meat meals used by the natural, independent, American dog food companies are custom ground meat meals whose protein source is always identified (ie. Chicken Meal, Beef Meal, Buffalo Meal, Salmon Meal, etc.) These meat meals are extraordinarily nutrient dense and very expensive, not inexpensive substitutes or fillers. With moisture content between 5% and 10%, the protein content is 70%! These meat meals are made through grinding, cooking, and drying meats into a granular powder, adding superior nutritional qualities to the end product. When meat meals are cooked into the kibble, the protein is not diminished, and the food remains a meat based diet. When a whole meat meal is listed as the first ingredient, you can be assured that it is really the largest ingredient in the food.
