Is A Rose By-Product Still A Rose

If a dog food label says it contains lamb, beef, or chicken, then, by law, it really must contain the “clean flesh (from that animal)… limited to that part of the striate muscle which is skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus….” So far, so good.

Lamb meal, beef meal, or chicken meal is “the rendered product” of those meats. Though meat has been cooked, dried, and ground, it’s still meat, and has not had any “added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices.

“Meat and Bone Meal” is the same product as the above, but with the addition of bone. The percentage of meat to bone included is not stated.

When you get to By-Products, you’ve really departed from a product of any quality. These are the things other than the meaty muscle tissue, including but not limited to “lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines.” A “Digest” is worst of all. This is a by-product, which has been treated with heat and water to create a slurry.

When it comes to meat, in general, the more specific the ingredient description, the better the quality is. “Chicken” is better than “Poultry,” which would indicate a whole variety of birds: turkey, ducks, geese, chickens, whatever.

And, in turn, “Chicken Meal” is better than “Chicken By-Products,” which is better than “Chicken Digest,” which is better than “Animal Digest.” But from our perspective, anything less than “Meal” is not fit for dogs, especially healthy dogs.

-Whole Dog Journal February 2000.