Tips To Avoid The Next Pet Food Recall

2007 turned out to be the worst year in history for pet food recalls. There is no chance of being completely certain that your pet's food is poisoned or will be on a recall list - but there are some important thing to look for and avoid that can improve your chances to locate a healthy, safe pet food.

Begin by looking for the Ingredient Listing on your pet food. Some pet foods can contain 90 or more ingredients, but we are going to focus on just a few ingredients that have the potential to be risky.

'Wheat Gluten', 'Corn Gluten', or 'Rice Gluten'. These three ingredients were the bad boy pet food ingredients of 2007. Tainted glutens were found to be the cause of thousands of dogs and cats becoming ill and dying. It is not that glutens themselves are toxic to pets - these ingredients have been used in pet foods for years. The problem was the source or manufacturer of the glutens - imported from countries with far less quality standards than in the US. (The majority of glutens used in the US pet foods are from imported sources.) These imported glutens contained added chemicals that caused crystals to form in the kidneys of dogs and cats.

It is important to avoid dog foods and cat foods that contain imported glutens. And pet owners should be aware that glutens provide no real nutrition to their pet's food. Glutens can be used as a thickener and as a protein boost for a pet food. Adult dog foods must provide a minimum of 18% protein and adult cat foods must provide a minimum of 26% protein. Sometimes, when a pet food does not provide sufficient actual meat in a food - glutens are added to boost the protein to the required percentages. A better protein source for your pet comes from meat - not from glutens.

'By Products'. By-products have never caused a pet food recall, but an understanding of this common pet food ingredient is required to understand the controversy that exists about it. To explain by-products, I am comparing it to pies. There are apple pies, cherry pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, pie in math, cow pies, and so on. Imagine if you purchased a pie without knowing what type of pie it was - no clue if it was an apple pie or if it was a cow pie. The same holds true with by-products in pet food.

The American Association of Feed Control Officials (responsible for animal feed rules and regulations) defines by-products as "meat by-products is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto."

The pet food ingredient by-product is a catch-all ingredient. Any or all left over animal tissues left over from human food are clumped into this one pet food ingredient. Pet owners have no guarantee of what they are feeding - intestines or liver. By-products can be listed in many variations on the pet food label - Chicken By-Products, Beef By-Products, Chicken By-Product Meal, Beef By-Product Meal, and so forth.

'Meat Meal', 'Meat and Bone Meal', or 'Animal Digest'. These three ingredients are similar to by-products. AAFCO defines Meat and Bone Meal as "the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably to good processing practices." Again, a catch all ingredient name for the left-over parts of animals used for human food. No consistency to what is contained in these ingredients (all three of these pet food ingredient definitions are similar) - no way of knowing what is actually in your pet's food. Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain 'meat meal', 'meat and bone meal', or 'animal digest'.

'Animal Fat'. In 2002 the FDA released a report with a list of many popular pet foods that contain the drug pentobarbital. This is the drug that is used to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle, and horses.

Controversy still exists as to how a drug that is used to euthanize animals could be found in pet food. Definitely pentobarbital ends up into pet food from rendered (cooked) euthanized animals - end ingredients from the rendering process are sold to pet food manufacturers. Some pet food safety advocates say that rendered pets - euthanized and removed from animal shelters and veterinarian offices all across the country - is the source of the pentobarbital. Others say that the source is from euthanized cattle and horses. The FDA did develop testing methods in an attempt to find a definitive answer - but to date, no results have ever been released to the public - to confirm or deny the possibility that rendered pets are in pet food.

However, the one thing the FDA/CVM has determined through their testing is the pet food ingredient 'animal fat' is the most common ingredient to contain pentobarbital. In other words, if you are feeding a dog food or cat food (or treats) with the ingredient 'animal fat' in the ingredient listing - you are (more than likely) feeding your pet euthanized animals. Not every batch of pet food tested that contained the ingredient 'animal fat' has proved to contain pentobarbital - but why would any pet owner want to take the chance? Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain the ingredient 'animal fat'.

'BHA', 'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin'. These pet food ingredients are chemical preservatives that have a long controversial history. There is much scientific evidence that links these chemicals to tumors and cancer. All of these chemicals are rarely used to preserve human food and if so, are used in a far less quantity than is approved for use in pet foods.

'Corn', 'Wheat', 'Soy'. There is no clinical evidence that these common pet food ingredients are dangerous to pets, but they have been associated with pet food recalls of the past. Grains such as corn, wheat, and soy (and all their variations) are prone to a deadly mold called aflatoxin. According to AAFCO regulations, pet food manufacturers are not required to test ingredients for safety or absence of mold.

Of course there is no guarantee to assure you your pet's food will never be recalled, even though there should be. Avoiding pet food ingredients that have a controversial history and continuing to learn about what your pet eats will greatly improve your odds. And always read the ingredient listing on your pet's food and treats.