Do you use "human grade" ingredients in your food? Are all ingredients human grade or
just some? Which ones?
Where do you obtain your vitamin and mineral supplements?
Is there BPA (Bisphenol-A) in the can lining? (Canned foods only)
Where do the other ingredients in your pet food come from?
Consequences of low-quality pet food
The label doesn't tell the whole story, what questions to ask your pet food manufacturer
What "red flag" ingredients to look for on your pet food label
Why you may want to question your vet's pet food recommendation
Do you test on animals? If so, what kind of testing? Is there any animal experimentation
involved when testing your product?
Writing an article about the dangers of commercial pet food and including it on a website for a
company that offers a "nutrition assessment" service seems a little self-serving. I hesitate to even
write it for that exact reason. I'm not a big fan of fear-mongering-I don't think that's a good way to
mobilize people. That said, all the reading I've done regarding commercial pet food makes it clear
that the pet food industry is a downright scary place. There's no way to sugar coat it.
When I was a kid, we bought our dogs' food from the grocery store. It was the most convenient source since we were buying our own food anyway, and specialty pet supply stores just weren't as common as they are now. You can find a Petco or a Petsmart in just about any mid-sized strip mall these days, not to mention the higher-end specialty stores that are springing up everywhere. My parents didn't do extensive research of the ingredient lists-it never occurred to them that they should have to. Ann Martin had yet to release the first edition of her expose book, "Food Pets Die For" (1997), the internet wasn't as popular or available, and my parents were both working and raising two kids-the quality of the dog's food was not the top of their priority list. As long as she was behaving relatively normally and doing the things dogs are supposed to do, it seemed unnecessary to worry or make a change. Besides, it would seem to be a safe assumption that someone, possibly a federal agency like the FDA or the USDA, was overseeing and regulating this industry. After all, we live in a civilized society where people largely consider pets part of the family-isn't someone with a lot more expertise getting paid to do the job of making sure what the pets are eating is wholesome and nutritious? The answer, I was to come to learn many years too late, is no. Our dog, our beloved family member, died prematurely of cancer. And her's is not a unique case. In fact, with the prevalence of cancer among dogs in recent years, it's probably either happened to you or someone you know.
It's now suspected by many veterinarians and researchers that poor quality pet food that includes toxic preservatives, heavy metals, synthetic ingredients and byproducts, are contributors to the explosion of disease our companion animals are suffering. The increased rate of disease follows the same trajectory as pet food industry growth. Dr. Martin Goldstein, DVM reports, "Twenty-five years ago when I started out in practice, the pets I saw with these diseases were old. Their conditions seemed to be age-related, and slow-growing enough to be accepted. Of the cases I see now, many are young and don't live past the age of five. It's no longer unusual to see a three-year-old cat with kidney failure. Or an eighteen-month-old dog with part its jaw eaten away by cancer." (Goldstein, 4). He goes on to say, "To me, it's clear that more and more pets are getting cancer and other degenerative diseases because they're being hit with more and more toxins that eventually mutate their genes, weakening successive generations. The assault begins with those processed and packaged foods that most of us give our pets." (Goldstein, 5). The website curecaninecancer.org (a non-profit established by the Morris Animal Foundation) reports that 1 in 4 dogs die of cancer.
The first thing to understand about the pet food industry is that it's large and essentially self-regulated, meaning it serves the interests of the pet food industry more than the consumers. The industry raked in around $15 billion in 2006, with an estimated 144 million pet cats and dogs residing in the US (Weiskopf, 18). With that much money up for grabs, it becomes clear pretty fast that the industry is not watching out for your pet's safety, they're watching out for their bottom line. So that leaves the job to who, your veterinarian, right? Surely that person will be able to give a safe and nutritious recommendation! Not so fast. Veterinarians are certainly knowledgeable healthcare professionals-they know a lot about diagnosing and treating diseases; their skill set is invaluable in an emergency and most of the time they have the best intentions at heart. But most vets would even admit that they don't know a great deal about nutrition. "I used to believe that simply recommending a "premium" food was enough. Somehow my limited knowledge of nutrition qualified me to believe that following the advice of a pet food company and then making that food available to my clients ensured they would feed a healthy diet. When I decided to change my focus of treating disease to "healing pets" and began incorporating a holistic approach at my practice, I realized that the only thing "premium" about the diets I had recommended was the price! By learning all I could about pet nutrition and the pet food industry, I have changed my recommendation. Now I know better." Shawn Messonnier, DVM (Martin, viii). Vets are so consumed with treating illness and disease (many of which are a direct consequence of a low quality diet) that they simply don't have the time and resources to research and analyze pet food. Many vets stock several brands of food in their office and recommend them without really knowing what's in the food.
That leaves the job of advocating for your pet up to you! It can be confusing, even overwhelming. But I'll provide a few high-level pointers in this article to get you started. Where pet food is concerned, things are not particularly straightforward and clear cut, so depending on the questions you have and the changes you wish to implement in your pet's diet, you may need to seek a qualified professional.
First, don't be afraid to contact a pet food manufacturer with some questions. Even the most seasoned ingredient label scholar simply cannot know the quality of some of the ingredients based on the information provided on the bag. This lack of clarity and transparency is one way in which the self-regulation of the industry serves pet food manufacturers who are producing an inferior product more so than the consumer. Most pet food sites have a "contact us" link, making it easy to send off an email. Of course, depending on the quality of the product, you may get some shrouded and mysterious answers or answers that don't entirely address the question. If this happens to you, that's a very CLEAR answer! A company with nothing to hide should be able to provide you clear answers to your questions. After all, you're inquiring about their product!
Here are some questions to ask (some questions taken from truthaboutpetfood.com):
When I was a kid, we bought our dogs' food from the grocery store. It was the most convenient source since we were buying our own food anyway, and specialty pet supply stores just weren't as common as they are now. You can find a Petco or a Petsmart in just about any mid-sized strip mall these days, not to mention the higher-end specialty stores that are springing up everywhere. My parents didn't do extensive research of the ingredient lists-it never occurred to them that they should have to. Ann Martin had yet to release the first edition of her expose book, "Food Pets Die For" (1997), the internet wasn't as popular or available, and my parents were both working and raising two kids-the quality of the dog's food was not the top of their priority list. As long as she was behaving relatively normally and doing the things dogs are supposed to do, it seemed unnecessary to worry or make a change. Besides, it would seem to be a safe assumption that someone, possibly a federal agency like the FDA or the USDA, was overseeing and regulating this industry. After all, we live in a civilized society where people largely consider pets part of the family-isn't someone with a lot more expertise getting paid to do the job of making sure what the pets are eating is wholesome and nutritious? The answer, I was to come to learn many years too late, is no. Our dog, our beloved family member, died prematurely of cancer. And her's is not a unique case. In fact, with the prevalence of cancer among dogs in recent years, it's probably either happened to you or someone you know.
It's now suspected by many veterinarians and researchers that poor quality pet food that includes toxic preservatives, heavy metals, synthetic ingredients and byproducts, are contributors to the explosion of disease our companion animals are suffering. The increased rate of disease follows the same trajectory as pet food industry growth. Dr. Martin Goldstein, DVM reports, "Twenty-five years ago when I started out in practice, the pets I saw with these diseases were old. Their conditions seemed to be age-related, and slow-growing enough to be accepted. Of the cases I see now, many are young and don't live past the age of five. It's no longer unusual to see a three-year-old cat with kidney failure. Or an eighteen-month-old dog with part its jaw eaten away by cancer." (Goldstein, 4). He goes on to say, "To me, it's clear that more and more pets are getting cancer and other degenerative diseases because they're being hit with more and more toxins that eventually mutate their genes, weakening successive generations. The assault begins with those processed and packaged foods that most of us give our pets." (Goldstein, 5). The website curecaninecancer.org (a non-profit established by the Morris Animal Foundation) reports that 1 in 4 dogs die of cancer.
The first thing to understand about the pet food industry is that it's large and essentially self-regulated, meaning it serves the interests of the pet food industry more than the consumers. The industry raked in around $15 billion in 2006, with an estimated 144 million pet cats and dogs residing in the US (Weiskopf, 18). With that much money up for grabs, it becomes clear pretty fast that the industry is not watching out for your pet's safety, they're watching out for their bottom line. So that leaves the job to who, your veterinarian, right? Surely that person will be able to give a safe and nutritious recommendation! Not so fast. Veterinarians are certainly knowledgeable healthcare professionals-they know a lot about diagnosing and treating diseases; their skill set is invaluable in an emergency and most of the time they have the best intentions at heart. But most vets would even admit that they don't know a great deal about nutrition. "I used to believe that simply recommending a "premium" food was enough. Somehow my limited knowledge of nutrition qualified me to believe that following the advice of a pet food company and then making that food available to my clients ensured they would feed a healthy diet. When I decided to change my focus of treating disease to "healing pets" and began incorporating a holistic approach at my practice, I realized that the only thing "premium" about the diets I had recommended was the price! By learning all I could about pet nutrition and the pet food industry, I have changed my recommendation. Now I know better." Shawn Messonnier, DVM (Martin, viii). Vets are so consumed with treating illness and disease (many of which are a direct consequence of a low quality diet) that they simply don't have the time and resources to research and analyze pet food. Many vets stock several brands of food in their office and recommend them without really knowing what's in the food.
That leaves the job of advocating for your pet up to you! It can be confusing, even overwhelming. But I'll provide a few high-level pointers in this article to get you started. Where pet food is concerned, things are not particularly straightforward and clear cut, so depending on the questions you have and the changes you wish to implement in your pet's diet, you may need to seek a qualified professional.
First, don't be afraid to contact a pet food manufacturer with some questions. Even the most seasoned ingredient label scholar simply cannot know the quality of some of the ingredients based on the information provided on the bag. This lack of clarity and transparency is one way in which the self-regulation of the industry serves pet food manufacturers who are producing an inferior product more so than the consumer. Most pet food sites have a "contact us" link, making it easy to send off an email. Of course, depending on the quality of the product, you may get some shrouded and mysterious answers or answers that don't entirely address the question. If this happens to you, that's a very CLEAR answer! A company with nothing to hide should be able to provide you clear answers to your questions. After all, you're inquiring about their product!
Here are some questions to ask (some questions taken from truthaboutpetfood.com):
It's a dirty little secret of pet food companies that many test on cats and dogs in laboratory
settings. So while their commercial shows a healthy, vibrant puppy devouring a bowl of food,
the reality is that possibly hundreds of dogs and cats went through enormous amounts of
emotional and physical pain and even death to create that formula. To test the safety of a
new synthetic preservative, dogs or cats are fed the diet for a period of time, then they are
killed so their organs can be dissected to see how much damage occurred. Alternatives to this
practice include at-home feeding trials, and simply including quality, human-grade ingredients
so there's no need to test an ingredient to figure out whether or not it's safe in the first
place.
The pet food industry, how big of a business is it really?
In this article:
Sarah Smith, CPT
What substance is used to preserve fish meal? (If fish meal is an ingredient.)
What is the shelf life of the food?
Do you have your own manufacturing plant or do you use a co-packer?
Ideally the food uses only human grade ingredients. Many pet foods use "animal" or "pet"
grade ingredients. These are lower quality ingredients to the extent that meat products can
include diseased flesh and toxic substances such as sodium pentobarbital (the poison used to
euthanize animals) as well as poor quality fiber and grain sources like peanut shells and
sawdust.
The answer we're looking for is just about anywhere except China (or any Asian country in
general). Most cheap vitamin and minerals are sourced from China, and given the 2007 pet
food recall that included tainted wheat gluten from China, as well as several product recalls
for human products from Chinese manufacturers, it's best to avoid product from China if
possible.
Ideally, all ingredients are from the USA, especially fish products. This
doesn't automatically make them safe, but at least we know what the
regulations (or lack thereof) entail. All lamb is imported from New
Zealand. This is common practice and generally considered safe.
Remember the big BPA-water bottle stir awhile back where everyone traded in
their old Nalgenes for BPA-free ones? That same stuff, an industrial chemical, is
used to make the resins for the lining of cans of food. It has been shown to
imitate the effects of estrogen and has been linked with reproductive and
developmental defects and cancer. Note this is an area of concern for human
health as well since BPA is commonly used in cans that package human food. You
can learn more about the problem of BPA in human products at
http://www.naturalnews.com/BPA.html
The longer the shelf life, the more likely the food contains powerful toxic chemical
preservatives. In addition, nutritional value of the food decreases over time, so it's important
to use a product that doesn't have an overly long shelf life. Like cars, the product begins
losing value (or freshness) as soon as it's manufactured and it can take months for a product
to get from the manufacturer to the warehouse to the retailer to you. A common shelf life is
12 months, anything beyond that should raise a red flag and possibly prompt a more pointed
question to the manufacturer, "What preservatives or methods do you use to maintain such a
long shelf life?" A good way to make sure your pet is eating the freshest food possible is to
check the "use by" date and subtract that amount from the shelf life. For example, if you
bought food in June 2009 and the use by date is December 2009, and you know the product
has a 12-month shelf life, you can determine that the bag you're looking at is 6 months old.
You're looking for just about anything except Ethoxyquin, a common preservative found in
fish sourced from Asia, but a hidden ingredient in pet food, meaning that since the
manufacturer didn't at it, it doesn't have to be reported on the bag. Preferred alternatives
are: Vitamin E, mixed tocopherols, or Naturox (a natural preservative alternative).
Ideally, the company will NOT use a co-packer. A co-packer produces pet food for many pet
food companies in one facility and may even provide the ingredients for those pet foods. It's
sort of like a co-op in that it offers a "bulk" rate. It reduces cost since all the individual
companies don't have to maintain their own facilities and obtain their own ingredients. Menu
Foods is an example of a co-packer and that's why there were so many different pet food
companies implicated in the 2007 recall. Even for pet foods that do contain quality
ingredients and supply their own, there are risks when using a co-packer.
Cross-contamination is a reality since the same machinery is used for all foods, and an
inability for the company to provide enough oversight on sight at the co-packing facility to
ensure only their ingredients are being included and machinery is properly cleaned between
runs.
Besides these direct questions to the pet food manufacturer, you can review the ingredient
list for some "red flag" items. Below is a quick primer on dangerous or "red flag" ingredients.
These are not the only potentially dangerous ingredients, but they are the ones that are the
best-understood. There are other questionable ingredients that are not as well-understood but
are suspected of imposing health risks. For more potentially dangerous or questionable
ingredients, check out dogfoodproject.com. Be warned that some of the descriptions may be
disturbing. Unequivocally ditch your current pet food if your ingredient list contains any of the
following "red flag" ingredients:
Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid): Fat (animal or vegetable source) is an important component in pet foods and this method of preservation is relatively safe. However, a non-specified fat such as "animal" is suspect. Look for "chicken fat" instead.
Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT): Fat is an important component in pet foods. However, the chemical preservatives BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) are very controversial preservatives linked to cancer and tumors (verified in animal experiments). Any listing of BHA and BHT on your pet food label is dangerous.
Note: BHA and BHT are banned from use in human foods in many countries, but is still permitted for use in the US. Check your own product labels for this potentially carcinogenic preservative!
Chicken by-product meal
Turkey by-product meal
Chicken & Turkey by-product meal
Poultry by-product meal
AAFCO definition: Consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts [devoid of fur, feather, hair, or stomach contents] of the carcasses of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines, exclusive of feathers except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.
When the protein source is unspecified, such as "poultry," it can be anything including chicken, duck, turkey, goose, pigeon, etc. found as road kill, or euthanized in a zoo or animal shelter. By-Products are not a safe or quality protein source, they are from rendering facilities and are the cast-offs from the slaughterhouses (first denatured by being sprayed with toxic preservative chemicals) or the direct source of meat that otherwise isn't considered safe for human consumption, such as diseased, decaying, contaminated, or otherwise compromised flesh.
Meat Meal
Meat and Bone Meal
AAFCO definition: The rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents… This ingredient can contain ANY mammal animal in any condition including euthanized dogs and cats. Another point of concern for this ingredient is the high levels of lead in bone meal originating from US cattle. The only safe bone meal is from cattle raised in South America, Ethiopia, or another country with few automobiles.
Fish: This is an unspecified protein source. There's a catch-22 in play when the whole fish is listed on the ingredient label: usually only part of the fish is used, unfortunately it's the parts that don't contain the valuable omega 3s, vitamins, and minerals that make fish a beneficial ingredient. When the entire fish is used for commercial pet food, it's usually because it's unfit for human consumption because it contains a high level of mercury.
*Fish Meal: If the fish is human grade and if the meal is preserved without the use of Ethoxyquin, and if the fish is sourced from within the US (not Asia), you can consider this a safe ingredient. However, you must verify these three details to make the determination. Fish meal is rendering residue from fish processing plants and might include heads, tails, innards, and blood. AAFCO defines it as "clean, dried, ground tissue of undecomposed whole fish or fish cuttings, either or both, with or without the extraction of part of the oil." Fish meal is a more concentrated form of protein than whole meat products because the moisture has been removed, giving you more "bang" for your buck.
*Chicken & Turkey Meal
*Chicken Meal
*Duck Meal
*Poultry Meal
If human grade, this is a good ingredient. If the protein is "pet" or "animal" grade it is not a safe ingredient and likely contains by-products, which, as previously mentioned are the cast-off parts of the animal, diseased, contaminated, and otherwise compromised. Human grade is defined as containing only USDA approved muscle meat. The quality of the meal is at the discretion of the manufacturer and is not communicated via the ingredient label (AAFCO and the FDA allow both of these pet food ingredients to be named the same thing yet the quality can be vastly different.). Meal is a more concentrated form of protein than whole meat products since the moisture has been removed, giving you more "bang" for your buck.
Meat By Products: AAFCO definition: The non-rendered, clean parts [devoid of hair, fur, stomach contents], 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.
Note: Because this is specifically "slaughtered" animals, it typically includes livestock and not pet dogs and cats. However, anything labeled a "by product" is not fit for human consumption and can contain flesh that is diseased, decaying, contaminated, or otherwise compromised, and should be avoided for our pets as well.
Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E): This is fat from rendered fowl. Fat is a necessary component of pet food, however, the fowl can be obtained from any source, including diseased or dead-prior-to-slaughter animals. This can include turkey, chicken, geese, buzzards, seagulls, miscellaneous road kill, and birds euthanized at shelters or zoos. Instead, look for naturally preserved chicken fat, ideally on a product that contains only human grade ingredients.
TBHQ: A chemical preservative related to BHA. Studies have linked prolonged use to cancer.
*Whole protein sources such as Chicken, Duck, Bison, Beef, Turkey
If human grade, this is a good ingredient. However, it's not as high a concentrated protein source as the "meal" varieties. If not human grade, the quality is greatly reduced.
Dyes/Coloring Agents: Including Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6. These food colorings have been shown to be potentially carcinogenic, causing tumors and cancer. They are added solely to make the food look more appealing to HUMANS. They are completely devoid of nutritional value and are potentially toxic.
Resources mentioned in this article
Books
Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food, by Ann M. Martin
The Nature of Animal Healing, by Dr. Martin Goldstein DVM
Pet Food Nation, by Joan Weiskopf
Websites
www.dogfoodproject.com
www.truthaboutpetfood.com
www.naturalnews.com/BPA.html
Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid): Fat (animal or vegetable source) is an important component in pet foods and this method of preservation is relatively safe. However, a non-specified fat such as "animal" is suspect. Look for "chicken fat" instead.
Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT): Fat is an important component in pet foods. However, the chemical preservatives BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) are very controversial preservatives linked to cancer and tumors (verified in animal experiments). Any listing of BHA and BHT on your pet food label is dangerous.
Note: BHA and BHT are banned from use in human foods in many countries, but is still permitted for use in the US. Check your own product labels for this potentially carcinogenic preservative!
Chicken by-product meal
Turkey by-product meal
Chicken & Turkey by-product meal
Poultry by-product meal
AAFCO definition: Consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts [devoid of fur, feather, hair, or stomach contents] of the carcasses of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines, exclusive of feathers except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.
When the protein source is unspecified, such as "poultry," it can be anything including chicken, duck, turkey, goose, pigeon, etc. found as road kill, or euthanized in a zoo or animal shelter. By-Products are not a safe or quality protein source, they are from rendering facilities and are the cast-offs from the slaughterhouses (first denatured by being sprayed with toxic preservative chemicals) or the direct source of meat that otherwise isn't considered safe for human consumption, such as diseased, decaying, contaminated, or otherwise compromised flesh.
Meat Meal
Meat and Bone Meal
AAFCO definition: The rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents… This ingredient can contain ANY mammal animal in any condition including euthanized dogs and cats. Another point of concern for this ingredient is the high levels of lead in bone meal originating from US cattle. The only safe bone meal is from cattle raised in South America, Ethiopia, or another country with few automobiles.
Fish: This is an unspecified protein source. There's a catch-22 in play when the whole fish is listed on the ingredient label: usually only part of the fish is used, unfortunately it's the parts that don't contain the valuable omega 3s, vitamins, and minerals that make fish a beneficial ingredient. When the entire fish is used for commercial pet food, it's usually because it's unfit for human consumption because it contains a high level of mercury.
*Fish Meal: If the fish is human grade and if the meal is preserved without the use of Ethoxyquin, and if the fish is sourced from within the US (not Asia), you can consider this a safe ingredient. However, you must verify these three details to make the determination. Fish meal is rendering residue from fish processing plants and might include heads, tails, innards, and blood. AAFCO defines it as "clean, dried, ground tissue of undecomposed whole fish or fish cuttings, either or both, with or without the extraction of part of the oil." Fish meal is a more concentrated form of protein than whole meat products because the moisture has been removed, giving you more "bang" for your buck.
*Chicken & Turkey Meal
*Chicken Meal
*Duck Meal
*Poultry Meal
If human grade, this is a good ingredient. If the protein is "pet" or "animal" grade it is not a safe ingredient and likely contains by-products, which, as previously mentioned are the cast-off parts of the animal, diseased, contaminated, and otherwise compromised. Human grade is defined as containing only USDA approved muscle meat. The quality of the meal is at the discretion of the manufacturer and is not communicated via the ingredient label (AAFCO and the FDA allow both of these pet food ingredients to be named the same thing yet the quality can be vastly different.). Meal is a more concentrated form of protein than whole meat products since the moisture has been removed, giving you more "bang" for your buck.
Meat By Products: AAFCO definition: The non-rendered, clean parts [devoid of hair, fur, stomach contents], 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.
Note: Because this is specifically "slaughtered" animals, it typically includes livestock and not pet dogs and cats. However, anything labeled a "by product" is not fit for human consumption and can contain flesh that is diseased, decaying, contaminated, or otherwise compromised, and should be avoided for our pets as well.
Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E): This is fat from rendered fowl. Fat is a necessary component of pet food, however, the fowl can be obtained from any source, including diseased or dead-prior-to-slaughter animals. This can include turkey, chicken, geese, buzzards, seagulls, miscellaneous road kill, and birds euthanized at shelters or zoos. Instead, look for naturally preserved chicken fat, ideally on a product that contains only human grade ingredients.
TBHQ: A chemical preservative related to BHA. Studies have linked prolonged use to cancer.
*Whole protein sources such as Chicken, Duck, Bison, Beef, Turkey
If human grade, this is a good ingredient. However, it's not as high a concentrated protein source as the "meal" varieties. If not human grade, the quality is greatly reduced.
Dyes/Coloring Agents: Including Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6. These food colorings have been shown to be potentially carcinogenic, causing tumors and cancer. They are added solely to make the food look more appealing to HUMANS. They are completely devoid of nutritional value and are potentially toxic.
Resources mentioned in this article
Books
Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food, by Ann M. Martin
The Nature of Animal Healing, by Dr. Martin Goldstein DVM
Pet Food Nation, by Joan Weiskopf
Websites
www.dogfoodproject.com
www.truthaboutpetfood.com
www.naturalnews.com/BPA.html
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