Meat by-product
Meat by-products are ground and cleaned slaughtered meat carcass parts such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, bones, heads, and intestines (and a small amount of feathers in the case of chicken meat). The terms meat by-products or animal by-products are often used in reference to the ingredients included in commercial pet foods.
The definition for meat by-products by the Association of American Feed Control Officials 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.
A new category of pet food typically marketed as holistic, wellness, organic, ultra healthy, and/or simply premium pet food often emphasizes the use of human-grade meat sources only, with no animal meat by-products.
AAFCO has declared that using the term "human grade" is "false and misleading" to quote AAFCO in a letter sent to pet food manufacturers in (March 2004) Section IV – Pet Food Label Claims – Page 66 Section E. "Claims that a product contains or is made from ingredients that are “human grade”, “human quality”, “people foods”, “ingredients you (the purchaser) would eat” “food(s) that you (the purchaser) would feed your family” or similar claims are false and misleading..."
Unfortunately, AAFCO only governs the pet food packaging and has no authority over websites, advertising or anything else. Companies making this claim, do so on websites or other advertising, but they never do so on the package which AAFCO governs.
Standardization
ISO has published a series of standards regarding the products of the topic and these standards are covered by ICS 67.120.10 [1].
Notes
- ^ International Organization for Standardization. "67.120.10: Meat and meat products". Retrieved 23 April.
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See also
- Advanced meat recovery
- Animal by-products
- Food quality
- Food safety
- Meat and bone meal
- Mechanically separated meat
- Potted meat food product
- Spam (food)