Blood Meal… Dog Food Ingredient or Fertilizer for Your Garden?

by Mike Sagman
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Blood and blood products. Sometimes we simply have to stop and ask… are these dog food ingredients for real?

Blood Meal is a Fertilizer

Actually, they are. On pet food labels it’s not unusual to find items like…

  • Animal plasma
  • Blood meal
  • Dried blood

In dog food, blood products can be controversial.

Although some argue blood is a natural part of a dog’s ancestral diet, many are disturbed to find these items listed on a label.

By-Product of the Meat Packing Industry

Although some companies insist blood meal is a high quality source of animal protein… this pet food ingredient is actually a by-product of slaughterhouse waste.

Because blood products can carry BSE (mad cow disease), the FDA has banned their use in making feed for livestock.

However, so long as these products come from pork (or horses), blood can still be used to make cattle feed… and dog food.1

Thankfully, no cases of BSE have ever been reported in dogs.

However, cats are susceptible to their own version of the disease… a deadly disease known as FSE.2

And that’s what worries opponents. If blood can spread mad cow disease, could it possibly carry other diseases?

Blood Meal
Feeding Dogs… or Plants?

The truth is, blood meal is more commonly used as a fertilizer to feed crops. Not dogs.

Just the same, some dog food companies insist animal plasma and blood meal add legitimate nutrition to a properly designed dog food.

In any case, even though they’re most likely safe…

Blood products are certainly controversial enough to qualify them for inclusion on the Dog Food Advisor’s list of Red Flag Ingredients.

  1. BSE Cow in U.S. Triggers New FDA Rules ↩
  2. All About BSE ↩
Dog Food Advisor IconThe Dog Food Advisor publishes independent reviews to help pet owners make better choices when shopping for dog food.


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  • Joftieloco

    Plus the fats like chicken fat are deemed to be a quality product based on many reviews from this site. The fat comes from the rendering process which is skimmed off the top of the material that’s cooked so how would the fat be a quality ingredient and the blood not?

  • Joftieloco

    I asked NL where they get their plasma from but they did not disclose the vendor. They did indicate that it is derived from human edible material. NL did make The List from the truth about pet food….and Susan swears they’re a reliable company…

  • Joftieloco

    Assuming the plants follow proper protocol. I would not like deceased pets, with chemicals in their bodies to be added to the plant, nor diseased livestock.

  • Joftieloco

    At proper USDA rendering plants, blood and bone meal go through rigorous processes to ensure all metals, bacteria and viruses are filtered out. One of the first phases is to remove dangerous metals. Then all matter is cooked at very high temperatures and filtered several times. Fat is skimmed into liquids and solids. This is used as the chicken fat, turkey fat, beef fat etc in most foods listed on this site. So those worried about plasma might as well worry about the fat too. Assuming the plants are running properly, the fats ans plasmas should be safe. Further more, most of the pigs, cows and chickens we consume have also been fed some kind of plasma in their diets. Plasma is a much safer nutritional source than synthetically engineers chemicals. I have contacted natures logic regarding whom they obtain plasma from. There are many rendering plants all around us. My company is actually completing energy efficiency projects at Valley Proteins in Baltimore, MD. In regard to sustainability and life cycle analysis it seems that consuming all of the animal is better Thea wasting. All meat eating humans wind up eating blood and cellular structures in meat. This is what makes it beneficial. As long as the plants insure proper safety protocols and run with latest technology, plasma, bone meal and fat by products should be safe.

  • http://DogFoodAdvisor.com Mike Sagman

    Hi Shameless… The search button is back in operation. Not sure how it got deleted. And regarding blood, I’m in complete agreement with you and Brad. However, since there does seem to be some (unjustified) concern over blood ingredients, animal plasma is now red flagged. As I mention in the article, animal plasma is probably a safe and healthy addition to any dog food.

  • ShamelessRawFoodie

    After reading Brad’s comment, I scanned the article about controversial blood products in dog food. Not that I’m concerned. My dog gets blood drippings from his meat and our meat.

    Like Brad mentioned, animal plasma is an ingredient in Nature’s Logic. I looked on the review pages for Nature’s Logic, Dry and Canned. Yes, animal plasma is listed. But the ingredient isn’t red-flagged on either page.

    Mike, you write “Blood products are certainly controversial enough to qualify them for inclusion on the Dog Food Advisor’s list of Red Flag Ingredients.”

    I’ve seen some other reviewed foods that have blood ingredients, but I don’t remember the brands. I don’t find the Search button anymore to easily find ingredients.

  • Brad C.

    I have been feeding dog foods with animal plasma for over 15 years now. I have never had any issues except for they are the healthiest dogs I have ever had. If one would really do some serious diligent research, one would find most pet food recalls are due to wrong formulations of all the Man-made Chemical Synthetic Vitamins and/or Minerals that are used in pet foods. Synthetic vitmine D3 is one of the most toxic. I even discovered that synthetic Vitamin D3 is use in rodentcides in Wiki Pedia. It will take the kidneys out. Check out Rodentcides in Wiki Pedia
    When over dosed, it cause hypercalcimia (elevated blood calcium) causing the rodent to go into renal failure.
    The facts are if you eat any kind of meat, you are eating plasma in the liquid form. Meat has blood in it and blood has plasma in it. Now just think of all the dogs and cats that die every year of renal failure. Could it be drop by drop of Synthtic Vitamin D3 supplement day after day?

    My dogs are now living longer than any of my previous dogs that where not fed plasma.
    My vet clinic’s CN educated me on the dangers of synthetic vitamins and mineral about 10 years ago now. She convinced me that the synthetic vitamins and minerals are the real lurking dangers in pet foods and our own foods. All one has to do is Google: Synthetic Vitamins, Dangers. Mountains of articles will pop up.

    In my opinion, these are the most dangerous things in pet foods and in our own diets. Just look at what the American Cancer Institute is finding on Synthetic Vitamins.

    I have never read one article that plasma has killed a dog or cat.

    By the way, with more research, one will find most synthetics vitamins and minerals in pet foods are manufactured in China.

    Isn’t that GREAT!!!

    Is that really what you want to be feeding your pets.
    How short our memorier are that it was China that spiked pet food ingredients with melomine in 2007 to boost protein levels killing thousands of dogs around the world.

    I also got myself off all synthetic vitamins over 10 years ago.
    At age 60, my blood chemistry and hematology is perfect. My doctor was jelous, not one number was out of line.

    By the way, my first two dogs died of renal failure. I often wonder if it was all the vitamin D3 supplement found in every pet food out their.

    I now feed Nature’s Logic because it is the only line that does not add Chemical vitamins. And yes they do use plasma. Thank you NL for helping to keep my dogs so healthy.
    prior to NL, I fed alot of Wysong All meat cans for the plasma they had in them.

    Has anyone put two and two together that dogs that eat raw are the healtiest. Could it be that blood plasma that is in the raw. My dog also get alot of Raw beef. Free of any Chemical Vitamins.

    Brad

  • Sara

    Nature’s Variety Instinct kibble (the new Beef formula one) has plasma in it. I definitely would stay away from it, no question! It is not just mad cow disease but other diseases that can be contracted through blood products.

  • http://DogFoodAdvisor.com Mike Sagman

    Hi Sarah… Yes, animal plasma is used in some dog foods. Use our search box to find out which ones.

  • sarah

    Hi,
    Can you tell me if animal plasma powder is used in pet food

    Thanks

  • Rikke

    I remember back in the 1980s, I was living in Britain at the time, when BSE hit. There were reports of dogs getting it and dying from it. However, now it seems like dogs are immune to it? It was very confusing back then. I became a vegetarian for a while because the reports of what foods were and weren’t dangerous and how and why they were dangerous were so contradictory. It was obvious no one knew what was happening. I would never feed blood meal to a dog even now, I’m overly cautious maybe.

  • http://DogFoodAdvisor.com Mike Sagman

    Hi Omar… some dog foods can have blood meal. Our Red Flag scan will detect ingredients like these and turn them bright red on the list. Keep an eye out for future reviews.

  • Omar

    Yuck. What dog food has blood meal?