@joanne l, when someone from a pet food company says “all our food comes from USDA inspected plants” please understand what that phrase does (and does not) mean.
Saying the items came “from” a USDA inspected plant DOES NOT mean those items passed inspection. In fact, the pet food companies (can and do) use items that have been condemned for human consumption as a regular practice. You need to understand how deliberately misleading the current labling laws are.
Items that have been condemned by USDA inspectors are regularly sent to rendering facilities where those ingredients are rendered (cooked for a long time under pressure) until pathogens in the often-spoiled items are killed.
Are spoiled meats that are loaded with pathogens “safe” after they have been cooked under pressure beyond recognition? I guess the question rests on the definition of “safe.” I accept the process likely kills of the pathogens (and degrades nutritional values).
From my point of view, it makes sense on a host of levels to feed dogs on parts that are not going to be used in the human food chain. Most of these ingredients would be highly nutritious for dogs if they were handled in a safe and sanitary fashion (which often isn’t the case) and it would be bad for our environment and our pocketbooks to waste otherwise nutritious left-overs that can be used to feed dogs.
The issue isn’t about using potentially nutritious by-products or non-prime cuts, it is about how those by-products and other parts are dealt with at slaughterhouses (and afterward). If ingredients are allowed to be used in dog food despite being spoiled (so long as they are rendered) there is no disincentive to bad slaughterhouse practices.
Likewise, there is no disincentive when pet-food companies are able to claim ingredients come “from” USDA inspected plants when there are no requirements for them to state those same ingredients may have been condemned during inspections.
The rules and labeling claims are controlled by the pet food industry, which controls AAFCO.
I’d like to hear what the guy who claimed: “Our dog food comes from USDA inspected facilities” would say (under oath) if asked if that means all those ingredients “passed” inspections?
Those familiar with pet-food industry practice know the truth about this deliberately misleading claim, one that while currently “legal” is an unethical use of language designed to deceive consumers into thinking “from” means “passed.”
Bill
