Hi Naturella –
Meat meals as inferior to fresh meats. They are highly processed and undergo cooking twice – they are first ground, cooked and dried into a powder-like substance then, after being added to the kibble recipe, cooked again along with the kibble. Fresh meats are only cooked once while making the final kibble product. Meat meals are also notorious for containing lower-quality mean than fresh meat items. Most people tend to shy away from “by-products” however, the only meal protein source in which there is a differentiation between by-product/non-by-product is chicken – this means that for all other protein sources what a named “meal” is, is essentially a “by-product” meal. Meat meal definitely isn’t just dried fresh meat which a lot of people seem to think it is. Unfortunately, meat meal is a necessary evil in order to get the protein in kibbles up to a reasonable level. This is why, if one must feed kibble, I think it’s better to either look for a food that doesn’t contain meal and add fresh meat or canned toppers to get the protein level up or to feed a kibble which contains a heft amount of fresh meat in addition to meal. There are definitely variations in quality when it comes to meat meals and if you’re using a trustworthy food that obtains meal from a reliable source it’s probably an okay product however it’s never preferable to fresh meat.
