TOPICAL REVIEW

Ingredients: Where Pet Food Starts

Angele Thompson, PhD
Every clinician is asked What should I feed my pet? Understanding the ingredients in pet food is an important
part of making the best recommendation. Pet food can be as simple as one ingredient or as complicated as
containing more than 60 ingredients. Pet food and its ingredients are regulated by the Food and Drug
Administration and state feed officials. Part of that regulation is the review and definition of ingredients.
Existing ingredients change and new ingredients become available so the need for ingredient definitions grows.
Ingredients for product formulations are chosen based on their nutrient content, digestibility, palatability,
functionality, availability, and cost. As an example, a typical, nutritionally complete dry dog food with 42
ingredients is examined and the ingredients are discussed here. Safe, healthy pet food starts with safe ingredients sourced from well-monitored suppliers. The ultimate goal of both veterinarians and pet food manufacturers is the samelong healthy lives for dogs and cats.
2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: pet food, ingredients, protein, carbohydrates, fat

very animal visiting a veterinary clinic has eaten some

form of food. Ideally, every veterinary record should
include a complete detailed diet history for the animal. Since
nutrition is critically important to the health of animals, veterinarians must understand what the animal has been fed. Pet
food products are those that provide taste, aroma or nutritive value, for dogs and cats.1 From a regulatory perspective, pet food is a subset of animal feed.
Ingredients are the building blocks for pet foods. Pet food
can be one simple ingredient, such as a treat of freeze-dried
salmon, or as complicated as a complete and balanced food
containing in excess of 60 separate ingredients. Pet food is a
collection of many inputs from many sources with one output, which goes into the home to be fed to the pet cat or dog.
The earliest record of dogs living with humans is 14,000
BC in Germany.2 The domestication of cats is more recent,
but they still have spent significant time eating the food that
humans provide them. While dogs are classified in a branch
of Carnivora, they are more closely related to omnivores like
bears. Dogs are opportunistic carnivores. Cats, on the other
hand, are considered strict carnivores with special biochemistry that requires specific essential nutrients from animalbased ingredients, such as arachidonic acid and taurine. Each
pet is unique and each has a unique owner with his/her own
set of food beliefs. Many owners seek advice about what to
feed their pet from their veterinarian. Each owner then goes
home to implement all or part of that advice based on their
own food beliefs. So not only do the needs of the pet influence
From Thompson PetTech, New Providence, NJ.
Address reprint requests to: Angele Thompson, PhD, President, Thompson
PetTech, 45 Laurel Drive, New Providence, NJ 07974. E-mail: tpettec@cs.
com
2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1527-3369/06/0604-0171\.00/0
doi:10.1053/j.tcam.2008.04.004

the veterinary recommendations, but so do the preferences of

the owner. Knowledge of pet foods and their ingredients help
provide for the best recommendation and the best explanation of that recommendation possible.

Regulation
Ingredients currently are defined and allowed for use in pet
foods via review by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) or by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Ingredients Definition process.3 In 2007, the
US Congress mandated the federalization of pet food ingredient definitions and standards with the requirement to include input from AAFCO and other relevant stakeholders,
including veterinarians.4 While the exact nature of these standards and definitions cannot be predicted, the current
AAFCO system will certainly be considered, and significant
parts of it will likely be incorporated.
Pet foods are made with ingredients previously defined and
allowed by these agencies. However, new ingredients can
be allowed following submission of data to the FDA or
AAFCO. The length of time from this submission until an
ingredient is added to the list of allowed ingredients can be
several years.
The AAFCO Official Publication cannot contain all the
possible ingredients and thus includes language for acceptance of ingredients reviewed by the FDA, as well as those
known as common and usual terms, such as wheat, oats,
beef, water, etc.3 The earliest adoption of an ingredient definition was 1928 and ingredients are added every year. New
ingredients come with new crops, such as low erucic acid
rapeseed (canola) and from new processing technologies,
such as selenium yeast. Older definitions are sometimes
amended but broad-scale revamping of definitions is unlikely
due to the extensive use of the ingredient definitions in inter-

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national and contractual trading agreements. Definitions
written in the detailed language of regulation are not always
understandable to people outside of the industry. This results
in some of the bewilderment surrounding pet food ingredients. Table 1 contains various AAFCO ingredient definitions
along with simpler explanations.

What Is this Ingredient and Why Is It in

my Pets Food?
Many veterinarians and consumers alike want to know what
an ingredient really is and why it is in the pet food. A
product development scientist considers the following factors for each ingredient: nutrient levels; functionality; palatability; digestibility; availability; and cost. Every ingredient
has to be safe and result in a safe finished product. Every
ingredient in a pet food is included for a purpose. The ingredient has to deliver the right nutrition with the right functionality (eg, chicken for protein, moisture for water balance
and processing), be palatable, be digestible, be available year
round, and still allow for the product to be profitable. The
claim that pet food contains fillers is erroneous. There is no
room in a pet food formula for any ingredient that is added
just to fill space. As noted above, every ingredient provides
some dietary benefit or has a function in the food.
A pet food can be a single ingredient treat or a highly
complex, 60-plus ingredient complete product. A product
development scientist knows the various attributes of the
ingredients and works to combine them to meet the finished
product specifications. Each type of product: wet (cans,
pouches, trays), dry (kibble, biscuits), or soft moist (kibble,
burger); and every processing method: retorting, baking, or
extrusion, need different ingredients and have differing effects on the ingredients. Consider the most common of pet
foods: a dry dog food. The product is typically made via the
process of extrusion. Extrusion is a rapid cooking process
that uses a combination of heat, pressure, and steam to
quickly cook the ingredients, sterilize the product, and form
a structure from the ingredients via expansion (like bread
rising), creating a final product ready to be dried and coated.
By law, the label of each product must include an ingredient list that shows the ingredients in descending order of
inclusion by weight. A typical ingredient list for a dry dog
food is given in Table 2A. The ingredients must supply the
nutrients required to meet the guaranteed nutrient analysis
and provide the proper nutrition for the intended use of the
product, which in this case is all life stages of the dog. This
example contains 42 ingredients.
In selecting ingredients, the product development scientist
first seeks readily available ingredients that supply the different nutrient categories: protein, carbohydrates and fiber, fat,
vitamins, and minerals. There are many ingredient options
available. The scientist, in collaboration with the nutritionist,
must balance the nutrients and be sure that they are all supplied in the proper amounts for the intended use of the product. The scientist must make sure that the product will be
stable for its shelf life. When specialty ingredients are used,

Topics in Companion Animal Medicine

such as inulin or beneficial bacteria, or when nutritional
modifications are needed to manage pets with diseases, the
product development considerations become even more
complicated.

Sources of Vitamins and Minerals

A commonly asked question is: what are all those chemicalsounding names? In most cases, they are the vitamin and
mineral sources. The AAFCO Nutrient Profiles contain 23
and 25 essential vitamins and minerals for dogs and cats,
respectively.3 Usually they are provided to the product via a
prepared packet called a premix. This is the multivitamin/
mineral of the complete food. While vitamins and minerals
are added in very small amounts, they account for close to
half of the ingredients in a pet food and are the longest part of
the ingredient statement. Removing the vitamins and minerals from the original 42 ingredients listed in the ingredient
statement in Table 2A, the list now contains 16 ingredients as
shown in Table 2B. There are only two or three chemicalsounding names remaining in the list. Two of those are
essential amino acids: lysine and methionine.

Sources of Protein and Amino Acids

The three largest nutrient components of pet food are protein, carbohydrate, and fat. There are many combinations of
protein sources that deliver a balanced amino acid profile.
Think of the spectrum of combinations between the human
who eats steak and the vegan. Both can get a proper balance
of amino acids in their diets through the use of various ingredients. The protein sources in the example are as follows:
poultry byproduct meal, corn gluten meal, meat and bone
meal, and soybean meal, with some contribution of protein
from whole corn, whole wheat, barley, rice, animal digest,
and the amino acids. This mixture of ingredients provides the
amino acids not only for the desired amount of crude protein
(in this case, 21% minimum), but for the proper balance of
essential amino acids. In a wet product, typical protein
sources would be meats and meat byproducts, poultry and
poultry byproducts, and fish and fish byproducts. Plant protein sources are sometimes used in wet foods but to a lesser
extent.
The description, byproducts, in pet food has been the
center of some controversy. Some Internet sites and some
packages claim that their products contain no byproducts,
implying that byproducts are bad for pets. The truth is that
the word byproducts can apply to a vast array of useful
ingredients from many sources. Plant byproducts include
flours, meals, glutens, grits, and oils.
Animal byproducts are simply the parts of animals that
we (in this case, most of the meat consuming public in the
US) have decided not to eat, primarily organ meats (see
Table 1). In the United States, we rarely consume the wide
variety of organ meats (liver, hearts, kidneys, tripe, etc) that
other cultures consider delicacies. There is a lot more to a
cow than hamburger and to a chicken than chicken breasts.

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Volume 23, Number 3, August 2008

Table 1. Selected AAFCO Ingredient Definitions and Common Language Translation
Ingredient
*9.2 Meat (Adopted 1938,
Amended 1939, 1963)

*9.3 Meat byproducts

(Adopted 1974, Amended
1978)

*9.40 Meat meal

(Adopted 1972, Amended
1985, Adopted 1993)

9.10 Poultry byproduct

meal (Adopted 1990,
Amended 2000)

9.14 Poultry byproducts

(Adopted 1964, Amended
2000)

The AAFCO Definition States [3]:

Protein Ingredients: Meat
The clean flesh derived from slaughtered mammals and
limited to that part of the striate muscle which is skeletal
or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm,
in the heart, or in the esophagus, with or without the
accompanying overlying fat and portions of the skin,
sinew, nerve, and blood vessels which normally
accompany the flesh. It shall be suitable for animal feed.
If it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must
correspond thereto.
The non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived
from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not
limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood,
bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue,
and stomach and intestines freed of their contents. It
does not include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be
suitable for animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of
its kind, it must correspond thereto.
The rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of
any added blood, hair, horn, hide trimmings, manure,
stomach, and rumen contents except in such amounts as
may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. It
shall not contain added extraneous materials not
provided for by this definition. The calcium (Ca) level
shall not exceed the actual; level of phosphorus (P) by
more than 2.2 times. It shall not contain more than 12%
pepsin indigestible residue** and not more than 9% of
the crude protein in the product shall be pepsin
indigestible**. The label shall include guarantees for
minimum crude protein, minimum crude fat, maximum
crude fiber, minimum P, and minimum and maximum
Ca. The Ca level shall not exceed the actual level of P by
more than 2.2 times. If it bears a name descriptive of its
kind, composition, or origin, it must correspond thereto.
Protein Ingredients: Poultry
The ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of
slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped
eggs, and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in
amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing
practices. The label shall include guarantees for
minimum crude protein, minimum crude fat, maximum
crude fiber, minimum P, and minimum and maximum
Ca. The Ca level shall not exceed the actual level of P by
more than 2.2 times. If it bears a name descriptive of its
kind, it must correspond thereto.
The non-rendered clean parts of carcasses of slaughtered
poultry such as heads, feet, viscera, free from fecal
content and foreign matter except in such trace amounts
as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice. If
it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must
correspond thereto.

The Definition Means:

Skeletal muscle, or muscle
from the heart, tongue, or
other muscular parts. If it
is labeled as beef, it must
come from a bovine
source.

Organs.

Concentrated source of
animal protein from
cooked, dried, and
ground meat from which
most of the fat has been
removed.

Concentrated source of
poultry protein with
balanced calcium and
phosphorus.

Organs plus collagen-rich

connective tissue.

(continued)

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Topics in Companion Animal Medicine

Table 1. Continued
Ingredient

The AAFCO Definition States [3]:

The Definition Means:

9.71 Poultry meal

(Adopted 1992)

The dry rendered product from a combination of clean

flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone,
derived from the parts of whole carcasses of poultry or a
combination thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet,
and entrails. It shall be suitable for use in animal feed. If
it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must
correspond thereto.
A material which results from chemical and/or
enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal
tissue. The animal tissues shall be exclusive of hair,
horns, teeth, hooves, and feathers, except in such trace
amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory
practice, and shall be suitable for animal feed. If it bears
a name descriptive of its kind or flavor(s), it must
correspond thereto.

Concentrated source of
poultry protein.

*9.68 Animal digest

(Adopted 1983, Amended
1990)

48.14 Corn gluten meal

(Adopted 1936, Amended
1960)

84.60 Soybean meal,

mechanical extracted
(adopted 1992)

Protein Ingredients: Vegetable

The dried residue from corn after the removal of the
larger part of the starch and germ, and the separation of
the bran by the process employed in the wet milling
manufacture of corn starch or syrup, or by the
enzymatic treatment of the endosperm. It may contain
fermented corn extractives and/or corn germ meal.
The product obtained by grinding the cake or chips
which remain after removal of most of the oil from
soybeans by mechanical extraction process. It must
contain not more than 7.0% crude fiber. It may contain
calcium carbonate or an anti-caking agent not to exceed
0.5% as defined in Section 87 (Special Purpose Products)
to reduce caking and improve flowability. The name of
the conditioning agent must be shown as an added
ingredient. The words mechanically extracted are not
required when listing as an ingredient in a manufactured
feed.

These excellent sources of protein and other nutrients are

readily consumed by our pets, and they have been defined by
AAFCO as byproducts. Wild canids will consume these protein sources first after a successful hunt.
In the example in Table 2 the poultry byproduct meal (this
could be specified as chicken or turkey) and meat and bone
meal are made by the rendering process. Rendering is essentially a cooking process similar to what happens when
you boil chicken to remove the fat for chicken soup. In this
case, fat is drained off (and becomes animal fat); the soup
is dried to remove the water, and the solid portion then is
ground into a fine, protein-rich meal that looks like cornmeal. Poultry (chicken or turkey) meal is also a rendered
ingredient. According to AAFCOs definitions of poultry byproduct meal and poultry meal, both contain clean parts of
the carcasses of slaughtered birds: muscle, skin, and possibly
bone (Table 1). Neither is to contain heads or feathers. While
poultry byproduct meal can contain feet (a delicacy in China,

Partially digested
(hydrolyzed) animal
protein sources (poultry
or meat), which are
highly palatable to pets.
This can be used wet or
dried.

The high protein portion

of corn left after the
starch has been removed.

Concentrated protein left

after the soybean oil has
been removed from the
beans.

and very scarce in US byproducts now) and viscera, poultry

meal is not supposed to contain those parts. Some companies
and some owners choose to not use or feed products containing poultry byproduct meal. Others have found that products
containing such meals have performed well in nutrition testing and in generations of pets. Remember, cats that catch
small mammals or birds in the yard are quite happy to eat
skin, bones, viscera, and other organs.
It is an urban legend that the meat and bone meal used in
pet food contains euthanized cats and dogs. The FDA has
performed very sensitive DNA testing on pet foods containing meat and bone meal and found no evidence of dog or cat
DNA.5 Because of the need for nutritionally consistent and
good tasting products, most companies using meat and bone
meal specify the species used to make the meat and bone
meal, typically beef or pork. Methods to confirm these
sources now exist. Members of Pet Food Institute, who produce 98% of the cat and dog food produced in the US, verify

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Volume 23, Number 3, August 2008

Table 2. Example of a Dry Dog Food Ingredient List (Regulations require that all ingredients used be listed in descending order of inclusion by weight.)
2.A. Sample ingredient list from a dry dog food:
Whole grain corn, poultry byproduct meal, animal
fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, corn gluten
meal, meat and bone meal, brewers rice, soybean
meal, barley, whole grain wheat, animal digest,
calcium carbonate, salt, calcium phosphate,
potassium chloride, L-lysine monohydrochloride,
choline chloride, zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement,
zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, added color (Red 40,
Yellow 5), DL-methionine, manganese sulfate,
manganese proteinate, niacin, Vitamin A
supplement, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate,
copper proteinate, garlic oil, pyridoxine
hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine
mononitrate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, riboflavin
supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium
bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic
acid, biotin, sodium selenite.
2.B. Ingredient list from example above, omitting the
vitamin and mineral sources:
Whole grain corn, poultry byproduct meal, animal
fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, corn gluten
meal, meat and bone meal, brewers rice, soybean
meal, barley, whole grain wheat, animal digest, Llysine monohydrochloride, added color (Red 40,
Yellow 5), DL-methionine, garlic oil.

as a condition of membership that they do not use any materials derived from rendered dogs or cats.

Sources of Carbohydrate
Carbohydrate is a broad category of compounds from sugars
to starches to oligosaccharides to celluloses. While carbohydrates are not considered essential for dogs and cats, pets do
have a physiologic need for carbohydrates. Carbohydrates
supply glucose for cellular energy, thus sparing protein,
which would otherwise need to be converted to glucose, for
other functions in the body. Both dogs and cats can digest
and metabolize carbohydrates. Cats, despite being classed as
strict carnivores, can utilize starch as a glucose source.6,7
Carbohydrates also provide the fiber in pet diets. Fiber is a
subcategory of carbohydrates, but it also describes a very
broad group of compounds. Fiber sources are important for
gut health and proper gut motility. In the example in Table 2,
the carbohydrate sources are whole grain corn and brewers
rice, barley, and whole grain wheat. Other sources of digestible carbohydrates in pet foods include the following: various
grain flours, brown rice, oats, sorghum, and potatoes. Some
sources of fiber include the following: wheat bran, rice bran,

soybean hulls, beet pulp, powdered cellulose, chicory root,

inulin, and fructooligosaccharides.

Sources of Fatty Acids

The fat in the example is supplied by animal fat, produced via
the rendering process. Additional fat comes from the poultry
byproduct meal and corn, with smaller amounts coming
from meat and bone meal, wheat, soybean meal, and animal
digest. This mixture provides a range of fatty acids including
the essential unsaturated fatty acid, linoleic acid. Other commonly used fat sources are vegetable oils for linoleic acid,
plus fish oil and flaxseed oil for omega-3 fatty acids.
Oxygen is the enemy of fatty acids, particularly unsaturated fatty acids. When oxygen destroys fatty acids, damaging
free radicals are formed and the product is said to be oxidized
or rancid. The function of the mixed-tocopherols in pet foods
is to prevent that oxidation from occurring; in other words,
they are the antioxidants in the product. Some people have
negative beliefs about antioxidants; however, some type of
antioxidant (preservation) system is needed in all dry products. This is because oxygen destroys the unsaturated fatty
acids first. A rancid product is deficient in critical nutrients,
contains free radicals, and probably has a bad taste/aroma
that will cause the pet to reject the food. Wet products (processed in a retort) do not need preservatives because they are
hermetically sealed and the oxidation process is halted until
the package is opened.

The Rest of the Ingredients

Four ingredients remain in the dog food example in Table 2B
that still need an explanation: animal digest, garlic oil, and
the two coloring agentsRed 40 and Yellow 5. The animal
digest and garlic oil are part of the palatability/aroma system.
Animal digest is defined by AAFCO as shown in Table 1.3
A simple analogy would be that it is like giblet gravy. The
most common ingredient in animal digest is liver because of
its great enzymatic capacity, but washed chicken viscera (organs) are also used. The enzymes break down the proteins
and fats, resulting in a mixture of free amino acids and fatty
acids that is quite tasty to the animal. The digest is heated to
stop the chemical reaction and to sterilize it. It might be used
in liquid form or spray dried and used as a dry powder to coat
onto the outside of expanded dried kibbles.
Consumption of large amounts of garlic at one time has
been shown to have pro-oxidant effects in dogs. However, a
tiny amount of garlic goes a very long way, so the level of
garlic oil used in a formula is quite small and safe. In this
example, garlic oil is included at an amount less than the
inclusion of copper proteinate. These ingredients digest
and garlic oil, along with the fat, are the flavor enhancers
(palatants) for the product.
The final ingredients shown in the example are two food
dyes. While the dyes are not nutrients for the pet, they are
used to please the eye of the owner. The owner has to buy the
food and feel good about it in order for it to get into the pets

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bowl. While some pet owners prefer foods with no artificial
colors, others actually prefer foods with colors added. The
lowest level of dye is used to deliver the desired color. In this
case the colors are FD&C certified colors, while other GRAS
colors can include natural colors such as beet powder. All
allowed colorants used in pet foods have been recognized to
be safe for their intended use.

Ingredient Quality and Safety

It is the pet food manufacturers responsibility to produce
safe food. The quality and safety of the ingredients are of
primary importance. Most companies have strict vendor assurance programs where company representatives physically
visit ingredient production locations. Others have contractual agreements that are audited by the manufacturer. Incoming ingredients are commonly tested for nutrients and known
risks and contaminants. The 2007 pet food recall linked to
melamine and other compounds was caused by an intentional adulteration of an ingredient with a substance not
known to be a risk. This incident has refocused the pet food
industrys evaluation of both international and domestic ingredient sources. While only a small percentage of foods were
involved in the recall, many companies have increased the
amount of testing done and launched a reexamination of
their risk profiles for all ingredients. Further, the FDA has
refocused significant energies in this area, and legislation has
been enacted that will further strengthen food safety for pets
and their humans.4
However, it is impossible to inspect safety and quality in
ingredients, or in the manufacturing process. Manufacturers
know that it is their person-to-person relationships with their
suppliers along with high standards that result in safe, quality
ingredients being used in their pet foods. Those ingredients
are the basis of the manufacturers relationship with their

Topics in Companion Animal Medicine

consumerthe pet, and their customerthe pets human.
The reputation of that manufacturer relies on quality ingredients, quality products, and satisfied consumers.

Summary
Pet food can contain many individual ingredients. An understanding of the ingredients and the manufacturing process of
pet food will be of great assistance to the veterinarian in
making the best dietary recommendation for a pet. If questions about ingredients arise, call the manufacturer. Contact
information is required to be on all pet food labels. If the
customer service representative cannot give you the answer,
ask for the nutritionist. Pet food manufacturers and veterinarians want the same end resultlong healthy lives for dogs
and cats.

References
1. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Nutrilab, Inc. v. Schweiker,
713 F. 2d 335, 1983
2. Clutton-Brock J: Origins of the dog: domestication and early
history, in Serpell J (ed): The Domestic Dog. Cambridge, UK,
Cambridge University Press, 1995, p 10
3. Association of American Feed Control Officials Official Publication, 2008
4. Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007: Title
X. Food Safety
5. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine:
Report. February 28, 2002 www.fda.gov/cvm/FOI/DFreport.
htm
6. Kienzle E: Carbohydrate metabolism in the cat. 1. Activity of
amylase in the gastrointestinal tract. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr
69:92-101, 1993
7. Kienzle E: Carbohydrate metabolism in the cat. 2. Digestion of
starch. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr 69:102-114, 1993