Pet Food Labeling

Study casts doubt on pet food labeling. A recent publication[ii] in the Journal of Food Control reported the following information regarding pet foods:

• Sixteen out of 52 products tested contained a meat ingredient not listed on the label.
• The study also could not detect the listed meat in seven of the 52 samples.
• “This could become a safety concern if a cat or a dog has a particular allergy to one of these meat species”, says one author of the study, Rosalee S. Hellberg, MS, Ph.D.
• The foods, obtained from online and retail sources, were not identified by name.

The information above highlights why veterinarians and veterinary dermatologists recommend hydrolyzed and limited ingredient diets from only a few select pet food companies.

[ii] Tara A. Okuma, Rosalee S. Hellberg. Identification of meat species in pet foods using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Food Control, 2015: 50: 9