What's Really in Pet Food?
(abridged edition)
Jan 29, 2002
The Animal Protection Institute
"Plump whole chickens, choice cuts of beef, fresh grains,
and all the wholesome nutrition your dog or cat will ever need."
These are the images pet food manufacturers promulgate through
the media and advertising. This is what the $11 billion per year
USA pet food industry wants consumers to believe they are buying
when they purchase their products.
This report explores the differences between what consumers
think they are buying and what they are actually getting. It fo-
cuses in very general terms on the most visible name brands � the
pet food labels that are mass-distributed to supermarkets and
discount stores � but there are many highly respected brands that
may be guilty of the same offenses.
What most consumers don't know is that the pet food industry
is an extension of the agriculture and human food industries. Pet
food provides a market for slaughterhouse offal, grains consider-
ed "unfit for human consumption", and similar waste products to
be turned into profit. This waste includes intestines, udders,
esophagi, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal parts.
Three of the five major pet food companies in the USA are
subsidiaries of major multinational companies: "Nestl\'�" ("Al-
po", "Fancy Feast", "Friskies", "Mighty Dog", and "Ralston Puri-
na" products such as "Dog Chow", "ProPlan", and "Purina One"),
"Heinz" ("9 Lives", "Amore", "Gravy Train", "Kibbles-n-Bits",
"Nature's Recipe"), "Colgate-Palmolive" ("Hill's Science Diet Pet
Food"). Other leading companies include "Procter & Gamble" ("Eu-
kanuba" and "Iams"), "Mars" ("Kal Kan", "Mealtime", "Pedigree",
"Sheba", "Waltham's"), and "Nutro". From a business standpoint,
multinational companies owning pet food manufacturing companies
is an ideal relationship. The multinationals have increased bulk-
purchasing power; those that make human food products have a cap-
tive market in which to capitalize on their waste products, and
pet food divisions have a more reliable capital base and, in many
cases, a convenient source of ingredients.
There are hundreds of different pet foods available in this
country. And while many of the foods on the market are similar,
not all of the pet food manufacturing companies use poor quality
or potentially dangerous ingredients.
Ingredients
Although the purchase price of pet food does not always de-
termine whether a pet food is good or bad, the price is often a
good indicator of quality. It would be impossible for a company
that sells a generic brand of dog food at $9.95 for a 40-lb. bag
to use quality protein and grain in its food. The cost of purcha-
sing ingredients would be much higher than the selling price.
The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sour-
ces. When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are
slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trim-
med away from the carcass for human consumption. However, about
50% of every food-producing animal does not get used in human
foods. Whatever remains of the carcass � bones, blood, intesti-
nes, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not gener-
ally consumed by humans � is used in pet food, animal feed, and
other products. These "other parts" are known as "by-products",
"meat-and-bone-meal", or similar names on pet food labels.
The Pet Food Institute � the trade association of pet food
manufacturers � acknowledges the use of by-products in pet foods
as additional income for farmers and processors: "The growth of
the pet food industry not only provided pet owners with better
foods for their pets, but also created profitable additional mar-
kets for American farm products and for the by-products of the
meat packing, poultry, and other food industries which prepare
food for human consumption" [1, p. 2].
Many of these remnants provide a questionable source of nou-
rishment for our animals. The nutritional quality of meat and
poultry by-products, meals, and digests can vary from batch to
batch. James Morris and Quinton Rogers, professors with the De-
partment of Molecular Biosciences, University of California at
Davis Veterinary School of Medicine, assert that, "There is vir-
tually no information on the bioavailability of nutrients for
companion animals in many of the common dietary ingredients used
in pet foods. These ingredients are generally by-products of the
meat, poultry and fishing industries, with the potential for a
wide variation in nutrient composition. Claims of nutritional ad-
equacy of pet foods based on the current Association of American
Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutrient allowances ('profiles')
do not give assurances of nutritional adequacy and will not until
ingredients are analyzed and bioavailability values are incorpo-
rated" [2].
Meat and poultry meals, by-product meals, and meat-and-bone
meal are common ingredients in pet foods. The term "meal" means
that these materials are not used fresh, but have been rendered.
What is "rendering"? As defined by Webster's Dictionary, it is
"to melt down; also to extract by melting, to treat so as to con-
vert into industrial fats and oils or fertilizer". Home-made chi-
cken soup, with its thick layer of fat that forms over the top
when the soup is cooled, is a sort of mini-rendering process.
Rendering separates fat-soluble from water-soluble and solid ma-
terials, removes most of the water, and kills bacterial contamin-
ants, but may alter or destroy some of the natural enzymes and
proteins found in the raw ingredients. Meat and poultry by-pro-
ducts, while not rendered, vary widely in composition and quali-
ty.
What can the feeding of such products do to your companion
animal? Some veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wa-
stes to animals increases their risk of getting cancer and other
degenerative diseases. The cooking methods used by pet food manu-
facturers � such as rendering, extruding (a heat-and-pressure
system used to "puff" dry foods into nuggets or kibbles), and ba-
king � do not necessarily destroy the hormones used to fatten li-
vestock or increase milk production, or drugs such as antibiotics
or the barbiturates used to euthanize animals.
Animal and Poultry Fat
You may have noticed a unique, pungent odor when you open a
new bag of pet food � what is the source of that delightful
smell? It is most often rendered animal fat, restaurant grease,
or other oils too rancid or deemed inedible for humans.
Restaurant grease has become a major component of feed grade
animal fat over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held
in fifty-gallon drums, may be kept outside for weeks, exposed to
extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use. "Fat
blenders" or rendering companies then pick up this used grease
and mix the different types of fat together, stabilize them with
powerful antioxidants to retard further spoilage, and then sell
the blended products to pet food companies and other end users.
These fats are sprayed directly onto extruded kibbles and
pellets to make an otherwise bland or distasteful product palat-
able. The fat also acts as a binding agent to which manufacturers
add other flavor enhancers such as digests. Pet food scientists
have discovered that animals like the taste of these sprayed
fats. Manufacturers are masters at getting a dog or a cat to eat
something she would normally turn up her nose at.
Wheat, Soy, Corn, Peanut Hulls, and Other Vegetable Protein
The amount of grain products used in pet food has risen over
the last decade. Once considered filler by the pet food industry,
cereal and grain products now replace a considerable proportion
of the meat that was used in the first commercial pet foods.
The availability of nutrients in these products is dependent
upon the digestibility of the grain. The amount and type of car-
bohydrate in pet food determines the amount of nutrient value the
animal actually gets. Dogs and cats can almost completely absorb
carbohydrates from some grains, such as white rice. Up to 20% of
the nutritional value of other grains can escape digestion. The
nutrients in potatoes and corn are far less available than those
in rice. The availability of nutrients for wheat, beans, and oats
is poor. Some ingredients, such as peanut hulls, are used for
filler or fiber, and have no significant nutritional value.
Two of the top three ingredients in pet foods, particularly
dry foods, are almost always some form of grain products. "Pedig-
ree Performance Food" for dogs lists Ground Corn, Chicken By-Pro-
duct Meal, and Corn Gluten Meal as its top three ingredients. "9
Lives Crunchy Meals" for cats lists Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Glu-
ten Meal, and Poultry By-Product Meal as its first three ingredi-
ents. Since cats are true carnivores � they must eat meat to ful-
fill certain physiological needs � one may wonder why we are fee-
ding a corn-based product to them. The answer is that corn is a
much cheaper "energy source" than meat.
In 1995 "Nature's Recipe" pulled thousands of tons of dog
food off the shelf after consumers complained that their dogs we-
re vomiting and losing their appetite [3]. "Nature's Recipe's"
loss amounted to $20 million. The problem was a fungus that pro-
duced vomitoxin (an aflatoxin or "mycotoxin", a toxic substance
produced by mold) contaminating the wheat. In 1999 another fungal
toxin triggered the recall of dry dog food made by "Doane Pet Ca-
re" at one of its plants, including "Ol' Roy" ("Wal-Mart"'s
brand) and 53 other brands [4]. This time, the toxin killed 25
dogs.
Although it caused many dogs to vomit, stop eating, and have
diarrhea, vomitoxin is a milder toxin than most. The more danger-
ous mycotoxins can cause mass loss, liver damage, lameness, and
even death as in the "Doane" case. The "Nature's Recipe" incident
prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to intervene. Di-
na Butcher, Agriculture Policy Advisor for North Dakota Governor
Ed Schafer, concluded that the discovery of vomitoxin in Nature's
Recipe wasn't much of a threat to the human population because
"the grain that would go into pet food is not a high quality
grain" [5].
Soy is another common ingredient that is sometimes used as a
protein and energy source in pet food. Manufacturers also use it
to add bulk so that when an animal eats a product containing soy,
he will feel more sated. While soy has been linked to gas in some
dogs, other dogs do quite well with it. Vegetarian dog foods use
soy as a protein source.
Additives and Preservatives
Many chemicals are added to commercial pet foods to improve
the taste, stability, characteristics, or appearance of the food.
Additives provide no nutritional value. They include emulsifiers
to prevent water and fat from separating, antioxidants to prevent
fat from turning rancid, and artificial colors and flavors to ma-
ke the product more attractive to consumers and more palatable to
their companion animals.
Adding chemicals to food originated thousands of years ago
with spices, natural preservatives, and ripening agents. In the
last 40 years, however, the number of food additives has greatly
increased.
All commercial pet foods must be preserved so they stay
fresh and appealing to our animal companions. Canning is a pre-
serving process itself, so canned foods contain less preservati-
ves than dry foods. Some preservatives are added to ingredients
or raw materials by the suppliers, and others may be added by the
manufacturer. Because manufacturers need to ensure that dry foods
have a long shelf life to remain edible after shipping and pro-
longed storage, fats used in pet foods are preserved with either
synthetic or "natural" preservatives. Synthetic preservatives in-
clude butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene
(BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-
toxic version of automotive antifreeze), and ethoxyquin. For the-
se antioxidants, there is little information documenting their
toxicity, safety, interactions, or chronic use in pet foods that
may be eaten every day for the life of the animal.
Potentially cancer-causing agents such as BHA, BHT, and eth-
oxyquin are permitted at relatively low levels. The use of these
chemicals in pet foods has not been thoroughly studied, and long
term build-up of these agents may ultimately be harmful. Due to
questionable data in the original study on its safety, ethoxy-
quin's manufacturer, "Monsanto", was required to perform a new,
more rigorous study. This was completed in 1996. Even though
"Monsanto" found no significant toxicity associated with its own
product, in July 1997, the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine
requested that manufacturers voluntarily reduce the maximum level
for ethoxyquin by half, to 75 parts per million. While some pet
food critics and veterinarians believe that ethoxyquin is a major
cause of disease, skin problems, and infertility in dogs, others
claim it is the safest, strongest, most stable preservative av-
ailable for pet food. Ethoxyquin is approved for use in human
food for preserving spices, such as cayenne and chili powder, at
a level of 100 ppm � but it would be very difficult to consume as
much chili powder every day as a dog would eat dry food. Ethoxy-
quin has never been tested for safety in cats.
Some manufacturers have responded to consumer concern and
are now using "natural" preservatives such as Vitamin C (ascorba-
te), Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols), and oils of rosemary, clove,
or other spices, to preserve the fats in their products. Other
ingredients, however, may be individually preserved. Most fish
meal, and some prepared vitamin-mineral mixtures, contain chemic-
al preservatives. This means that your companion animal may be
eating food containing several types of preservatives. Federal
law requires preservatives to be disclosed on the label; however,
pet food companies only recently started to comply with this law.
Additives in Processed Pet Foods
anticaking agents
antimicrobial agents
antioxidants
coloring agents
curing agents
drying agents
emulsifiers
firming agents
flavor enhancers
flavoring agents
flour treating agents
formulation aids
humectants
leavening agents
lubricants
nonnutritive sweeteners
nutritive sweeteners
oxidizing and reducing agents
pH control agents
processing aids
sequestrants
solvents, vehicles
stabilizers, thickeners
surface active agents
surface finishing agents
synergists
texturizers
While the law requires studies of direct toxicity of these
additives and preservatives, they have not been tested for their
potential synergistic effects on each other once ingested. Some
authors have suggested that dangerous interactions occur among
some of the common synthetic preservatives [6]. Natural preserva-
tives do not provide as long a shelf life as chemical preservati-
ves, but they are safe.
The Manufacturing Process.
How Pet Food Is Made
Although feeding trials are no longer required for a food to
meet the requirements for labeling a food "complete and balan-
ced", most manufacturers perform palatability studies when deve-
loping a new pet food. One set of animals is fed a new food while
a "control" group is fed a current formula. The total volume eat-
en is used as a gauge for the palatability of the food. The lar-
ger and more reputable companies do use feeding trials, which are
considered to be a much more accurate assessment of the actual
nutritional value of the food. They keep large colonies of dogs
and cats for this purpose, or use testing laboratories that have
their own animals.
Most dry food is made with a machine called an expander or
extruder. First, raw materials are blended, sometimes by hand,
other times by computer, in accordance with a recipe developed by
animal nutritionists. This mixture is fed into an expander and
steam or hot water is added. The mixture is subjected to steam,
pressure, and high heat as it is extruded through profiling heads
that determine the shape of the final product, and puffed like
popcorn. The food is allowed to dry, and then is usually sprayed
with fat, digests, or other compounds to make it more palatable.
Although the cooking process may kill bacteria in pet food, the
final product can lose its sterility during the subsequent dry-
ing, fat coating, and packaging process. A few foods are baked at
high temperatures rather than extruded. This produces a dense,
crunchy kibble that is palatable without the addition of sprayed
on palatability enhancers. Animals can be fed about 25% less of a
baked food, by volume (but not by mass), than an extruded food.
Ingredients are similar for wet, dry, and semi-moist foods,
although the ratios of protein, fat, and fiber may change. A ty-
pical can of ordinary cat food reportedly contains about 45�50%
meat or poultry by-products. The main difference between the ty-
pes of food is the water content. It is impossible to directly
compare labels from different kinds of food without a mathematic-
al conversion to "dry matter basis" (Conversion is: I/(100 � M),
where I is ingredient percentage, M is moisture percentage).
Producing a wet or canned food begins with ground ingredi-
ents mixed with additives. If chunks are required, a special ext-
ruder forms them. Then the mixture is cooked and canned. The
sealed cans are then put into containers resembling pressure
cookers and commercial sterilization takes place. Some manufactu-
rers cook the food right in the can.
There are special labeling requirements for pet food, all of
which are contained in the annually revised Official Publication
of AAFCO [7, �. 114].
The terms "all" or "100%" cannot be used "if the product
contains more than one ingredient, not including water sufficient
for processing, decharacterizing agents, or trace amounts of pre-
servatives and condiments". Products containing multiple ingredi-
ents are covered by AAFCO Regulation PF3(b) and (c).
The "95% rule" applies when the ingredient(s) derived from
animals, poultry, or fish constitutes at least 95% or more of the
total mass of the product (or 70% excluding water for process-
ing).
Because all-meat diets are usually not nutritionally balan-
ced, they fell out of favor for many years. However, due to ri-
sing consumer interest in high quality meat products, several
companies are now promoting 95% and 100% canned meats as a supp-
lemental feeding option.
The "dinner" product is defined by the "25% rule", which ap-
plies when "an ingredient or a combination of ingredients consti-
tutes at least 25% of the mass of the product" (excluding water
sufficient for processing) as long as the ingredient(s) shall
constitute at least 10% of the total product mass and a descript-
or that implies other ingredients are included in the product
formula, is used on the label. Such descriptors include "recipe",
"platter", "entree", and "formula". A combination of ingredients
included in the product name is permissible when each ingredient
comprises at least 3% of the product mass, excluding water for
processing, and the ingredient names appear in descending order
by mass.
The "with" rule allows an ingredient name to appear on the
label, such as "with real chicken", as long as each such ingredi-
ent constitutes at least 3% of the food by mass, excluding water
for processing.
The "flavor" rule allows a food to be designated as a cer-
tain flavor as long as the ingredient(s) are sufficient to "im-
part a distinctive characteristic" to the food. Thus, a "beef
flavor" food may contain a small quantity of digest or other ext-
ract of tissues from cattle, without containing any actual beef
meat at all.
What Happened to the Nutrients?
Dr. Randy L.Wysong is a veterinarian and produces his own
line of pet foods. A long-time critic of pet food industry prac-
tices, he said, "Processing is the wild card in nutritional value
that is, by and large, simply ignored. Heating, cooking, render-
ing, freezing, dehydrating, canning, extruding, pelleting, ba-
king, and so forth, are so commonplace that they are simply
thought of as synonymous with food itself" [8, p. 40]. Processing
meat and by-products used in pet food can greatly diminish their
nutritional value, but cooking increases the digestibility of ce-
real grains.
To make pet food nutritious, pet food manufacturers must
"fortify" it with vitamins and minerals. Why? Because the ingre-
dients they are using are not wholesome, their quality may be ex-
tremely variable, and the harsh manufacturing practices destroy
many of the nutrients the food had to begin with.
Contaminants
Commercially manufactured or rendered meat meals and by-pro-
duct meals are frequently highly contaminated with bacteria be-
cause their source is not always slaughtered animals. Animals
that have died because of disease, injury, or natural causes are
a source of meat for meat meal. The dead animal might not be ren-
dered until days after its death. Therefore the carcass is often
contaminated with bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia co-
li. Dangerous E. coli bacteria are estimated to contaminate more
than 50% of meat meals. While the cooking process may kill bacte-
ria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins some bacteria produce
during their growth and are released when they die. These toxins
can cause sickness and disease. Pet food manufacturers do not
test their products for endotoxins.
Mycotoxins � These toxins comes from mold or fungi, such as
vomitoxin in the "Nature's Recipe" case, and aflatoxin in "Doa-
ne"'s food. Poor farming practices and improper drying and stor-
age of crops can cause mold growth. Ingredients that are most li-
kely to be contaminated with mycotoxins are grains such as wheat
and corn, cottonseed meal, peanut meal, and fish meal.
Labeling
The National Research Council (NRC) of the Academy of Scien-
ces set the nutritional standards for pet food that were used by
the pet food industry until the late 1980s. The NRC standards,
which still exist and are being revised as of 2001, were based on
purified diets, and required feeding trials for pet foods claimed
to be "complete" and "balanced". The pet food industry found the
feeding trials too restrictive and expensive, so AAFCO designed
an alternate procedure for claiming the nutritional adequacy of
pet food, by testing the food for compliance with "Nutrient Pro-
files". AAFCO also created "expert committees" for canine and fe-
line nutrition, which developed separate canine and feline stan-
dards. While feeding trials can still be done, a standard chemic-
al analysis may be also be used to determine if a food meets the
profiles.
Chemical analysis, however, does not address the palatabili-
ty, digestibility, or biological availability of nutrients in pet
food. Thus it is unreliable for determining whether a food will
provide an animal with sufficient nutrients.
To compensate for the limitations of chemical analysis, AAF-
CO added a "safety factor", which was to exceed the minimum am-
ount of nutrients required to meet the complete and balanced re-
quirements.
The digestibility and availability of nutrients is not list-
ed on pet food labels.
The 100% Myth � Problems Caused by Inadequate Nutrition
The idea of one pet food providing all the nutrition a com-
panion animal will ever need for its entire life is a myth.
Cereal grains are the primary ingredients in most commercial
pet foods. Many people select one pet food and feed it to their
dogs and cats for a prolonged period of time. Therefore, compani-
on dogs and cats eat a primarily carbohydrate diet with little
variety. Today, the diets of cats and dogs are a far cry from the
primarily protein diets with a lot of variety that their ancest-
ors ate. The problems associated with a commercial diet are seen
every day at veterinary establishments.
Chronic digestive problems, such as chronic vomiting, diar-
rhea, and inflammatory bowel disease are among the most frequent
illnesses treated. These are often the result of an allergy or
intolerance to pet food ingredients. The market for "limited an-
tigen" or "novel protein" diets is now a multi-million dollar
business. These diets were formulated to address the increasing
intolerance to commercial foods that animals ave developed. The
newest twist is the truly "hypoallergenic" food that has had all
its proteins artificially chopped into pieces smaller than can be
recognized and reacted to by the immune system.
Dry commercial pet food is often contaminated with bacteria,
which may or may not cause problems. Improper food storage and
some feeding practices may result in the multiplication of this
bacteria. For example, adding water or milk to moisten pet food
and then leaving it at room temperature causes bacteria to mul-
tiply [9, p. 50]. Yet this practice is suggested on the back of
packages of some kitten and puppy foods.
Pet food formulas and the practice of feeding that manufact-
urers recommend, have increased other digestive problems. Feeding
only one meal per day can cause the irritation of the esophagus
by stomach acid. Feeding two smaller meals is better.
Feeding recommendations or instructions on the packaging are
sometimes inflated so that the consumer will end up purchasing
more food. However, "Procter & Gamble" allegedly took the opposi-
te tack with its "Iams" and "Eukanuba" lines, reducing the feed-
ing amounts in order to claim that its foods were less expensive
to feed. Independent studies commissioned by a competing manufac-
turer suggested that these reduced levels were inadequate to
maintain health. "Procter & Gamble" has since sued and been coun-
tersued by that competing manufacturer, and a consumer complaint
has also been filed seeking class-action status for harm caused
to dogs by the revised feeding instructions.
Urinary tract disease is directly related to diet in both
cats and dogs. Plugs, crystals, and stones in cat bladders are
often triggered or aggravated by commercial pet food formulas.
One type of stone found in cats is less common now, but another
more dangerous type has become more common. Manipulation of manu-
factured cat food formulas to alter the acidity of urine and the
amount of some minerals has directly affected these diseases.
Dogs also form stones as a result of their diet.
History has shown that commercial pet food products can cau-
se disease. An often-fatal heart disease in cats and some dogs is
now known to be caused by a deficiency of the amino acid taurine.
Blindness is another symptom of taurine deficiency. This defici-
ency was due to inadequate amounts of taurine in cat food formu-
las, which itself occurred because of decreased amounts of animal
proteins and increased reliance on carbohydrates. Cat foods are
now supplemented with taurine. New research suggests that supple-
menting taurine may also be helpful for dogs, but as yet few ma-
nufacturers are adding extra taurine to dog food. Inadequate po-
tassium in certain feline diets also caused kidney failure in
young cats; potassium is now added in greater amounts to all cat
foods.
Rapid growth in large breed puppies has been shown to con-
tribute to bone and joint disease. Excess calories and calcium in
some manufactured puppy foods promoted rapid growth. There are
now special puppy foods for large breed dogs. But this recent
change will not help the countless dogs who lived and died with
hip and elbow disease.
There is also evidence that hyperthyroidism in cats may be
related to excess iodine in commercial pet food diets [10]. This
is a new disease that first surfaced in the 1970s, when canned
food products appeared on the market. The exact cause and effect
are not yet known. This is a serious and sometimes terminal di-
sease, and treatment is expensive.
Many nutritional problems appeared with the popularity of
cereal-based commercial pet foods. Some have occurred because the
diet was incomplete. Although several ingredients are now supple-
mented, we do not know what ingredients future researchers may
discover that should have been supplemented in pet foods all al-
ong. Other problems may result from reactions to additives. Oth-
ers are a result of contamination with bacteria, mold, drugs, or
other toxins. In some diseases the role of commercial pet food is
understood; in others, it is not. The bottom line is that diets
composed primarily of low quality cereals and rendered meat meals
are not as nutritious or safe as you should expect for your cat
or dog.
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What API is Doing
API is a liaison to the AAFCO Pet Food and Ingredient Defi-
nitions Committees. By attending AAFCO meetings, we hope to learn
more about the industry itself and about potential avenues for
bringing about change. An API representative attends other pet-
food industry meetings to give voice to our and the consumers'
concerns about pet food. API is involved in lobbying for the fe-
deral regulation of pet food and the development of more strin-
gent standards for the quality of ingredients used. API will con-
tinue to provide information to the public about the pet food in-
dustry and the products it promotes. API is preparing a detailed
scientific paper documenting the numerous problems associated
with commercial pet food, for presentation to veterinarians.
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Who to Write
AAFCO Pet Food Committee
Dr. Rodney Noel � Chair
Office of Indiana State Chemist
Purdue University
1154 Biochemistry Building
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1154
http://www.aafco.org
FDA � Center for Veterinary Medicine
Sharon Benz
7500 Standish Place
Rockville, MD 20855
301-594-1728
http://www.cvm.fda.gov
Pet Food Institute
2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
202-367-1120
Fax 202-367-2120
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Text references:
1. Pet Food Institute. Fact Sheet 1994. � Wash.: Pet Food Inst.,
1994.
2. James G.Morris, Quinton R.Rogers. Assessment of the Nutriti-
onal Adequacy of Pet Foods Through the Life Cycle // Journal
of Nutrition. Vol. 124. � 1994.
3. Nature's Recipe Recalls Dog Food That Contains Vomitoxin. �
Knight-Ridder News Syndicate, Aug 28, 1995.
4. Michael J.Parker. Tainted Dog Food Blamed on Corn // San An-
tonio Express News. � Apr 1, 1999.
5. Jim Corbin. Pet Foods and Feeding // Feedstuffs. � Jul 17,
1996.
6. James Cargill, Susan Thorpe-Vargas. Feed That Dog! P. VI //
Dog World. Vol 78(12). � 1993.
7. Association of American Feed Control Officials Incorporated.
Official Publication. � USA, GA, Atlanta: AAFCO, 2001.
8. Randy L.Wysong. Rationale for Animal Nutrition. � USA, TX,
Midland: Inquiry Press, 1993.
9. Donald R. Strombeck. Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Foods: The
Healthful Alternative. � USA, IO, Ames: Iowa State Univ.
Press, 1999.
10. Carin A.Smith. Research Roundup: Changes and Challenges in
Feline Nutrition // Journal of American Veterinary Medicine
Association. Vol. 203(10). � 1993.
Other references:
1994 Commercial Feed Analysis Annual Report. � USA, NY, Albany:
NY State Dept of Agricult. & Markets, Div. of Food Inspection
Services, 1995.
1994 Report of the Inspection and Analysis of Commercial Feeds,
Fertilizers and Liming Materials. � USA, RI, Providence: RI
Dept of Environmental Management, Div. of Agricult., 1995.
Alfred J.Plechner, Martin Zucker. Pet Allergies: Remedies for an
Epidemic. � USA, CA, Inglewood: Wilshire Bk Co., 1986.
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