By steve

We continue our Dog Food Ingredients A to Z series with the letter “U”. In reality, there are not a lot of ingredients that start with the letter U. We decided on “USDA”, which in itself is not an ingredient, but is an adjective uses in some rare cases to describe a protein used in the food. For example, you might see USDA Beef or USDA Chicken as an ingredient.

There are a whole set of dog food label terms that can be confusing, if not misleading. Learning which of these actually mean something and which are simply marketing ploys can help a pet owner determine if they need to reconsider their food choices.

Dog food nutritional guidelines

Pet food label guidelines are defined by the Association of Animal Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), a non-government, self regulatory organization. However, AAFCO has no official regulatory power to enforce food or labeling compliance. Regulation is done at the state level. Here is a passage taken from the AAFCO site:

AAFCO does not regulate, test, approve or certify pet foods in any way.

AAFCO establishes the nutritional standards for complete and balanced pet foods, and it is the pet food company’s responsibility to formulate their products according to the appropriate AAFCO standard.

It is the state feed control official’s responsibility in regulating pet food to ensure that the laws and rules established for the protection of companion animals and their custodians are complied with so that only unadulterated, correctly and uniformly labeled pet food products are distributed in the marketplace and a structure for orderly commerce.

The above does not suggest that AAFCO guidelines are toothless. Rather, it means that the guidelines developed by AAFCO are enforced and regulated by the states.

USDA and other confusing dog food label terms

USDA and Human Grade Ingredients

The use of USDA before a named meat is not a common practice. The use of USDA to describe an ingredient is meant to suggest that it is USDA inspected which could mean that it was sourced from a USDA inspected facility. AAFCO does not offer an opinion on the rules for labeling foods in this way.

Even if an ingredient is sourced from a USDA inspected plant, that does not imply that the food is “human grade”. Here is a snippet from AAFCO”s statement on human grade labeling:

A claim that something is “human-grade” or “human-quality” implies that the article being referred to is “edible” for people in legally defined terms. The terms “human grade” or “human quality” have no legal definition. …….. Thus, for all practical purposes, the term “human grade” represents the product to be human edible. For a product to be human edible, all ingredients in the product must be human edible and the product must be manufactured, packed and held in accordance with federal regulations in 21 CFR 110, Current Good Manufacturing Practice in Manufacturing, Packing, or Holding Human Food. If these conditions exist, …read more

From: Dog Food Ingredients A to Z: USDA and other Label Nuances