I was disgusted by the grotesque ingredients that were going into my 7.5 LBS body. For example, most of my organic ocean fish sampler dry food consisted of fish parts that tested too high in Mercury for humans! And, the many ingredients ending in the word “meal” contain fur, feathers, among many other disturbing animal types and body parts.
Ingredient Facts:
“Meat Meal” is the material from rendering plants that is sent to pet food manufacturers; whereas the ingredient “Meat by-products” comes directly from the slaughter houses to pet food manufacturers and does not involve rendering.
“Meat By-Products” are defined by AAFCO as clean parts of slaughtered animals other than the meat. Under AAFCO guidelines, acceptable meat by-product includes animal lungs, spleens, kidneys, brains, livers, blood, bones, low-temperature fatty tissue.
However, most concerning are those AAFCO acceptable meat by-products which are not legal for
human consumption which includes, livers infested with worms, liver diseased with cirrhosis, lungs with pneumonia, entire carcasses that are deemed unfit for human (and not just the by-products get included), parts of animals with
stick marks—injection sites on the flesh which get cut from the carcasses for human consumption.
“Meat Meal” or the meat related product which arrives at pet food manufacturers from rendering plants, is possibly the most alarming ingredient in pet food today. This is a highly unregulated area of food processing due to its history. As a large source of revenue for California’s animal rendering facilities, the $19 billion pet food industry, meat meal is exported from California plants to China.
China uses meat meal (also called “tankage”) for two main purposes: a primary ingredient in pet food and feed for its human food fish farms (typically Tilapia, Cod, Shrimp and Squid farms). Approximately 75% of these farmed species sold
in the US are from China.
Yes, that is what I said, what I am about to tell you about these pet food ingredients also applies to the human food supply chain.
Tankage AKA “meat and bone meal” is classified as mammal parts that have been put through the rendering process i.e. ground, heated to release fat and drive off moisture, percolated to drain off the free fat, then pressed to remove any remaining fat from the solids.
In the state of California, euthanized dogs and cats are specifically classified as mammals legally used for rendering tankage or “Meat Meal”.
Let that sink in for a second, three out of the four shrimp you ate this year, were feed cats and dogs.
Experts believe that almost all of the “Meat Meal” used in pet food contains euthanized dogs and cats!
Beware of all injestable products making their way from China to the US. Even some “All Natural” companies, like the Happy Hips®, made by Dogswell, chicken dog treats come from China.
