Can You Answer These Questions?

1. True or false: chicken meal is chalked full of nasty things like heads, toes, poop, and scraps that have hit the floor.
   • False. There are clear standards for processing meat in the United States; anything labeled as “chicken” consists of skeletal meat.
   • Using contaminated product (such as dropping it on the floor) is a clear violation of Good Manufacturing Practices or GMPs.
2. True or false: whole lamb is more nutritious than lamb meal.
   • Both true and false. “Meal” simply means ground-up and dried, and, in some applications, meal may be more “nutritious” than adding whole lamb. The answer is simply “it depends on how you use it”.
3. True or false: meat by-product is the worst thing you can give your pet!
   • Please lay aside your pitchforks, as you’ll be surprised to hear that the answer is false. Meat by-product is technically a “more novel, and robust” source of protein than any cut of meat, such as beef, lamb, or pork (for more, keep reading).
   • The true debate isn’t about “more or less nutritious”, it’s about specificity. In other words, manufacturers’ struggle to define, in exact ratios and measurements, what went into their version of “meat by-product”

Were you able to answer all of these questions thoughtfully and articulately? 

Did your answers vary from our answers, and if so, why?

At the Academy, our mission is to empower people to make healthier choices for their pets. This Q-and-A exercise is intended to highlight opportunities for you to learn and grow, so that you may make better, well-informed decisions about your pet’s life. We hope the knowledge provided in this article will inspire you to continually advance your pet’s health and well-being.

Meats (Chicken, Lamb, Beef, etc.)

Let’s begin with crystal-clarity: in regards to labeling, “meat” refers strictly to skeletal meat – not organs or bones, nor heads or feet. When you read a bag of food and it lists “chicken, duck, turkey[…]”, it means “meat from chicken, duck, and turkey carcasses, devoid of organs, bones, heads, and feet”.

There are things that modify what “meat” means, such as “whole duck” or “lamb meal”, but we will tackle those momentarily. For now, let’s explore how we get this “meat” thing.

In the slaughterhouse, meat is separated from the bone using a variety of techniques. Some methods require the usage of heat and water, while others rely on mechanical separators and plant-workers.

It is important to understand that these are not “whole” cuts of meat like chicken breast, or a shank of lamb. It’s the bits-and-bobs, the nubby-parts, or, essentially, what is leftover after all of the expensive cuts have been harvested. To put things in perspective, some methods use a pressure washer to collect the scraps of meat left between the ribs, joints, and other parts of the carcass.

So when you think “chicken”, think of all the little bits left on that carcass: still super-nutritious, but not enough to serve as a portion at a restaurant (it could be used to make a good stock, however!).

Whole and Deboned Meats

Now that we have a definition of “meat”, we can start getting a bit fancy. On some bags of food you may notice “whole chicken” or “deboned chicken”, both of these modify our newly-learned “meat” term.

In smaller proteins, such as chicken, duck, turkey, quail, pheasant, and rabbit, the term “whole” typically refers to the whole carcass, or parts thereof. For example, a slaughterhouse may supply the manufacturer with chicken carcasses that still contain the neck, back, head and tail, which is then considered “whole meat”.

In larger proteins, such as beef, lamb, goat, bison, venison, and kangaroo, the term “whole” typically refers to the tails, neck, or other small-pieces of the carcass. It is unusual to see these ingredients listed as “whole”, though it happens from time to time.

Again, look at these meats as the bits-and-bobs of the carcass; “whole duck” doesn’t necessarily mean “a full leg of duck”. Don’t be fooled by clever marketing on the bag – these ingredients are more like a hamburger, less like a steak; more like a turkey-grind, less like a turkey-leg.

Also, “whole” meat contains bone and (often, though not always) cartilage tissue. So, these items may have higher amounts of calcium and phosphorous (and other bone-derived minerals), fat, ash, and collagen. Think of “whole” and “deboned” like yin-and-yang: one is “bone-in” and the other is “bone-less”

In contrast to whole meat, “deboned” meat is simply meat that has had the bone removed. While some may think this process is trivial, it does serve two distinct purposes. Firstly, it’s a good marketing tool: “deboned chicken” looks fancier. Secondly, deboned meats are lower in ash and mineral content; for animals that have kidney or liver issues, deboning can be highly beneficial.

Again, all of the same rules apply: these are the odd-and-ends of the carcass. “Deboned pork” isn’t that beautiful product you would put on a plate, but is still highly nutritious and better suited for a sausage or grind.

Meal and By-Product

This is the part that often confuses most consumers: chicken meal is not chicken by-product. They are, quite literally, opposites.

The term “meal” means “ground-up and dried”. As an example, think of corn meal – it’s just corn that has been ground-up and dried. Also, you could view ordinary baking-flour as “wheat meal”. “Mealing” is a mechanical process, and is not a reflection of nutrition.

To really drive the point home, you could have “chicken meal” and “chicken by-product meal” in the same bag of food. The term “meal” just lets the consumer know that the product was ground-up and dried.

Now, onto by-product.

We would like you to take this approach when thinking of by-product: “once you produce a product, everything else is a by-product”. Let’s look at a few examples:

• Apple sauce is what’s left over, after making apple juice (or, vise-versa).
• Whey (think of protein powder) is the by-product of making cheese.
• After making egg-products, the egg shells are used in calcium supplements.
• After deriving sugar from sugar-beets, beet pulp is used as a no-sugar, fiber-supplement.
• Bones, organs, heads, and feet, are the left-overs from the meat industry.

In essence, by-product is not “icky, nasty, rotten left-overs”; there are many regulations that lock-out the bad stuff. This will sound familiar: think of “chicken” and “chicken by-product” as yin-and-yang. “Chicken” is the meaty bits, and “chicken by-product” are the left over bones, organs, heads, and feet.

Note: there is one type of meat by-product that we have not talked about, it’s called “meat by-product” (in other words, not “chicken” by-product, just “meat” by-product). This is covered in our article about grouped ingredients.

A Special Note on By-Products and Specificity

Though this article does not cover the nutritional-aspects of these ingredients, we believe that it’s important to mention a few, key-nutritional details about by-products in particular.

Most consumers are worried about by-product being “rotten or harmful”. As you know now, this is simply not the case. By-product is a mixture of bone, organs, heads, and feet, and, unfortunately, most consumers miss the bigger question: “what is the ratio of bone, organs, head, and feet?”

When a product contains “chicken by-product”, what exactly is that? Just heads? Just feet? Just organs? The truth is that your manufacturer can’t tell you with 100% certainty – it’s a mixture thereof.

Maybe the slaughterhouse processed 2,000 chickens that day, and they landed a new contract for all of their chicken hearts and gizzards. So, the “by-product” from this processor is devoid of those organs (in other words, missing that vital nutrition!).

On the other-hand, maybe that meat-processor has a contract in the supplement industry, and all the bones and feet are sold to them separately. In which case, the by-product would be organs and heads. Arguably, more nutritious than the previous example.

The flaw with grouped ingredients is specificity. At the Academy, we want to know exactly what’s in the food, so that we can make sound decisions. We simply cannot make accurate decisions when it comes to meat by-product – the ingredient composition can change drastically day-by-day.

In other words, while meat by-products are not inherently bad, they lack the level of detail that we want out of an ingredient. We want a deeper level of detail; we want specificity.

Additional Considerations

Now that we’ve learned about all the different ways we can label meat. It’s time to move onto the nutritional aspects of these ingredients.

Consider these things:

• Meat meals are ground-up and dried. Typically they are boiled to remove the fat content, then desiccated with heat (in other words, dried-out). What does that do to the overall protein quality of the ingredient?
  • Read here
• What if a diet lists both chicken and chicken meal? Why would a manufacturer choose to do that?
  • Read here
• Should I look for ingredient labels that showcase more “whole” meat? What about “deboned”?
  • Read here

At Dog Food Academy, we value learning and would love your valuable input. If you have ideas that you wish to contribute to this article, please contact us.