Do You Know How to Read the Ingredients Label of Your Pet's Food?
A decade-old lawsuit, citing the lack of bacon content in Purina's popular Beggin' Strips, failed in the courts, yet heightened awareness of pet food ingredients.
How often do you read the ingredient label on that bag of food or package of treats you purchase for your pet? Or, are you like me and have a standard brand you tend to load into the shopping cart each week because it’s a known manufacturer, a decent quality and your pet enjoys it?
What I find as my pets age is that understanding ingredient content has become more important to me and how I shop. Senior pet food is lower in protein, which can be hard on kidneys and is higher in joint-health ingredients like glucosamine. Both of which resonate with me these days.
For those with puppies or highly active dogs, you’ll be looking for something higher in protein to sustain growth and energy.
So, understanding food content prior to going into autopilot and repurchasing a specific blend or brand as our normal go-to for Rover is an important initial step.
Let’s agree that the quality and mix of ingredients that go into your pet’s food are important. But equally true is our ability to trust that the information provided by the manufacturer is accurate.
And that was the catalyst behind a New York class-action lawsuit brought against pet food giant Nestle Purina Petcare Co. over their hickory-scented “Beggin” dog treats back in 2015. The product, the lawsuit claimed, falsely implied the colorful strips were made primarily from real bacon. It smells like bacon, is shaped and colored to look like slices of bacon, and even the name Beggin implies the tasty treat is, in fact, derived from bacon. But in truth, bacon lands 10th on the list of ingredients.
Now, according to the American Kennel Club (AKC), pet foods that use the word “with” in their packaging really are only required to have up to 3% of the named ingredient. So, if the pet food label includes wording such as “pate with wild caught salmon and rice,” only 3% of each of the two ingredients needs to be included in the actual formulation.
When it comes to a specific flavor, the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AFCCO) dictates that the item doesn’t require much of the actual ingredient at all. AAFCO requires that “a listed ingredient provides the flavor” and that “the flavor descriptor be printed in the same font and as conspicuously as the name of the designated flavor.” This essentially means that a beef-flavored dog food needs to contain something like beef fat as well as one other ingredient to provide that beefy taste.
Full disclosure, while I do invest in healthy, top-quality treats for my dogs, Beggin Strips are not an unknown commodity in my house. And at no time did I ever consider these brilliantly colored and heavily scented treats to contain anything other than artificial flavors and colorings.
This was the argument put forth by the manufacturer, who claimed to have always been transparent in their marketing practices: “The notion that anyone would actually think we’re selling bacon is nonsense.”
The lesson here? Although the lawsuit is a decade old (and was voluntarily dismissed), the need to understand and check ingredient content is as valid now as it was then. Don’t buy into fun packaging or catchy jingles… understand your pet’s dietary requirement for their age, size, activity level, and breed, and always follow the 10% rule for treats. No more than 10% of Rover’s diet should come from those extra-tasty, highly processed goodies we’re continually being pitched.
Sharing space with three seriously judgy Schnoodles and 2 felines who prefers to be left alone. #LivingMyBestLife
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