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Originally Posted by Nancy1999  I just wanted to add a little more information to the term, poultry by products. Your article states,"Poultry by-products: a protein source consisting of the cleaned parts of slaughtered poultry to include the organs, heads, and feet. Poultry predominantly includes chickens and turkeys, but may include other birds raised for food." This is true, but I think it leaves out some important facts. Poultry by-products do not have to contain any one of those things and it also doesn't have to have any one of those things in any special combination or percentage. For example, a batch may contain mostly heads and feet and while the label would show crude protein, it doesn't mean that this is easily digestible protein. I have no problems with by-products being added to a food, they can be healthy, but if it's the primary source of protein, it might be difficult for your dog to digest and get all the necessary amino acids.
By the way, manufactures are lobbying the AFFCO to see if the word, "by" can be taken out of the word, by-products. I see it as another attempt to mislead consumers. Hope the AFFCO stands firm on this. |
Good point. Here is the definition of poultry by-products from the AAFCO website (
http://www.aafco.org/Consumers/What-is-in-Pet-Food).
“Poultry By-Products must consist of non-rendered clean parts of carcasses of slaughtered poultry such as heads, feet, viscera, free from fecal content and foreign matter except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice. If the product bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.”
Similar to "meat by-products," it is most of the parts of the bird that would not be part of a raw, dressed whole carcass. That may include the giblets (heart, gizzard and liver) but also other internal organs, heads and feet.