All 'meal' not bad for cats

Mary Hayashi's article, printed on Sunday, is not entirely accurate. Ms. Hayashi does not seem to be aware of what the term "meal" means in pet food. The AAFCO, the entity that regulates pet food, defines "meal" as an ingredient that is "ground or otherwise reduced in particle size." The quality of the "meal" in pet food, is determined by what the meal is made of, not by the mere fact that it is "meal."

There is "good" meal and there is "bad" meal. For example, "chicken meal" is simply chicken that has been ground and refined to reduce the particle size and to remove water. "Chicken" is defined by the AAFCO as "the clean combination of flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken- exclusive of feathers, heads, feet, and entrails." So, "chicken meal" is simply ground up chicken and is very different from "chicken by-product meal" (which contains the undesirable parts of the chicken) or "meat by-product meal" (which contains unknown "mystery meat"), both of which are low quality sources of protein in pet food.

The fact that the chicken in "chicken meal" is ground up actually increases its quality, because the meal process removes water, and therefore increases its protein content pound for pound.

Ms. Hayashi has misinformed her readers by indicating that all "meal" is made from solely "organ meat and any other body part they can grind up for filler." Chicken meal, fish meal, and lamb meal are the top ingredients in many consistently highly rated pet foods because the ground particle size and reduction of water makes them a more concentrated source of high quality protein.

The funny thing here is the fact that all of the products that Ms. Hayashi recommended in her article use meal as a main ingredient in their products! Ms. Hayashi should have done her homework!

Allison Neally

Algonquin