Report from AAFCO Pet Food Committee

The meeting of AAFCO's Pet Food Committee (PFC) was held Wednesday afternoon, with a very busy agenda. This committee is responsible for updates to the model pet food regulations that form the de facto standards for commercial pet foods. Sure, it sounds dry and boring--and indeed the pace of change often seems to match glacier movement before global warming! But if are interested in why the food you feed your pets is the way it is, it's important to understand this process. But first, a little political drama: the chairman ...

2017-03-23T14:05:03-07:00January 19th, 2012|

Hot News on Pet Food!

Little Big Cat is coming to you today from beautiful Reno, Nevada; I'm attending the mid-year meeting of AAFCO, the Association of American Feed Control Officials. If that organization sounds familiar, it's because you've seen it on virtually every can, bag, roll, and every other form of commercial pet food you've ever bought. AAFCO sets the standards for pet food regulation in the U.S. (and essentially for Canada). Although AAFCO is not itself a regulatory body, its members--volunteers from each state--are the regulators and enforcers of state laws affecting animal ...

2017-03-23T14:05:19-07:00January 17th, 2012|

Lifestages, Lifestyles, and Cat Food

The number and types of commercial cat food seems multiplying like rabbits. One online store carries 353 different dry foods, and 735 varieties of canned food! Here’s a sampling of the lifestages cat food is made for: Babycat (0 to 4 months) Kitten (0 or 4 to 12 months) Adult (1 to 7 years) Mature (7 to 10 years) Senior (over 10 years) Young adult (from time of spay/neuter to 7 years) Young male (from time of neuter to 7 years) In contrast, the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) ...

2012-04-06T09:48:58-07:00May 23rd, 2011|

Pet Food, People, and the FDA

By Jean Hofve, DVM Pet food labels are plenty obscure, but labels on human food are just as bad. As you get better at assessing pet food, you'll also want to check out a few labels at the grocery store, too. According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, in Food Labels May Be Inaccurate Despite FDA Inspections, "It's unfortunate that food labels, which are ideally designed to help you make educated purchasing decisions, have deteriorated over time into little more than deceptive advertising. There are a large variety of ways for food ...

2012-07-04T07:40:28-07:00November 18th, 2010|
Go to Top