Understanding Meat Meal
January 20, 2011 by Paris Permenter and John Bigley
Filed under Health, Tips
In last week’s installment in a series of tips on reading dog food labels from canine nutrition expert Tracie Hotchner, Tracie discussed looking for quality animal proteins. This week, Tracie looks at an ingredient on dog food labels that’s often misunderstood: meat meal.
Meat meal named by its protein source is an excellent way to increase protein – There is a lot of confusion about whether “meal” or “by-products” are poor ingredients in a dry food and while there is still some controversy even amongst experts, it is generally believed that because meal is a concentrated form of protein that as long as it is named (“chicken meal,” rather than “poultry meal”) it is a good way to increase the overall protein percentage of a food. In a quality food you will often see the named protein source as first or second ingredient, and a named protein meal in either of those same positions on the label.
Next week: Looking for whole, unprocessed grains
This Canine Nutrition Tip is from Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and award-winning host of Dog Talk® on NPR station WLIU. Canine Nutrition Tips are sponsored by Proportions, the whole food custom nutrition program for your dog. Visit www.Proportions.com to get a custom 2-meal trial for your dog, or to learn more about canine nutrition from the full Canine Nutrition University classes written by Tracie.
Author photo courtesy www.traciehotchner.com; photo © Ling Li
About Paris Permenter and John Bigley
DogTipper publishers Paris Permenter and John Bigley are a husband-wife team of full-time writers. The couple has authored over two dozen books and 2,500+ magazine articles.
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