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WHAT’S
IN A LABEL? Reading the label on a bag of dog food can be a most unpalatable experience. With ingredients like fatty acids, crude protein and meat by-products, it’s no wonder most people shudder when they read dog food labels….. Reading and UNDERSTANDING a dog food label though can mean the difference between meeting your dogs dietary needs which in turn equates to good performance in the field as opposed to a lackluster display of dog work. But, how do you know what’s really in that feed you give your dog? Luckily the AAFCO or Association of American Feed Control Officials is there to maintain guidelines and standards for the production, labeling and sale of animal feeds. Within the AAFCO there are two standards that appear in the form of a label. The minimum standard is a label that states “Formulated to meet AAFCO's nutrient requirements.” This means the feed was tested in an AAFCO laboratory and contains the AAFCO recommended amounts of protein, fat and other essential ingredients. . The highest AAFCO standard also appears as a label and states “Animal-feeding tests using AAFCO's procedures substantiate that this product provides complete and balanced nutrition.” In order to earn this label a feed must have been tested on a population of animals for a period of at least six months and shown to have provided adequate nutrition. Even with these standards, AAFCO are not a guarantee. For example, if a feed manufacturer tests one specific product and it is found to meet the standard, the company is allowed to claim testing was performed on not only the particular feed tested but on all the other feeds produced within that particular product line. This includes other feeds with varying concentrations of nutrients. The same holds true for feeds tested in a trial, which means that once again the company is allowed to include the AAFCO statement on other products within the same product line which provide equal or greater concentrations of all the nutrients. So even if the feed carries the AAFCO food trial statement on its label, you can not be completely sure that specific product was actually tested in a food trial. In addition, testing feed for six months truly is not an adequate amount of time to determine if deficiencies or other long term effects may occur after feeding the product a year or more. Despite these problems with the interpretation of this AAFCO food trial statement, having the statement on a pet food label at least shows the company has made an attempt to develop a feed that will meet your dogs dietary needs.
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