What is natural pet food?

Janet · Bossman Moderator Posts: 1763 Join date: 2008-10-15

When it comes to labeling commercial feeds, pet foods, and specialty pet foods the use of the term "natural" is only acceptable in reference to the product as a whole when all of the ingredients and components of ingredients meet the definition. The use of the term "natural" on the label is false and misleading if any chemically synthesized ingredients are present in the product. Prophylene Glycol and BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) are two common examples of chemically synthesized ingredients found in some pet foods. The committee suggested that an exception be made for synthetic vitamin and mineral additives as long as the product is not used as a dietary supplement.

Here is the official AAFCO definition for "natural" as the term relates to pet food: "NATURAL... A feed or ingredient derived solely from plant, animal or mined sources, either in its unprocessed state or having been subjected to physical processing, heat processing, rendering, purification extraction, hydrolysis, enzymolysis or fermentation, but not having been produced by or subject to a chemically synthetic process and not containing any additives or processing aids that are chemically synthetic except in amounts as might occur unavoidably in good manufacturing practices."