You Shouldn’t Be The Only One Eating Healthy

Are ingredients human edible?

Human edible means human grade. If it isn't human grade, then it's not human edible.

If inedible – What inedible ingredients are used?

Note: Some ingredients classified as ‘inedible’ are perfectly safe for your pet. For example chicken frames are typically a quality "inedible" product.  When chicken is processed for human consumption the meat is mechanically separated from the bone. Mechanical separation leaves quite a bit of meat on the bone frame. These poultry frames are sold to pet food. This is a quality inedible ingredient example.

Some inedible ingredients are not quality. This would be DOA (dead on arrival) animals or diseased animals rejected for use in human food. This is not a quality ingredient. Will a pet food manufacturer admit to using these types of material? It is doubtful. But you should ask regardless.

Something to think about: Pet food ingredients whose legal definitions allow them to be sourced from diseased or non-slaughtered animals are poultry by-products, chicken by-products, turkey by-products, poultry by-product meal, chicken by-product meal, turkey by-product meal, meat meal, meat and bone meal, animal digest and animal fat.

And most feed grade pet foods use feed grade supplements. Yes, there are human grade vitamins and minerals and there are feed grade vitamins and minerals. Feed grade supplements would be a lesser quality than human grade, they are not held to the same standards as human grade.

Ask your pet food manufacturer: Are the supplements human grade or feed grade?

All kibble pet foods are feed grade – regardless if they use human grade ingredients or not. Kibble pet foods are manufactured in a pet food facility; to meet the human grade claim a pet food must be manufactured in a human food facility. This is fair of the regulation; pet food facilities are not held to the same quality standards a human food facility is held to. Any kibble pet food could become human grade, as the manufacturing process is similar to the making of human cereal (extruded product). But to date, no pet food kibble manufacturer has acquired that human grade status.

All canned pet foods – to my knowledge – are feed grade. Again, canned pet foods are manufactured in a pet food plant. And again, these plants could all become a human grade plant (if they went to the effort), but to date no one has.

Some moist pet foods – purchased in tubs – are human grade (manufactured in a human food plant), some are not (manufactured in a pet food plant).

Some raw pet foods (dehydrated, freeze dried or frozen) are human grade, some are not.