Misleading, False, and Downright Laughable Pet Food Marketing Claims – Truth about Pet Food
Why are pet food companies allowed to mislead pet owners through labels and marketing?
Diamond Pet Food has a line of pet foods called Taste of the Wild Prey. Their website states:
“In the wild, the diet of the canine or feline was simpler, consisting primarily of the prey they hunted. That’s why we created Taste of the Wild PREY limited ingredient diets — a simplified approach to pet food based on the protein sources of your animal’s native diet.”
Diamond claims the ‘Prey’ pet foods are based on the protein sources of our pet’s native diet. But…
Since when do our cats hunt a cow?
Champion Pet Foods Acana brand website states:
“Our mission represents a new standard in pet food, designed to nourish dogs and cats in two ways. First, according to their natural evolution for a meat-based diet. Second, using ingredients that are sustainable and harvested by regional suppliers, delivered to our kitchen FRESH or RAW.“
Acana claims ingredients are “delivered FRESH or RAW”, but…
The first ingredient in Acana Prairie Poultry Dog Food is “chicken meal” – which is neither fresh or raw.
This is a picture of poultry meal:
And below is a picture of a similar meat meal ingredient being delivered to a pet food plant:
Does this look “delivered FRESH or RAW” to you?
Another page on the Acana website states:
“Worse yet, many North American pet food makers use large amounts of dried animal ingredients, which are then rehydrated with water – an ingredient they then label as ‘fresh or raw’.”
With “chicken meal” as the first ingredient of the Prairie Poultry Dog Food, isn’t Acana doing the exact thing they accuse other pet food manufacturers of? Using large amounts of dried animal ingredients and marketing them as fresh or raw?
The Purina website advertises “meat”:
But…the Alpo dry dog food contains no ‘meat’ ingredient – only ‘meal’ ingredients.
The Purina Alpo dry dog food page also has this statement next to the ingredient listing of the dog food:
This dog food contains the dyes “Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2, Yellow 6”. Do dyes in a dog food have “a purpose”?
Pushing the marketing limits over the edge is this Pedigree dog food:
This pet food label shows images of fresh beef and lamb. But…the pet food is actually ONLY flavored with beef and lamb. Per the Pedigree website there is NO beef or lamb ingredient in this dog food.
The pet food label also tells consumers the pet food is “Made with Real Beef“. Again, this dog food contains NO beef ingredient.
Why are pet food manufacturers allowed to make misleading and false claims to pet food consumers? Why aren’t regulatory authorities enforcing law with pet food labels and websites?
Perhaps regulatory authorities need to hear from us (pet owners) more often regarding ridiculous pet food claims.
If you notice a misleading or false claim on a pet food website or label, please report it to the FDA and to your state’s regulatory authority. Send information to the FDA at: AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov. Find your state pet food regulatory authority here: https://www.aafco.org/Regulatory.
Just maybe, if we continue to report these misleading and false marketing claims to authorities, someone will eventually do the right thing.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
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What’s in Your Pet’s Food?
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