AAFCO: Unimpressive Nutritional Adequacy Guidelines

Comments about AAFCO and pet food regulations
You may have heard of the organization called AAFCO. According to their web site, here is what they're all about:

AAFCO - Association of American Feed Control Officials: "The term AAFCO stands for the Association of American Feed Control Officials. A basic goal of AAFCO is to provide a mechanism for developing and implementing uniform and equitable laws, regulations, standards and enforcement policies for regulating the manufacture, distribution and sale of animal feeds; resulting in safe, effective, and useful feeds...

The purpose of the corporation (AAFCO) shall be to establish and maintain an Association through which officials ... charged with a responsibility in enforcing the laws regulating the production, labeling, distribution, or sale of animal feeds or livestock remedies may unite to explore the problems encountered in administering such laws, to develop just and equitable standards, definitions and policies to be followed in enforcing such laws, to promote uniformity in such laws, regulations and enforcement policies, and to cooperate with members of the industry producing such products in order to promote the effectiveness and usefulness of such products."

At first glance, the purpose of AAFCO seems to make sense. You need some kind of guidelines on the quality of foods for domesticated animals. The question is, how good are their guidelines?

If you take a look at their "AAFCO Feed Inspector's Manual" which is available as a downloadble pdf from their home page, you don't really get much of a fuzzy feeling regarding what they call "nutritional adequacy."

Another document called "Newly Accepted Ingredient Definitions" states:

" Distressed Pet Food is a product resulting from pet food distribution, but which is no longer available for retail sale. This product may be pet food in, but not limited to, dented cans, torn bags, product past its sell-by date, or returned product that is suitable for use in feed. It may consist of a single formula, still in the original packaging, or a variety of formulas commingled into one bulk container and containing none of the original packaging or labeling. If it contains, or may contain, any material identified by 21 CFR 589.2000 as prohibited from use in the feed of ruminant animals, or if it is no longer accompanied by a detailed label listing all of the ingredients in the distressed product, the label must contain the precautionary statement “Do not feed to cattle or other ruminants”. ..."

So in other words, according to this statement, it's OK to use expired dog food in cattle feed? Don't they know that "ruminant animals" are herbivores? In case an AAFCO person happens to read this: ruminant = herbivore.

It's unnatural to feed meat to a cow. That's how they "came up" with mad cow disease! They make it really easy for anyone to think that somehow big money is involved in keeping these regulation as useless as possible. How else would you explain it? Who are these people and what are their motivation to produce these silly rules?

I'm just not very impressed with AAFCO's "nutritional adequacy" guidelines...

[Related: aafco, nutrition, nutritional guidelines, pet food]