I had the interesting pleasure of attending my second AAFCO meeting this week. AAFCO is the American Association of Feed Control Officials. These are the people who make recommendations for what is acceptable to go into feed for our food supply and for the food supply of our pets.
This time there was a proposal to approve the definition of something called “food processing waste.” Literally, “food processing waste” consists of the rotten expired food from grocery stores that are thrown out.
Let that sink in for just a minute. No longer acceptable foods are thrown into a dumpster behind the grocery store. These foods accumulate and rot for a week in the dumpster in the rain, in the sun, with the cockroaches and the rats, before they are picked up. When picked up, these products are taken for so-called processing then mixed into the food supply chain. The same thing happens at restaurants. It’s called restaurant food waste. I’ve never seen it on a pet food label, but it’s in there. It’s one thing when leftover restaurant food comes home in my doggy bag, it’s something else when it rotted in a dumpster with 1 million other horrible things before being sent into the pet food supply.
If you’re feeding commercially created pet food, this is a great example of why you should always read — and question — the ingredients. Always.
