What does the word âmealâ mean?
The term âmealâ is commonly found on pet food labels but what does it actually mean? Meal is a term defining what form an ingredient is in. A meal ingredient just means that it has been ground and dried for use in a dry food product. Similar to the way wheat is ground and dried to make bread.
This is done so that dry food does not spoil. Moisture is the #1 culprit of spoilage when it comes to dry food ingredients. Moisture provides an environment for bacteria and mold to grow and thrive. By removing a portion of the moisture from protein sources, it reduces the chance for mold to form and harmful bacteria to colonize. Many meat meals are also cooked before use in pet food to further reduce the chances of microbial contamination and you or your dog getting sick.
The grinding of meat meals also serves an important purpose in pet food. Ingredients are ground fine so that they are evenly distributed throughout the food and do not just get clumped into one area of the food or treat. Meals help to keep even distribution of nutrients in the food for 2 reasons. One is that it ensures the proper consistency of the food or treat and the other is that it also ensures that picky eaters, who may not eat all of their meal, are at least getting a balanced amount of nutrients.
Learn more about the “meat meal” listed on your dog’s food package and whether or not it’s actually healthy for your canine companion.
Most pet foods nowadays list real meat as the first ingredient. That’s great news – but often that real meat will be followed by something called a meat meal. What exactly is a meat meal, and why does it have to be called out separately from the “real” meat?
Is Meat Meal Healthy?
While meat meal does have more protein, that’s not the end of the story.
Some varieties of meat meal are extremely high-quality, giving your dog a dense source of nutritious, natural protein…
…while other types of meat meal are made up of waste materials including animal heads, hooves, bones, and other waste that you would NOT want your dog to eat.
The bottom line is: a meat meal can only be as healthy as the ingredients that were used to make it.
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Well, surprisingly, a quality grade meat meal can actually be a more abundant source of protein than the whole meat from which it was made.
Meat meal is a dried end-product of the cooking process known as rendering. Rendering is a lot like making stew — except that this stew is intentionally over-cooked.
With rendering, you start with a meat stew, cook away the water and bake the residue. And you end up with a highly concentrated protein powder — or meat meal.
Now, check out the chart above. Notice how whole chicken contains about 70% water and 18% protein.
Yet after rendering, the resulting chicken meal contains just 10% water and a whopping 65% protein.
Of course, not all meat meals are created equal. Some are of very high quality while others are positively awful.
It all boils down to the stew’s contents — the raw materials. And one critically important principle…
Better meals are typically made from the meat of clearly identified sources. Low-grade meals come from anonymous materials like slaughterhouse waste and spoiled supermarket meats — even diseased or dying cattle — or dead zoo animals.
For a more detailed look at the dark side of the industry, you may wish to read “The Shocking Truth About Commercial Dog Food“.