Processed beef protein is a commonly used ingredient and a cost-effective source of protein. In this article, you’ll learn what beef meal in dog food is and why it’s used in your dog’s diet.
Contents
What is Beef Meal?
Beef provides red meat and is a common ingredient in dog food. It’s a palatable and highly digestible source of protein for dogs.
And beef meal is just concentrated beef protein.
It is a type of processed animal protein made by rendering beef tissues into a meat meal.
Beef tissues include all the parts that are not used for human consumption. This includes nutrient-rich organ meats, meat scraps, and connective or fatty tissues, but also all kinds of rather yucky and low-value slaughterhouse waste.
But raw material for meat meal production can’t include added blood, hair, horn, hide trimmings, manure, or stomach contents. And it shall contain mostly digestible protein[1].
This ensures that suppliers don’t use too many proteins like keratin or collagen from fibrous or connective tissues that are hard to digest for your dog.
Rendering applies high temperatures and pressure to crushed and ground beef tissues. First of all, this helps to kill microorganisms.
During processing, beef protein gets dried and separated from the fat and bone particles by draining and pressing, resulting in melted beef fat and solid beef meal fractions.
Rendering transforms beef parts that are not good enough for human consumption into a protein-rich powder. It’s used to recycle animal residues into usable feed ingredients.
If it’s made from beef including so much bone that it provides 4% or more phosphorus, this product is called beef and bone meal.
Beef Meal Nutrients
Beef meal is a named protein, which immediately makes it better compared to meat and bone meal or other anonymous ingredients.
One of the primary benefits of beef meal is its high protein content. Protein is an essential macronutrient that supports various bodily functions and can be digested into energy.
Beef meal also provides some residual fat and minerals.
According to AAFCO guidelines, calcium should not exceed phosphorus by more than 2.2 times[1]. This helps to guarantee that the mineral ratio in beef meal does not deviate too much from a ratio in natural animal ingredients.
Beef meal is not real meat. And of course, a meat meal is of lower quality compared to fresh beef.
On average, fresh meat contains more essential amino acids, fatty acids, and taurine paired with a higher protein digestibility.
Fresh beef is also a way more transparent ingredient. And it’s a fresh ingredient while a beef meal is heavily processed.
Everyone knows what meat is. Opposed to meat meal, which is most often made from somewhat obscure and unpleasant ingredients that are everything but the meat pictured in dog food marketing.
But:
Beef meal might not be the most wholesome ingredient. It is still a source of animal-sourced protein and performs well in pet food.
Beef Meal in Dog Foods
Beef meal can be a valuable component of a dog’s diet.
Because beef meal is low in moisture and high in protein, manufacturers need only a relatively small amount of meal to get the same nutritional value as in a pile of fresh beef tissue.
Fresh meat is often used as a first ingredient because manufacturers know that you care about this. And they can’t call their dog food “beef dinner” or similar if there’s no real beef in the product.
But raw meat has a high moisture content, most of which will be cooked off when manufacturing dry kibble.
Even when beef is used as the first ingredient, the final product will contain only a small amount of actual beef protein.
Beef meal, on the other hand, was dried in advance and provides a lot more protein than the same amount of fresh beef.
Another advantage of using beef meal in dog food is that it is more affordable than using whole meat.
Because beef meal is processed from waste products that would otherwise be disposed of, it can be produced at a lower cost than whole meat. It is also pretty stable and easy to transport and store.
This can help keep the cost of dog food down.
And that benefits pet owners who want to provide lots of animal protein without breaking the bank.
Further Reading
[1] AAFCO Official Publication. Chapter 6. Free Access.