Poultry By-Product Meal in Dog Food

This article will explain what poultry by-product meal in dog food is and why it’s in your dog’s food.

Contents

What is Poultry By-Product Meal?

A poultry by-product meal is a rendered protein powder made from poultry parts such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, heads, viscera, or whole carcasses, but without added feathers^[1].

Viscera are the organs found in the body cavity, such as the heart, liver, spleen, stomach, crop, gizzard, intestines, and undeveloped eggs.

While fresh by-products can not include animals that have died by other means than slaughter, rendered meals can^[10].

Rendering transforms the protein and fat in these raw poultry slaughter by-products and scraps unusable for human consumption into nutritious and usable pet food ingredients.

The rendering process is a type of high-temperature processing accompanied by pressing and draining to remove water and fat from the raw bone and tissues.

The separated fat is then sold as poultry fat or further processed while the solid protein cake is crushed and ground into the finished poultry by-product meal.

Poultry By-Product Meal Nutrients

Poultry by-product meals can vary significantly in their composition and nutritional quality. But they are always intended to be used as a source of highly digestible protein.

However, the nutritional quality of poultry by-product meals in dog food can also be reduced by excessive heat treatment or raw materials used^[3].

One possible problem is low protein quality due to the inclusion of too low-grade animal tissues like connective tissues, bone, feet, cartilage, feathers or beaks which are resistant to digestion^[5].

A 2000 study found that the protein in poultry meal was actually somewhat more digestible compared to poultry by-product meal^[9].

To counteract any problems in advance, dog food manufacturers today opt to use high-quality pet food-grade by-product meals that don’t include as many poor protein sources^[5].

Poultry by-product meal used in pet food usually is higher in crude protein (67%), higher in essential amino acids such as lysine and methionine, lower in minerals (<14%), has a more consistent composition, and is more easily digestible than feed-grade meals used for livestock feeding^[6,13].

Poultry By-Product Meal in Dog Foods

Of course, a processed protein meal is not real poultry and fresh poultry is better on some levels.

For one, poultry protein meals are often preserved with antioxidants to stabilize them^[12].

On average, fresh meat contains higher amounts of digestible protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids compared to protein meals^[7,8].

In a 1997 study, amino acids from fresh poultry were found to be more digestible in the small intestine of dogs compared to poultry (by-product) meals.

But ultimately there were no differences in overall protein digestibility. So amino acids in meals are highly digestible but are maybe digested a little differently^[2].

The major fatty acids found in poultry by-product meal are oleic acid followed by palmitic acid and linoleic acid^[11].

If you want to know a little more about what goes into your dog’s food you’ll likely prefer a properly named ingredient like chicken by-product meal or chicken meal.

And with the trend towards more natural and wholesome ingredients, the rendering industry is also viewed more critically.

Poultry by-product meal in dog food is a highly processed ingredient, and high-temperature rendering can have a significant impact on the nutritional quality of these ingredients.

But this doesn’t make poultry by-product meal in dog food a bad ingredient at all! It’s just not the same as raw muscle meat.

It’s still highly digestible and a valuable source of animal proteins.

There is a strong belief among some dog owners that poultry meal is somehow better than by-product meal, and that by-products are controversial and high-quality dog food can never use them.

By-products include all of the unavoidable secondary products that result from the production of something else. When animals are slaughtered for meat, all the stuff humans don’t eat is a by-product.

But did you know that the only difference between a poultry meal and poultry by-product meals is the inclusion of head, feet and viscera?

And in reality, pretty much all protein meals are made from meat industry by-products. In terms of nutritional composition, they can be virtually identical, despite the different raw materials they contain^[4].

One argument in favor of meals is the sustainability of value-added recycling of animal leftovers. In addition, using residues from the meat industry helps to keep the cost of animal products down.

And it’s simply not realistic to feed dogs the same parts that humans use and get rid of all the leftovers.

Manufacturers love protein meals because they are way easier to handle than fresh meat, can be included at higher levels in commercial kibble and, of course, they are way more cost-effective.

After all, dogs are not squeamish and would eat most of the stuff contained in poultry by-product meal without turning up their noses.

Poultry by-product meals often contain less than 10% water, while fresh poultry meat contains about 65%^[7].

When processed for dry dog food, all the water is boiled off and the fresh meat portion shrinks considerably.

So a small amount of poultry by-product meal can provide a lot more nutrients than a much larger portion of fresh poultry would!

All in all, poultry by-product meal is a common ingredient and a good source of animal protein. But it does not provide all the benefits of fresh meat and is a processed ingredient.

What is Poultry By-Product Meal?

Poultry By-Product Meal Nutrients

Poultry By-Product Meal in Dog Foods

Further Reading