Pet Food Regulation

Question 1

Who regulates pet food at the federal level?

Answer 1

(FDA)

Question 2

How is the regulation for food/feeds/supplements different from that of drugs?

Answer 2

(No pre-market approval is needed (even for therapeutic diets) and the companies cannot use drug/treatment claims to describe/promote the food)

Question 3

Who regulates pet food at the state level?

Answer 3

(State feed control officials, typically within the state department of agriculture)

Question 4

(T/F) Pet food recalls are often not associated with illness.

Answer 4

(T)

Question 5

What guidelines should be followed when labeling pet food?

Answer 5

(FDA and AAFCO (don’t have to follow AAFCO but that should be a red flag if they don’t))

Question 6

Give the definition for the following terms:

• Dinner/Platter/Entree/Formula/Recipe
• With
• Flavor
• Low calorie or lite
• Biologically appropriate

Answer 6

• Dinner/Platter/Entree/Formula/Recipe (At least 25% of the food item is whatever the claim says so chicken dinner = 25% chicken)
• With (3% of the food item is whatever the claim says so with beef = 3% beef)
• Flavor (Means that whatever they are claiming is a flavor is in the product somehow somewhere i.e. beef flavor = beef meal, beef by-products, beef digest)
• Low calorie or lite (< 3100 kcal ME/kg kibble)
• Biologically appropriate (You can come up with your own definition for this one because it doesn’t have a regulated definition)