We will soon be seeing a change to pet food labeling, the first big change we've seen in 40 years.
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), a non-profit that establishes animal feed regulations, will be adding some new rules as a part of their Pet Food Label Modernization Project.
Of the things that you would care about, the Nutrition Fact Box will now seem more familiar, as it will resemble the nutrition fact box for humans. This was done to help ease confusion.
They made rules that the information has to be boxed off and all in clearly visible colors. There's a lot of small changes to make this happen, if you're interested you can check the link below.
There will now be a Statement of Intended Use required on all edibles, and there is now a specific area on the package where this information is displayed.
Intended use is referred to whether the product is a treat, food mixer, additive, supplement, veterinary diet, complete food (think everyday pet food), and the intended lifestage (puppy, adult, senior, all).
Normally this information can be anywhere on the bag/can/box and it can be difficult to find or interpret due to it. Many times, this information won't be on the product at all, in which case you are supposed to assume it is not a complete diet and use it as a treat. Now it will be required on the lower third of the label.
An Ingredient Statement was made to clarify naming conventions, and they added a requirement for total carb % and Dietary Fiber %.
The term 'Meat By-product' has long been a debated topic. They have helped clear some confusion by adding that meat or meat by-product is derived from cow, pig, sheep, goat, or any combo of those. Fish, fish by-product, or fish meal is used for ingredients that may include fish without describing the type of fish. Poultry or poultry meal is for duck, turkey, chicken, geese, guineas, ratites, squabs, or any combo of them. So no more of the "chicken meal isn't actually chicken" debate.
Sugar can also only mean sugar from sugar cane or sugar beets - I'm glad to hear this as there has been controversy of naming xylitol 'Birch Sugar' which is toxic to dogs.
A big change here is that they are also requiring total carbs and fiber; previously they were only required to account for crude fiber, which is less accurate as it is a calculation method for assessing fiber content. This will give us a better idea of the actual carb and fiber content of these pet foods, and I expect it to make a significant difference in the vet industry in the coming years.
They have also tightened down on their organic claims. With the pet food industry, organic claims were like the wild, wild west. Now, organic ingredients may be identified with the word 'organic' or with an asterisk, and the description of the organic ingredient following below the ingredient statement.
Lastly, they added handling and storage instructions must be added to the package, under the header 'HANDLING AND STORAGE INSTRUCTIONS'. I have a feeling this was added due to the raw diet craze. They even added handy dandy graphics for pet companies to use (see pic).
They are advising municipalities giving pet food companies 6 years from 1/1/2024 before actually enforcing these regulations. While bigger companies probably already know their total carb and fiber content and can switch out package design rapidly, smaller companies are going to have to do extensive lab grade tests with their food to find out nutritional details and will likely need some time to reconfigure their labels.
I'd love to hear if ya'll start to see any of these changes in your pet food labels!
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