Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods
Background: The use of the generic term “meat and animal derivatives” in declared ingredient lists of pet foods in the European Union is virtually universal. In the wake of the 2013 “horse meat scandal” in the human food chain, we examined the presence and authenticity of animal sources (cow, chicke...
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| Format: | Article |
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BioMed Central
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43992/ |
| _version_ | 1848796812520980480 |
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| author | Maine, Isabella R. Atterbury, Robert J. Chang, Kin-Chow |
| author_facet | Maine, Isabella R. Atterbury, Robert J. Chang, Kin-Chow |
| author_sort | Maine, Isabella R. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Background: The use of the generic term “meat and animal derivatives” in declared ingredient lists of pet foods in the European Union is virtually universal. In the wake of the 2013 “horse meat scandal” in the human food chain, we examined the presence and authenticity of animal sources (cow, chicken, pig and horse) of proteins in a range of popular wet pet foods in the United Kingdom.
Findings: Seventeen leading dog and cat foods were sampled for the relative presence of DNA from each of the four animal species by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. No horse DNA was detected. However, there was detection at substantial levels of unspecified animal species in most products tested. In 14 out of 17 samples, bovine, porcine and chicken DNA were found in various proportions and combinations but were not explicitly identified on the product labels. Of the 7 products with prominent headline descriptions containing the term “with beef”, only 2 were found to contain more bovine DNA (>50%) than pig and chicken DNA combined.
Conclusions: There is a need for the pet food industry to show greater transparency to customers in the disclosure of the types of animal proteins (animal species and tissue types) in their products. Full disclosure of animal contents will (a) allow more informed choices to be made on purchases which are particularly important for pets with food allergies, (b) reduce the risk of product misinterpretation by shoppers, and (c) avoid potential religious concerns. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:53:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-43992 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:53:56Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | BioMed Central |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-439922020-05-04T17:03:22Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43992/ Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods Maine, Isabella R. Atterbury, Robert J. Chang, Kin-Chow Background: The use of the generic term “meat and animal derivatives” in declared ingredient lists of pet foods in the European Union is virtually universal. In the wake of the 2013 “horse meat scandal” in the human food chain, we examined the presence and authenticity of animal sources (cow, chicken, pig and horse) of proteins in a range of popular wet pet foods in the United Kingdom. Findings: Seventeen leading dog and cat foods were sampled for the relative presence of DNA from each of the four animal species by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. No horse DNA was detected. However, there was detection at substantial levels of unspecified animal species in most products tested. In 14 out of 17 samples, bovine, porcine and chicken DNA were found in various proportions and combinations but were not explicitly identified on the product labels. Of the 7 products with prominent headline descriptions containing the term “with beef”, only 2 were found to contain more bovine DNA (>50%) than pig and chicken DNA combined. Conclusions: There is a need for the pet food industry to show greater transparency to customers in the disclosure of the types of animal proteins (animal species and tissue types) in their products. Full disclosure of animal contents will (a) allow more informed choices to be made on purchases which are particularly important for pets with food allergies, (b) reduce the risk of product misinterpretation by shoppers, and (c) avoid potential religious concerns. BioMed Central 2015-04-01 Article PeerReviewed Maine, Isabella R., Atterbury, Robert J. and Chang, Kin-Chow (2015) Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica, 57 (1). p. 7. ISSN 1751-0147 Pet food Species authentication Labelling Food allergy Ingredients Animal proteins DNA detection https://doi.org/10.1186/s13028-015-0097-z doi:10.1186/s13028-015-0097-z doi:10.1186/s13028-015-0097-z |
| spellingShingle | Pet food Species authentication Labelling Food allergy Ingredients Animal proteins DNA detection Maine, Isabella R. Atterbury, Robert J. Chang, Kin-Chow Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods |
| title | Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods |
| title_full | Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods |
| title_fullStr | Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods |
| title_short | Investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods |
| title_sort | investigation into the animal species contents of popular wet pet foods |
| topic | Pet food Species authentication Labelling Food allergy Ingredients Animal proteins DNA detection |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43992/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43992/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43992/ |