Originally Posted by Angeli

50% meat might sound brilliant when compared with Whiskas or Felix paltry 4%, but Id still be a little concerned about what was making up the rest. There is definitely too much hype where commercial cat food is concerned - it's big business after all - and what should also be taken into account is that pet food manufacturers are not regulated in the same way as for human standards.

Someone here mentioned that they wouldn't feed anything to their cats unless they could eat it themselves - a very wise choice to make considering the recent scares involving some of these 'top brand' cat foods - Orijen, Applaws etc. Both of these brands seem to be very popular at the moment, but for what they both cost I would rather spend a little more and feed my cats on 100% human grade meat and know exactly what they are getting.

Originally Posted by Kiskasiberians

As a pet food manufacturer I strongly disagree with your statement about regulation. Pet food manufacturing under EU regulations are higher that for Human consumption food. (Applaws and Orijen do not fall wiuthin these rules as they are not manufactuered in the EU).

The Orijen scare was due to the Australian Government irradiating pet food at the docks. Nothing to do with the Orijen formula and was fully outside of Orijens control. Whilst this was most upsetting for the pets involved the Government should accept all responcibility.

The Applaws issue is down to people feeding the food as a complete food rather than a complementary food.

Back to regulations. If I was a butcher as long as I had a clean environment (inspected by Environmental Health only when there was a complaint) I can sell you anything. You don't know how old it is, how close (or past) it's use by date, it's true country of origin, if it's processed (mince, sausage, burgers etc) what is really in the formula etc.



As a pet food manufacturer:

• I have to be licenced with DEFRA
• have routine inspections from a Meat Hygine Services vet and from the Environmental Health
• have samples of the batches tested for bacteria including Salmonella
• only use Category 3 Meat (this is meat that is fit for human consumption)
• - meat from category 2 (fallen animals, or animals put down because of diseases that cannot be passed to humans) and category 1 (animals that have died because of dieases that can be passed to humans) has to be incinerated.
• Have to provide traceability back to the source
• Have to follow Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) processes the same as all human food processing plants (except butchers). This is a set of processes that monitors critical factors, (Freezer, fridge, room temperatures, cleaning schedules, bacteria, meat sources, dates etc)

Before I setup my company I did an analysis and concluded that it would be more profitable and less red tape to produce burgers and sausages than to produce pet food.