What's In Your Dog's Food? Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

The American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), a non-governmental organization, maintains a list of nutrient standards for pet food. If a food is analyzed in a laboratory and found to contain the specified levels of ingredients like protein and vitamins, it may be placed on the market without ever actually having been fed to a dog!

Answer: 3%

This rule is called "the 3% rule." Under FDA guidelines, however, a food labeled "Beef for Dogs" must contain 95% beef. A food labeled "Beef Dinner for Dogs" must contain at least 25% beef. Better read those labels carefully!

Answer: Yes

The flavoring may be entirely artificial. Again, better read those labels!

Answer: False

According to the Food and Drug Administration, "Meats and animal tissues intended for animals other than people are not subject to USDA inspection." Some pet food manufacturers do undergo voluntary inspections.

Answer: False

Although scientific evidence of dead pet remains in pet foods is lacking, rendering plants admit that it does occur. Rendering plants gather up a variety of dead animals and animal products from many sources, such as farms, pounds and slaughterhouses, and render the carcasses into oils and meat meals. These form the main ingredients in most pet foods.

Answer: True

This means that a food with the ingredients "chicken meal, rice, liver meal" must have more chicken meal than rice, and more rice than liver meal.

Answer: False

Instead, the leftovers of both the meat and grain industries are turned into pet foods. Rendering produces meat meals that are never used in human foods but are the main ingredients in most dog foods. Leftover grains from many processes such as milling oatmeal (the leftovers of which are feeding oatmeal) and brewing beer (the leftovers of which are brewer's rice) are also used in pet foods.

Answer: True

Rendering companies gather restaurant grease all over the United States. This, along with fats from slaughtered animals, is rendered into feeding fats that are used in animal foods.

Answer: Meat from animals that were dead, diseased, down or dying at the slaughter plant

4-D animals are those that cannot be processed for human consumption because they arrived at the slaughterhouse dead or dying, were found to be diseased, or were down (unable to rise to be slaughtered.)

Answer: True

As two examples, procaine, used in some antibiotics for cattle, is a common contaminant in diets fed to racing greyhounds, and the FDA found pentobarbital, used for animal euthanasia, in many brands of dry pet foods.