Episode 191: Understanding Pet Food Regulations & Labels

Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition), joins us from Purina to discuss how to read pet food labels effectively, and how you can make informed dietary choices for your dogs.

Watch the video version of this presentation here.

Transcript

Nicole Engelman  00:08

Welcome to the Good Dog Pod. Join us every other Wednesday when we discuss all things dogs, from health and veterinary care to training and behavior science, as well as the ins and outs of Good Dog and how our platform can help you successfully run your breeding program. Follow us and join Good Dog’s mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them. 

Thank you all so much for joining us for today's Good Breeder webinar. I'm Nicole. I am Good Dog’s community lead, and today we have a really exciting presentation for everyone about understanding pet food regulations and labels with our guest, Dr. Martha Cline, who has joined us previously. We're so excited to have her back, so I just want to share a quick overview of what we're going to focus on today. Pet food, of course, is a highly regulated industry to ensure both safety and quality for our dogs. Dr. Cline is joining us to help us understand what these regulations actually are and learn how to read pet food labels, because—maybe this is just my opinion—sometimes they can feel a little bit mysterious or difficult to understand. So she's going to help us learn how to read those effectively so we can not only empower ourselves, but also our puppy owners to make really informed dietary choices for our dogs. And of course, we're really excited to partner with Purina again to bring everyone this webinar. Please, as I know I mentioned this at every webinar, keep sharing ideas with us about what topics you'd like to see covered next, because that's how we're able to bring these to life, by bringing you presentations that you're curious about, topics that you want to learn more about. So please continue sharing those with us. You can do that now in the chat. You can also just email them to us anytime at breederteam@gooddog.com, and please keep them coming in. We love hearing your ideas. As I mentioned, we've really hosted a ton of webinars this year already. I think we're averaging about two a month. And then, of course, we have a library of ones from past years. So I just want to remind everyone where you can find those on the Good Breeder Center, in case there are topics that you're curious about that maybe we have covered in the past. So we'll drop a link to that in the chat now, so you can look through our Netflix (so to speak) of health webinars, because there's lots of good stuff in there that we've kind of accumulated over the years. I mentioned this very quickly, but during the Q&A segment of this presentation, we're going to prioritize some previously submitted questions first, and before I share a little bit more about Dr. Cline, I just want to talk a little bit more about Good Dog. For anyone who is new here and joining us and unfamiliar with who we are and what we do, Good Dog is on a mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them, by advocating for dog breeders like yourselves, educating the public and promoting canine health and responsible dog ownership through events just like this. We are a secure online community that is created just for dog breeders to connect with quality Good Dog applicants from across the country to find forever homes for your puppies. We help breeders manage all aspects of their breeding programs from start to finish. So everything that comes from listing a litter and finding new homes for those puppies and everything that happens in between, we're here to support breeders in that. And we also have a number of educational resources for breeders. So I know we have events like this, we have a podcast, we have online courses, health related discounts—all designed to really support your breeding program and other aspects as well beyond the placement process, to really help your programs thrive in all ways. So if you are not yet a member of our community, we invite you to learn more at GoodDog.com/join. We'll drop that link in the chat and please, again, reach out to us with any questions, whether you're a part of our community already, and you weren't familiar that we offered health testing discounts or educational resources, or you're just interested in learning a bit more from our team, you can just email us anytime at breederteam@gooddog.com, and someone will be happy to talk to you. 

And then I just want to share a little bit more about Dr. Cline before I pass things over to her. Dr. Cline is the Senior Manager for Veterinary Technical Communications at Nestle Purina Pet Care. Dr. Cline is a board certified veterinary nutritionist by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. So no one better here to speak to this topic today than Dr. Cline. Prior to working at Purina, she was a clinical nutritionist for Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in New Jersey, where she continues to provide nutritional support. In 2021, Dr. Cline served as Chair of the American Animal Hospital Association's Task Force for Nutrition and Weight Management Guidelines. She's also the past president of the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition and co-editor of the textbook Obesity In the Dog and Cat. And in her spare time, Dr. Cline enjoys running with her Pointer, Dave. I love that name for a dog. It's so great. So Dr. Cline, without further ado, I'm going to pass things over to you for our presentation.

Dr. Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition)  04:53

Thank you so much. Nicole. Well, she mentioned Dave, and I just wanted to share my dog Dave with you all. He is my English Pointer. I actually adopted him from our local shelter. He was surrendered, unfortunately, because I think his original adopters were not prepared for the level of energy that he has. But he's been with me for about nine years, and we are presently training for the Berlin Marathon, which is really exciting. So we had a pretty tough run this morning because it is incredibly hot and humid. I'm just very thankful that we have alternatives to E-collars these days, as we're trying to deal with a little skin infection that he has right now. But anyways, he's a great dog, and I just love sharing him with you all, and also you can probably see behind me: I have my cats as well, which are my office companions. 

All right, so we're going to start out first talking about pet food safety, and in getting into that, we'll talk about the regulation and safety surrounding pet food. So one thing that's important to realize when we're talking about pet food safety is it's not just the responsibility of one single group. It's actually many different groups working together that are responsible for the safety and the regulation of pet food so we're going to have federal government agencies, and we'll talk a little bit about the individual roles that these government agencies are going to play. And then we'll also talk about AAFCO, which is the Association of American Feed Control Officials. Now that being said, we have regulation, but a lot of this also falls onto the pet food manufacturer themselves, and so there's a lot of safety protocols and quality assurance protocols that are also in place through the manufacturers, that are the responsibility of the manufacturers. And then for me, as a veterinarian and for the veterinary professionals, we also play a role in the safety and regulation of pet food. And so when I was full time in clinical practice, I'm on the front line of seeing when there's potentially an issue cropping up with pet food, and so it's something that's really important for me as a veterinarian, and what I try to communicate out to veterinarians now, and what I would also communicate to you all as consumers, is that if you're concerned that there's an issue with pet food, it's really important to tell the pet food company, and you also are able to report concerns, and we'll talk a little bit more about how to do that, too. 

So when we look at the government agencies, pet food is going to be regulated on a federal and a state level. So on a federal level, most of this is really going to come from the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration), and this is going to be through the Center for Veterinary Medicine. They're going to be responsible for the safety and utility of ingredients. They're looking at the requirements for manufacturers to follow good manufacturing practices and basic labeling rules. So AAFCO also (we’ll talk a little bit more about that); they're going to kind of lay out what all should be included on a pet food label, but the FDA does have some basic labeling rules that are required. 

The state: this is where we're really going to see a lot of pet food regulation. The states themselves, they're typically going to regulate and enforce and this is going to sometimes happen, and the Department of Agriculture, sometimes it's going to be affiliated with a specific university, usually, like the land-grant university in the state. Sometimes it's going to be affiliated with the state chemist office. It's just really going to depend state by state. AAFCO does actually provide (depending on what state you're in) a directory, so that you can look that information up. 

USDA: USDA is going to oversee animal and meat products until they become pet food ingredients, and so once they become in possession of the pet food companies, then USDA won't have oversight of that anymore. USDA is also going to oversee the National Organic Program, so if there are any pet foods that claim organic, they must comply within those regulations.

FTC is also going to be important. (The Federal Trade Commission.) And along with the FDA, they're going to help govern pet food labeling requirements. So there's lots of different groups that are going to be involved in the regulation of pet food. So when we look at the laws that govern pet food, in 1938 the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was signed into law. This particular law gave the FDA responsibility for ensuring human and animal food is safe, properly manufactured and is adequately labeled. It's going to require that all animal foods, just like human foods, again, they are safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, they don't contain harmful substances, and they are going to be truthfully labeled. The FDA is going to have jurisdiction over animal feed that is going to have interstate commerce, so crossing that state line. So in 2007, this is when we had an FDA Amendment Act. And this increased the FDA’s responsibility and authority. And this also actually started the Reportable Food Registry. So from a food safety lens, it really led to this centralized database for information on recalled food, and so some of you are probably signed up for this. I'm actually signed up for this, but you can actually sign up to be alerted whenever there's a food recall. I did it initially because I wanted to know if there's any pet food recall so I could get those notifications as soon as possible. But when you sign up, it actually sends you recalls for everything. So you'll get recalls for human foods and supplements and pet foods as well. In 2011, this is where we had the Food Safety Modernization Act. So we call this FSMA, and what this did is it created new mandatory standards for both humans and pet foods, and this included giving authority to conduct facility inspections and verifying compliance. And FISMA is a humongous law, but generally what it did was really shifted the goal from response based recalls to more prevention with risk-based food safety standards, so it really kind of put in place a lot more preventative protocols, rather than focusing just on the response. So FISMA was really important when it was signed into law. Anytime a law like this is signed in there's always a grace period for pet food manufacturers to comply with this. And so it was phased out over about a 10-year period. So by the time we got to about 2020, is that all of those companies are all pet food manufacturers within the US are going to be having to comply with FSMA.

Dr. Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition)  12:05

So what about therapeutic pet foods? So, in 2016, the FDA formalized guidelines on therapeutic pet foods, and it's important to understand that when we look at therapeutic pet foods under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act is that they're actually considered to be drugs because they are formulated to basically exert some type of effect on disease. And so the CVM (so that Center for Veterinary Medicine) has generally practiced more enforcement discretion with these products when looking at them. So in 2016 they put out guidelines for therapeutic pet foods. And again, this isn't all of the guidelines, but basically, to recommend therapeutic pet foods should be under the order of a veterinarian with a valid veterinary client/patient relationship. The labeling materials for the animal owner can't bear any indication for therapeutic use, and so this is one reason why you're not going to see any advertisements specifically for therapeutic pet food marketed specifically to the consumer. They have to contain only acceptable pet food ingredients, so there can't be any drugs or unapproved additives, and they also have to comply with all other labeling and regulatory requirements. So there is no pre-market review of data to ensure safety and efficacy with these therapeutic foods. And so it's really important, when I as a veterinarian am recommending a therapeutic food, I always make sure that I'm going to review the information related to that food, assess it for its merits and limitations. I'm typically looking at nutrient profiles, contacting the pet food company to try to get information. And then, for me, anytime I make a dietary recommendation using a therapeutic food, it's always important to monitor those outcomes. So it's really important, when we're talking about therapeutic foods, that they be done in collaboration between a pet owner and a veterinarian. 

So AAFCO is the Association of American Feed Control Officials, and this is actually a voluntary organization, so it's not a government organization. However, it is composed of state and federal regulatory officials. What AAFCO does is AAFCO is going to promote uniformity through laws and regulations and enforcement policies. So I'm talking from my home today so I can show you guys the official publication of AAFCO. So this is 2024; I don't have the 2025 copy. But basically every year, the AAFCO is going to put out their titled official publication. And this is basically going to have outlining guidelines, like, I just literally opened the page right here. But it'll say, like, guidelines for natural claims. So if you're going to make a natural claim, how you should follow that. They'll also talk about what would entail a feeding trial, or what should be on a pet food label, and how that language should be written. So it's really, again, trying to create uniformity in the market. It's very, very important to understand that AAFCO has no regulatory authority. What they're doing is they're guiding the feed regulators and pet food companies on what the dog and cat nutrient profiles are, what are ingredient definitions, what are our label standards, and what are our feeding trial protocols, among many other things. AAFCO does not regulate, they do not inspect, they do not test, they do not approve, and they do not certify pet food. One thing that I've heard really commonly is that people will say, Well, I would just recommend an AAFCO approved food. AAFCO doesn't actually approve foods. That's not what their role is. They don't certify. And I would say that for the most part, if you see any company claiming that this is an AAFCO-approved food or an AAFCO-certified food, that would be a red flag for me, because they do not do that. What I think people get confused about is the nutritional adequacy statement. So we'll talk a little bit more about the nutritional adequacy statement a little later in this talk, but that's basically where they're going to say that this food is formulated or feed trial tested for a specific life stage of an animal. And I think that's where people get confused about AAFCO-approved versus not. And again, AAFCO does not approve pet food, and I've even heard veterinarians say this is that they just recommend AAFCO-approved foods. And I'm like, “Well, they don't do that.” So AAFCO does have this really fantastic website. This is a consumer facing website. I even recommend this for veterinarians. And you'll actually see right on the very front page, if you go to this web page, that they actually say that they don't approve or regulate pet food. So they try to make it very clear what their role is. But this is a really handy website. If you ever have any specific questions trying to understand pet food labeling, or if you're trying to find your local feed control official—this is a really fantastic website. They did a really nice job putting this together. 

All right, so what are the responsibilities of pet food companies? Well, pet food companies have to comply with government and industry regulations, especially if, again, if they're in interstate commerce, they are going to adopt that AAFCO model, Good Manufacturing Practice regulations, all of these things are going to involve training, maintenance, packaging, labeling, storage, inspecting, keeping good records and keeping record keeping guidelines and so all of these are really, really important. Pet food companies are also going to put in place protocols to help to prevent their foods from causing harm. So they're going to have different hazard management plans to identify and control threats to product safety. This is going to come anywhere from sourcing of raw ingredients, preventative measures like hygiene design, pathogen monitoring, again, really important with record keeping. 

And then veterinarians. So what are vet meds’ roles in food safety? I would even bring this into my role as a veterinarian and all of your roles as veterinarians, our role is to really help to educate you all about pet food safety, and also to help identify if there are potential pet food related illnesses, and to report those suspected cases, even if you don't know for sure. So reporting is really, really important, and I would also really emphasize reporting to the company as well. So for example, at Purina, we have the ability to, if we're getting multiple calls in on the same product, on the same problem, we have tracing abilities where we can actually start flagging that kind of thing really early and start investigating early if we really see patterns that we're noticing in that and so it's also important to make sure that we are reporting to the pet food company as well. 

So package tracing: one thing I talk to pet owners about is it's really, really important for you to hang on to the bag. So I would not take a bag of food and dump it into a container and then get rid of the bag. And one reason, if there's a problem with that food, we really need that packaging to be able to help us identify when that food was manufactured and where it came from. So this is a nice example. You can look at this number right here. So if we have this number right here, I know the year, I know the day, I know what factory, I know exactly what time, and I know what pack line this food actually came from. And so this is why it's really important for us to hold on to pet food containers, hold on to the bags, especially if we are suspecting that we have a problem, so that we can actually try to identify that. So if you're storing food, the best way to store dry food is to keep it into the original packaging, but then put it in a container that you can actually seal shut.

And then our Safety Reporting Portal. So this will link you up to the FDA Safety Reporting Portal that we talked about a little bit earlier. So again, this was established in the mid-2000s basically as a centralized place to report any concerns or issues that people may be experiencing. One thing they will absolutely ask for is that information from the pet food label. And so again, it's really important to make sure that you have that information available as well. Another thing that you can do too is report to the State Feed Control Official. State Feed Control Officials, again, in my experience in clinical practice, if I've had concerns about pet food, I've also reported through them, and sometimes they act even quicker than what we'll see on a federal level, just because they're going to be in that individual state. And so again, you would find all of that information on the AAFCO link. All right, so just to kind of summarize: government agencies, pet food manufacturers, veterinarians, all of us are really important in keeping pet food safe. AAFCO is again providing those guidelines, but they're not inspecting, they're not testing, they're not approving or certifying pet food. Now, food safety, you can see, has evolved quite a bit over the last century, and our safety standards have become a lot stricter, and again, this is more from a preventative standpoint more than anything else, and veterinary professionals are key to educating clients about pet food safety. But again, they're also going to be really on the first lines when we're suspecting some type of concern related to pet food. And so it's really important to get veterinarians involved if we're thinking that we're seeing something related to pet food that we shouldn't be seeing.

Dr. Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition)  22:03

Next I'm going to talk about supplements. So supplements, this is going to be a whole nother ball game when it comes to things that we give our pets. So I would say that pet food itself is a very, very highly regulated industry, but this is going to be different than supplements. So when we look at dietary supplements and definition, this is going to be a product intended for ingestion that, among other requirements, contains dietary ingredients intended to supplement a diet. This is going to be different than a drug. A drug is going to be a product that is intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent disease. So again, two very different things. So when we're looking at dietary ingredients, these are typically going to be vitamins and minerals. These can be herbs or botanicals. They could be amino acids. They can be other dietary supplements that are part of the food supply. So we can think about things like probiotics or enzymes, for example. So when we look at how supplements are regulated, in 1994 DSHEA was signed into law. So this is the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, and this was very specifically for human dietary supplements, and this was to have them fall under foods. Now saying that supplements are not going to be reviewed for safety and efficacy by the FDA before they are marketed. Also important to understand that DSHEA does not apply to supplements for use in animals. These are going to be regulated as a dietary supplement or animal drug, depending on the ingredients and the intended use. So some foods and treats are going to fall under AAFCO, and again, that's going to be tightly regulated, but there's going to be a lot more limited regulation when it comes to pet food supplements. So there's really just an overall lack of uniformity in terms of quality controls and safety and efficacy on veterinary pet supplements. And again, that's really just due to limited regulation. The supplement market is huge, so in 2006 (so this is like two decades ago), about 10 to 33% of dogs and cats in the US were fed a supplement. But when you look at growth rates since about 2018 there's an annual growth rate of nearly 20% so we know that this number is really, really large. Now when we look at some of the issues that we see with supplements in veterinary medicine, these are just some examples: but veterinary hemp supplements, so these are really common right now, and one study, they basically looked at the CBD content of these, and found that they were really, really highly variable. They also found that four out of 29 products had heavy metal contamination. Looking at glucosamine supplements. So this was a study that just looked at six oral glucosamine supplements and found that they ranged anywhere from about 64% to about 112% of the label claim. So, you know, not such a big deal if you go a little bit over, but really not great if you're under, because, again, that's not what the consumer is actually paying for. This was a study that was done in 2011 so this was done at Ontario Veterinary College. This was done in the Ontario area. Basically, what the researchers did is they went out and purchased 25 products for dogs and cats, these probiotic products, and what they found, with the exception of two, that most contained low concentrations of viable organisms or had inaccurate labels, so interestingly, seven of the products, about 32%, misspelled the name of at least one organism on their label, which is a little bit of a red flag. Only eight probiotic products had a proper label with a specific bacteria name with no spelling errors and a clear statement of the number of viable organisms. So of that two, one, fortunately was Fortiflora. But again, there were only two products in this study that actually had those acceptable labels that met and exceeded label claims. 

So one thing that supplement companies can do is they can join the National Animal Supplement Council. This is a third party audit that occurs every two years. Basically, when you become a member of NASC, it’s going to require you to comply with their regular quality standards and to pass random independent testing to ensure that they meet label claims. And so this is one thing that in the supplement world for animals that does exist. And you know, again, a lot of the quality control and safety that comes from supplements is really going to be manufacturer dependent. And so for me, when I was (and I am), but when I was full time as a veterinarian, and I'm still practice part time as a veterinarian in the clinic, you know, I always talk to clients that if I'm going to recommend a supplement to a client, I really want to make sure that there is safety and efficacy associated with that product, because I know that there can be limited quality controls when it comes to the manufacturer of supplements. So looking for things like an NASC seal can be really important. There are also other organizations like consumerlab.com; they're going to independently test and evaluate supplements, and then also for human supplements, you're going to have the USPDSVP, which is the US Pharmacopeia Dietary Supplement Verification Program. And so there are some options for supplement companies when it comes to looking at safety and quality controls. Now, there's a lot of supplements out there. The NIH does have a website on dietary supplements that I've even gone to myself, especially if somebody brings in something that I'm not familiar with, again, to help us kind of understand what our knowledge is of certain dietary supplements. And so this is a web page that I recommend, especially if you pick up a supplement that you're not familiar with or you're interested in giving a specific supplement, this can give you a lot of details on specific ingredients found in supplements. So there are so many options when it comes to veterinary supplements. And again, for me as a veterinarian, it's my responsibility when I'm working with clients to ensure that I'm recommending a product with proven safety and efficacy from a trusted company. And so I hold all of the supplement companies that I recommend to a high responsibility to basically show that they have safety and efficacy with their product. I also am going to assess the individual patient. So is there a need for this? What kind of supportive data do I have? Again, I'm going to assess that commercial source, and then I want to make sure I'm keeping in mind the patient itself, and assessing any outcomes that may be associated with giving that supplement. So just to summarize: supplements, again, this is very different than pet food, but there is limited regulation for pet food supplements, and that really does lead to a lack of data on quality control, safety and efficacy, and so it's important. Again, I recommend talking with your veterinarian about the safety and efficacy of supplements, especially before you give a particular supplement or recommend a particular supplement. NASC can be helpful again, because they have rigorous standards and testing, and they can be helpful in identifying companies that are kind of stepping up their game a little bit. There are obviously going to be some companies out there that may not fall under NASC, and again, may still have some very good quality controls, but sometimes it can make it a little challenging to identify who those are, and then vets are going to be responsible again for ensuring the products that they recommend have proven safety and efficacy associated with them. And so again, this is where I really recommend talking with a veterinarian.

Dr. Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition)  29:55

So we're going to move into just “What should I feed my pet?” but we'll talk about it kind of in the context of a pet food label. So one thing that's important is that whenever I'm making a feeding recommendation, I'm always doing a nutritional assessment, and I'm not just assessing just the diet itself. I want to assess the diet, the animal, and the feeding management. So as a pet owner for many, many, many years, I've owned dogs nearly my whole entire life; all of the dogs that I've had since I have been a veterinarian have been on a different diet, and that's because they all had really, really different needs compared to another pet that I may have had. So for example, Dave my English Pointer, this dog eats between 1800 and 2000 calories a day. If I had fed that to my previous dog, who was—I called her a Music City Shepherd, because she was born under somebody's porch in Nashville—if I fed her nearly those many calories, she would have had a lot of excess body weight on her. And so that dog, she was an easy keeper, where I always had to feed her right at her resting energy requirement, or slightly under just to keep her lean. So two totally different dogs that have completely different dietary needs. 

Also feeding management. So I was consulting on a case from my vet hospital in New Jersey, just yesterday, and this was talking about a multi-pet household, and these pets now, one of them needs to go on a different diet, and so we're really talking about: we know what diets these animals all need to eat, but how are we actually going to manage that in the household, and are we going to have to make some concessions on a diet choice, depending on how we can actually manage that house? And so there are a lot of different considerations that go into making a recommendation. 

So I always keep this slide in here for the veterinarians, but I wanted to put this in here for you all as well. The way I try to coach veterinarians on taking a diet history, a lot of times, veterinarians are just going to ask, and hopefully not so much anymore, but are going to ask, “What diet are you feeding?” So when we think about “What diet are you feeding?” that's a close ended question. And typically, the way pet owners are typically going to answer that is they're just going to say what the main meal is. So what their main diet is that they’re feeding. So if somebody asked me about Dave, I would say, “I feed Dave Purina Bright Minds,” and then that would probably be it. But what I really want to know as a veterinarian is I really want to know: tell me everything that you're putting in your dog's mouth from morning to night. And that's going to be really helpful for me to be able to assess for any nutritional risk factors, to be able to have a better understanding. Is this a house that really loves to give a lot of treats? Are we giving lots of supplements in this house so that I can manage all of the aspects of that diet history? And you can't make a good nutrition recommendation without having a good nutrition and diet history first. So I wanted to put this up here because there's a couple of really nice examples of diet history forms. The QR code will take you to the Purina Institute Diet History form WSAVA, which is the World Small Animal Veterinary Association. They also have their global nutrition committee that has a short diet history form. And you guys can look at these forms to kind of give you an idea of what I really, truly want to know from a dietary standpoint, of what you're giving your pet. And I can tell you that I think if any of you walked into your veterinarians with one of these diet history forms printed out that you filled out for them, they would be so impressed. I know that I would be like jumping for joy in the background and super happy. I would love it so, so, so much. And I talk about nutrition every single day, and when I'm in the clinic, all my new cases, they all have to fill out diet history forms. But all of my recheck cases, I love it when my owners actually bring in their short diet history form that gives me a summary of everything that they're doing. It makes it really, really easy for me, and I can see everything that's actually going on. So I just wanted to point that out to you guys, in case any of you wanted to fill that out for your veterinarian next time you go in. 

Some of you may be familiar with this, but WSAVA (so again, that World Small Animal Veterinary Association), they do have some guidelines on selecting pet foods that if you scan the QR code, it'll link you up to that. And this is just a tool. This would be for veterinarians and for pet owners, and it's really just meant to provide guidelines for pet food, or selecting pet food and just helping owners be able to make informed decisions for their pets. Now, one thing I'll say: looking at all of the questions, some of these may be a little difficult. So I always think the question on what quality control processes for ingredients and finished products do you have . . . unless pet owners are really familiar with the type of quality controls that go on when it comes to making pet food, it can actually be really hard to understand the answer that you're getting from that different manufacturer. So some of these can be a little bit tricky in terms of the answers, but again, it is good just kind of as a baseline to have an idea of when you're looking at different pet food brands. Some pet food companies actually have this information already ready to go, if you ask them for it. But this is a nice resource, again, just to help guide some questions that people may have about manufacturers. 

So when we look at the label, I know labels can be super overwhelming. When you look at a pet food label, there's so much information on a pet food label, but it's also important to understand that the label itself is a highly regulated document, and so there are things that are required to be on pet food labels, and anything that you put on a pet food label has to comply with the standards that are set forth if the state itself is adopting AAFCO into their law. So there's nine things that are going to be required on a pet food label. We're not going to go through all of these, because that would be a very, very long talk, but when we're looking at the principal display panel—so a principal display panel would be, if you're looking straight at a pet food. you need to have the product name, the brand name, the species designation, and the quantity statement. Those all need to be really visible right on that principal display panel. And that's usually what you're going to see when you're walking down a pet food aisle. Now when we go to other parts of the pet food label, this is where we get into all of that fine fine print that sometimes can be . . . I know now that I have to pull out some assistance to be able to read some of these. Very small print that we see on pet food labels! But this is going to include our nutritional adequacy statement, ingredient statement, guaranteed analysis, feeding guidelines, manufacturer, distributor, name and address and the calorie content. So calorie content, this was actually a pre-submitted question, but calorie, so big C calorie and kcal are exactly the same. So a calorie that you see on a human nutrition facts label is going to be the equivalent to one kcal. So one human big C calorie is equivalent to one pet food kcal. So I know that can be confusing for some people. I've had some people try to do the conversion, which is basically by 1000, and so a lot of calories when they do that. So if you look at if you were giving your dog a piece of cheese, and we were trying to limit the calories to 10% of that calorie intake, the calorie intake—you can look at that nutrition facts label on that and get the amount of calories are going to be there. So if, say, you can only have 60 calories to work with that day, it'll give you an idea of what you have to work with.

Dr. Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition)  37:57

So we’re going to talk about nutritional adequacy statements first. And this was one of the things I said that sometimes can be confusing, where I think the confusion about AAFCO-approved foods comes from. So if we look at the different statements that are on there, it's going to say animal feeding test, or it can say formulated to meet nutritional levels established by AAFCO. So animal feeding test: using AAFCO procedures will substantiate that this dog food provides complete and balanced nutrition for growth of puppies and adult maintenance in dogs, including growth of large size dogs. And so we'll talk a little bit more about that large size dog in just a minute. But when we look at how we break this down, we're going to get three very important key pieces of information from this nutritional adequacy statement. First, it's going to tell us that the diet is complete and balanced. So it's going to mean all of the essential nutrients are present and that they are in the correct proportions, so complete and balanced. Alternatively, we may see something that says intermittent or supplemental feeding. That typically is going to mean that there are going to be a nutrient or some nutrients that are not going to meet that AAFCO nutrient profile that is set forth for cats or dogs. When we look at the basis of the statement, this is going to say it's either been formulated or put through an animal feeding test. So in an ideal world, a company would formulate to nutritional levels and do an AAFCO feeding test. That doesn't always occur, and that's okay. That doesn't always happen. Being in the industry now, sometimes, if you tweak a formulation a little bit, you have to go back to a formulated statement or refeed it. So sometimes that's where you might see some label changes over time on certain pet foods. But for me, I always want to make sure we're formulating to AAFCO, and then, if possible, we could do a feeding test. And I would say that's really important when it comes to things like gestation and lactation and then also for growth. So this last part is going to tell you what life stage. And life stage, you can have growth, you can have maintenance, you can have gestation or lactation, or you can have all life stages. So that's what you can see on a pet food label. And if you do an animal feeding test and it says all life stages, that means that you had to do an animal feeding test through adult maintenance, you had to do one for gestation and lactation, and then also for growth. 

So this is a question I have gotten really commonly as a vet nutritionist in private practice: do I have to feed a complete and balanced diet every day? I always am like, “Why not?” Like, it would be great if I could eat a complete and balanced diet every day, which I know does not always happen, but when we think about feeding a complete and balanced diet, it's important to keep in mind that cellular metabolism is minute by minute, and so it's going to require certain precursor compounds to always be available. Certain body stores are going to provide immediate precursors, but there are going to be certain nutrients that can't be stored, and so you're going to have to have some type of consistent intake, and this is where you're going to get why we're going to have the need for essential nutrients, because that will need to come from the diet. So just for example, like arginine, this is an amino acid; we can deplete stores in about three hours. Lysine and tryptophan, a little under eight hours. Thiamin, about one to two weeks. Zinc, less than six and vitamin A—this is a fat soluble vitamin, so it's going to be stored in fat—this can take about six months to deplete. So again, it's not going to be the same for every single nutrient, but we want to make sure we're having some type of consistent intake. I also talked to owners, too, a lot of times, you know, we do see there are nutritional deficiencies that still occur in human populations. So I think a lot of people are under the impression that, you know, we don't see a lot of nutrient deficiencies in people, but they absolutely do occur. There are a lot of fortified foods that people are going to consume now that are going to help to starve off things like nutrient deficiencies. So think about things like iodine, for example. And the other thing is, I will sometimes have clients ask, “Well, you know, wild dogs and cats, they don't eat a complete and balanced diet every day.” And I try to remind people that you know a wild animal, their goal in life is to survive and reproduce. And when I'm feeding my pets, so when I'm feeding Dave, I'm feeding him for optimal nutrition. I'm feeding him to support his performance, to support his activity, and also for prevention of disease, so really to promote health longevity, and then also, if he were to develop some type of disease in the future that I could help manage with diet, I could do that as well. And so there's really different goals in place when it comes to us feeding a complete and balanced diet to our dogs compared to wild wolves, for example.

Dr. Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition)  42:59

So looking at the nutritional adequacy statement. So when we're looking at formulated to meet nutritional needs, this is going to compare a product's nutrient content by calculation or laboratory analysis to the appropriate nutrient profile. Again, my preference would be to compare based on laboratory analysis, but it can also be from calculation. This is again going to show that the product contains the proper amounts of recognized essential nutrients to meet the needs of a healthy animal. Things that this isn't going to account for. This isn't going to account for things like palatability, digestibility, nutrient bioavailability, and so this can really come in helpful to complement this with an animal feeding test. 

So animal feeding tests, there are a large amount of procedures detailed out in the AAFCO official publication about this. But animal feeding tests, they do have limitations, absolutely. But again, it can be overall. Doing these trials can have more predictive value to the overall performance of a food. So adult maintenance, these are going to occur for about 26 weeks. Growth: this is going to be weaned, but under eight weeks and under nine weeks for a kitten. So eight weeks for a puppy, nine weeks for a kitten. Gestation and lactation: this is going to be at or before estrus, until about four weeks postpartum for a canine, six weeks for a feline. And then you're also going to look at the litters; they are also going to be monitored as part of this as well. And then for life stage, this means that you would do animal feeding tests for growth, gestation, and lactation. Now, when we look at specific life stage questions, so things like, “Does my large breed puppy need a special diet?” or “What about senior pet foods?” So I know as many of you all are breeders, some of you are very likely breeding large breed puppies. So this is all really interesting for me, because this is all things that changed from the time I finished my residency to now. So back in 2014 AAFCO included in their official publication guidelines for large breed puppies—actually, I think it was 2016. Probably getting the year wrong, so let's just say the 20-teens. So what they did in AAFCO, basically, is they set a max upper limit for calcium, and then they also define that calcium phosphorus ratio, which has been this way for a long time, but making sure they set that Max calcium amount, and then having a calcium phosphorus ratio of one to one to two to one. As many of you that breed large breed dogs know that rapid growth is not equal to optimal growth. There are lots of documented studies and concerns about over feeding and feeding excessive amounts of calcium that can be detrimental to growing large and giant breed dogs. So this can cause skeletal malformations. It can also reduce bone density. And so it's really important when we're thinking about large breed puppies, they have different needs than small breed puppies. And so this is where now we'll see, on the AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement, we'll see that greater than 70 pounds for growth of large size dogs, and it will be qualified as greater than, or equal to 70 pounds. That 70 pounds is lean weight as a mature adult, so not overweight or obese weight; that is lean, mature adult weight. So for those particular dogs, feeding them a diet that is for large breed puppies, is recommended. When we're looking at nutritional adequacy statements, for the most part, I'll say most of the nutritional adequacy statements you're going to see are going to say that they're including large breed puppies or large breed dogs with that 70 pound designation. If you don't see it, the guidelines at this point is that that should still be in place. The only foods that you would really want to avoid are going to be the ones that say they exclude large breed puppies, or they're for small breed puppies. But if you see something that says all life stages, you can assume that they're going to max that calcium level. So again, it's going to avoid excess feeding. The other thing I'll add, though, besides just the max calorie amount, is that growth formulas for large breed puppies do tend to be a bit less energy dense to control that higher rate of growth. Again, that's not something that we're going to see across all the board when we look at those formulas, but for the most part, there tend to be typically less energy dense, again, to help control for that higher growth rate. And so for me, if I had a large breed puppy, I would absolutely be making sure that I'm feeding something for large breed puppies. And the other thing from a recommendation is, you know, for a long time, people recommended taking large breed puppies off of puppy food and putting them on adult food. And this is really primarily to avoid that excess calcium concern. But at this point, because we have these guidelines in place, and because we have a lot more knowledge about how to feed large breed puppies, I would recommend keeping them on a large breed puppy food in particular, just because if you put them on an adult formula, they're potentially going to be missing out on a lot of other nutrients that should be in the diet. All right, so should my puppy get a calcium supplement? No, please don't do that. If they are on a complete and balanced diet, they do not need to have any additional calcium supplement into their diet. And also, this potentially could be a growth issue for them later. And then, when should I transition my pet to an adult diet? So the guideline is: once they reach about 80% skeletal maturity. Well, that's not a very clean guideline for a lot of people, so for the most part, this is generally what I tend to think of, for a lot of dogs, right around that 12 month age is going to be a good time for them. Some really small dogs, they're going to be at maturity closer to about 10 months. Our large and giant breed dogs, this is where we're really potentially going to want to keep them on a puppy food for a bit longer, depending on the size of that puppy, and so in some really large dogs, you know, sometimes they'll keep them on for up to two years, but usually, again, that 15 to 18 month period for most dogs is going to be sufficient for them. Again, that 80% skeletal maturity is usually what we're looking at. 

Now, senior pets: it's important to keep in mind there is no AAFCO profile that's specific to senior dogs or cats. This is really going to require an individual assessment of the individual patient. So senior pets are very, very diverse. When we look at senior pet formulations, this is usually going to be based on a company philosophy about what that company feels that senior pets would benefit from. And this is just an example on evaluating diets for senior pets; they can be really, really highly variable. For example, in senior dogs, they found a wide variation in nutrient profiles, and they were not consistent with the respondents’ opinions. Same thing that we're seeing with senior cats. 

All right, I know we're hitting the top of the hour here, but I want to talk about ingredients for a minute. So for pet food consumers across the board, choosing based on ingredients, we find again and again, it's very, very important. So when we're looking at ingredients: these ingredients are going to have official names and definitions, defined by AAFCO, so they have to be compliant. Only approved ingredients are allowed and they're going to be listed in decreasing order by weight. An ingredient list is not going to have any indication of ingredient quality. When we talk by weight—many of you've probably heard this before—but obviously things with a lot of moisture in them can potentially appear higher up on the list when there's not so many nutrients present, and then things that are dried ingredients may appear lower on the list, but they may be a lot more concentrated in nutrients. Now it's also important to keep in mind that ingredients and food are sources of nutrients. Animals need nutrients, not specific ingredients. And so the way I try to explain it is there are endless combinations of ingredients that we can use to provide the required sets of nutrients that dogs need. So when we're looking at ingredients that are really common in pet food, typically, we can see them divided into protein sources, fat sources, carbohydrate sources, fiber and vitamins and minerals. Now all calories are going to come from these top three right here: protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Purina does have this really nice website that they put together looking at the role of ingredients and that every ingredient does have a purpose. Another important concept is looking at complementary protein sources. So a lot of times, pet food companies will use different types of proteins in their foods so that they can basically create a complete amino acid profile. So just for example, chicken meal is going to be low and things like leucine and tryptophan, corn is going to have a lot more leucine. Soybean has a lot more tryptophan. And so a lot of times you'll see companies, they may combine these two sources that by themselves, would have a low biologic value, but when together, they're going to provide all essential amino acids and have a high biologic value.

Dr. Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition)  52:50

All right, byproducts. So the definition of byproduct, which I'm not a big fan of the name, but it is the official definition: this is going to be any ingredient that's produced or left over when some other product or ingredient is made. So again, it's important to remember that byproducts are potentially edible animal parts that are not going to be widely consumed in the US, but are often going to be consumed by other cultures. When we look at byproducts themselves, often they can provide more essential nutrients than muscle meat. Typically wild animals, what they typically consume first are going to be the byproducts or the animal organs, because of this high nutritional value. Then also, I think it's important to keep in mind that using byproducts is sustainable, because muscle meat only is really going to account for about 32 to 48% of the livestock’s body weight, and it's important not to waste all of that. So another thing I've gotten really commonly is people being confused about the chemicals in pet food. Typically, where they're getting confused about is the vitamins and minerals that are included in pet foods. So there's 23 essential vitamins and minerals for dogs and 25 for cats. And typically, these are going to be listed on a pet food label by names, but sometimes are not easy to recognize, when really these are, you know, vitamin B1 or vitamin E or pantothenic acid, which is not so easy either, but vitamin B5 so these are all things that we'll see included into pet food.

Dr. Martha G Cline, DVM DACVIM (Nutrition)  54:30

So again, when I'm making a nutrition recommendation or picking a pet food, it's about the animal, the diet and the feeding management, not just one of those things. And again, I would think about, when you're giving a nutrition history to your veterinarian, thinking about the way that it's recommended, really tell them everything that you're feeding throughout that entire day, so not just telling them what the main meal is. That nutritional adequacy statement, at least for me, is one of the most important things on a pet food label; it's going to tell you if it's a complete and balance it's going to tell you if it's formulated or underwent a feed trial, and it's going to tell you what life stage is intended for. And so that's a really important thing to look at when we're looking at a pet food label. Again, animals need nutrients, not those individual ingredients. And again, there's an endless number of ingredient combinations that we can use to get those and then byproducts. Again, this is typically there to be very nutrient dense and help us reduce food waste. 

So let me answer a couple of the other questions that came through ahead of time. So one of the other questions that came through is talking about feeding recommendations on the back of the bag, and I've heard this for years and years and years, is that if you follow the instructions on the back of the bag, the animal is going to gain too much weight. So there's a couple of things to understand about the feeding instructions on the back of the bag. So one, feeding instructions typically are not taking into account the fact that many of you—all, including myself—give pets treats and other foods. So those feeding instructions are typically for if you were only going to feed that food and nothing else. And so I think that's part of the reason why we see overfeeding. The other thing to keep in mind is that this is a guideline. So this is a place to start. It's assuming that all pets are the same. They have the exact same metabolism, where, for you all who have owned many, many pets and dogs over the years, realize that there are some that even come from the same litter that are going to be very different. So again, this is just going to be a recommendation. This is always a good place to start. It's always fantastic to ask a veterinarian to verify a calculation or verify a feeding amount for you, or maybe help you do that calculation. Again, doing it on an individual basis is really helpful, because that is going to be more specific to that individual pet, and what else that pet is getting. A couple other questions that I had, and then I'll go through the chat is views on raw feeding. So that is a big question. I could give you a whole lecture on that one. But basically, the way that I try to talk to clients about raw feeding is, I usually tell them, you know, if I am going to recommend a medication to your dog that I know has some documented risk associated with it, it's really important for me to inform a client of those risks that are associated and when I've been in private practice working with clients, I have worked with clients that want to feed raw food, or that are feeding raw food, and we just talk about the risk that it might pose for their individual situations. So again, in a household where there are pregnant, lactating, elderly, immunocompromised pets or people or little children, these may all be individuals (again, pet or people) that are going to be at higher risk for potentially getting sick from pathogens that might be present on raw pet food. There are some companies that do recognize that there are risks associated with raw pet food, and they do take steps to kind of decrease that risk. Typically, this is going to be through something called high pressure processing. So I've always, typically, when I've had clients that are interested in raw feeding, I've tried to talk to them about using a company that does recognize that there are pathogens that animals can be exposed to that can also cause illness in people and illness in pets, and if we can feed a complete and balanced diet, and also one by a company that's trying to mitigate some of that risk, is really helpful. If it's a home prepared, raw diet, we just have to understand that it is allowed to have a certain degree of bacterial contamination in the market, and so typically, you know if you feed 100 times, you're going to introduce salmonella, E. coli into your household, into that animal? The animal may not get sick, but they could potentially carry it, and they could potentially pass it to someone. Every year that I worked full time in Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, we had pets hospitalized for food borne illness related to raw diets. And so it is something that does exist, and that I do warn owners about. The other question that I had were: Are there any specific protein sources that I recommend for allergies or to prevent allergies? So I would say there's nothing, like no specific protein, that I would feed that could prevent allergies, right? So, poultry, beef, these are common allergens because they're common in the market. So if we all fed kangaroo is our primary protein source, or rabbit as our primary protein source, then risk for allergy for that, we would probably see that as the most common that we would see. One thing, for me as a veterinarian that does get tricky for me is when I have pets that are coming to see me, where the owner or we suspect that there's some type of food allergy involved, and they've pretty much fed every single protein under the sun. It does really limit what our options are available to us, and so we do have options like amino acid and hydrolyzed protein based diets available to us. But again, I usually tell people, the more options that we have available to us, the better. Okay: How do you feel about putting small breed pups on large breed puppy food? If controlled growth is good for large breed is it also good for small breed pups? So there wouldn't really be any big contraindication to me about having a small breed puppy eat a large breed puppy food. You may just want to make sure that the kibble size isn't so big, because sometimes the kibble sizes can be bigger, which could be an issue for some really small breed puppies. Some of the large breed puppy foods I mentioned, they may not be as calorie dense, where some small breed puppies, they might benefit from something being more calorie dense for them. So typically, the larger puppies are still going to meet all the nutrient requirements that a small breed puppy would need, but their growth is going to be different. So a large or giant breed puppy, they're going to be a lot more prone to developing those developmental orthopedic diseases, or those orthopedic issues that would come with that fast growth thing. Why taurine level is now on label for Purina sport growth label—I don't know exactly why it's listed on there. If it is a guaranteed nutrient, if they're guaranteeing a level of taurine, then you do actually have to list it. If you guarantee any nutrient in your food, you're going to have to incorporate it on your guaranteed analysis. So that's probably why that's on there, is because they have added that they've guaranteed a certain level, and so now it's being required to be incorporated onto that guaranteed analysis. What is the best for Mama dog and nursing high calorie at a supplement? So for a mama—for a gestating, lactating dog—as long as they're being fed a complete and balanced diet, and I would feed them one for gestation, lactation, or all life stage—usually an all life stage food is going to be a really good option for gestating or lactating dog—that's really all they need. They don't need a particular vitamin or mineral supplement, because they're actually going to get every single thing in their diet. So that would be one too where I would really hesitate giving them any vitamin or mineral supplement, because, again, we can see some issues, especially with over-supplementation. So as long as I had them on a complete and balanced food that was for that life stage, that's all that that dog is going to need. I wasn't totally sure how to answer this question, but: Is this is the thinking behind the new Purina Sport Puppy one year and two year feeds? I'm not entirely sure the answer to that question, but I can look into that a little bit more, and maybe we can get back to you. And then: would you feel puppies that are going to be 65 pounds, would they need a large breed food? So it's like, right on the border, so it's in, you're certainly not going to hurt anything by feeding a dog that you're targeting between 60 and 70 pounds to be fed a large breed food. So I would be really comfortable if somebody had a 65 pound dog. Also, I would say, like, sometimes you don't know, like, you're like, this dog could potentially end up being more than 70 pounds as an adult, but maybe it's 65, so I would say, probably what I would do is, if I had a dog where I wasn't sure if it was going to break the 70 pound mark, I would probably just err on the side of caution and feed a large breed food. So all right, there is a question about a different company supplement. I usually do hesitate to comment on any other company's product. But again, what I would say is that if you're feeding a complete and balanced diet, you really shouldn't need any additional vitamin and mineral supplementation, as long as you're feeding a complete and balanced diet for growth, and again, from a lot of German Shepherd dogs, they would fall into that large breed range.

Nicole Engelman  1:04:28

Awesome. Thank you so much, doctor. I apologize if it's a little loud here. I have some construction going on outside of my window. I think that is all we have so far. But thank you again for doing this webinar. I think our community loved it. Thank you all for asking such thoughtful questions. I'm going to try to wrap things up because I have a feeling it's pretty loud for everybody. I just want to leave everyone with a reminder that you can apply to join Good Dog at GoodDog.com/join to stay up to date on all of our future webinars and events, and our next webinar will be on Tuesday, July 22, with Dr. Fran Smith about how to read and understand your DNA test results. So looking forward to that! We'll get that announced very soon, and until then, thank you so much, everyone. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and we'll see you at our next webinar. Bye, everyone! Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Dog Pod. We'll be back in two weeks with another episode, so be sure to subscribe to the Good Dog Pod on your favorite podcast platform.