F E A T U R E T O P I C: "T E R M S"
Try your DICTIONARY.com for more definitions. What is the term meal? - The term "meal" refers to materials that are not used fresh, but have been rendered. Bone meal - A substance made of crushed and coarsely ground bones that is used as a plant fertilizer and in animal feed. Blood meal - The dried and powdered blood of animals, used in animal feeds and as a nitrogen-rich fertilizer for plants. Gluten - Used in many pet foods such as rice gluten, corn gluten, wheat gluten. A mixture of plant proteins occurring in cereal grains, chiefly corn and wheat, used as an adhesive. Meat/Bone meal - Term found on many cat/dog food ingredient lists. Means cooked and converted animals, including some dogs and cats. Chicken By-Product Meal - consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice. Corn - unspecified corn product. Not a complete AAFCO definition. (A cheaper energy source) Corn Gluten - that part of the commercial shelled corn that remains after the extraction of the larger portion of the starch, gluten, and term by the processes employed in the wet milling manufacture of corn starch or syrup. Corn Gluten Meal - the dried residue from corn after the removal of the larger part of the starch and germ, and the separation of the bran by the process employed in the wet milling manufacture of corn starch or syrup, or by enzymatic treatment of the endosperm. Fish Meal - the clean, dried, ground tissue of undecomposed whole fish or fish cuttings, either or both, with or without the extraction of part of the oil. Lamb Bone Meal - (steamed) dried and ground product sterilized by cooking undecomposed bones with steam under pressure. Grease, gelatin and meat fiber may or may not be removed. Lamb Meal - the rendered product from lamb tissues, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. Linseed Meal - the product obtained by grinding the cake or chips which remain after removal of most of the oil from flaxseed by a mechanical extraction process. It must contain no more than 10 percent fiber. The words "mechanical extracted" are not required when listing as an ingredient in the manufactured food. Meat/Poultry by products - Term used to describe the non-meat parts of an animal, such as the fur, hair, head, skin, toenails, lungs, brains, feathers, beaks, bones, joints, hooves, stomach, bowels, egg shells etc... Even most wild meat eating animals avoid eating this crap. Animal Digest - material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed. Animal Fat - is obtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial processes of rendering or extracting. It consists predominantly of glyceride esters of fatty acids and contains no additions of free fatty acids. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the words "used as a preservative." What is rendering? - Rendering, as defined by Webster's Dictionary, is "to process as for industrial use: to render livestock carcasses and to extract oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting." To reduce, convert, or melt down (fat) by heating. BHA, Butylated Hydroxyanisole - Synthetic preservative. Cancer causing agent used in preserving cat/dog food. BHT, Butylated Hydroxytoluene - Synthetic preservative. Cancer causing agent used in preserving cat/dog food. Propyl Gallate - Synthetic preservative. Cancer causing agent used in preserving cat/dog food. Propylene Glycol - Synthetic preservative (also used as a less toxic version of automotive antifreeze). Cancer causing agent used in preserving cat/dog food. Ethoxyquin - Synthetic preservative. Used in insecticide and pesticides. Many think it can cause cancer. But yet it is the primary preservative in many pet foods. E. Coli - A bacillus (Escherichia coli) normally found in the human gastrointestinal tract and existing as numerous strains, some of which are responsible for diarrhea diseases. Salmonella - Any of various rod-shaped bacteria of the genus Salmonella, many of which are pathogenic, causing food poisoning, typhoid, and paratyphoid fever in humans and other infectious diseases in domestic animals. Escherichia Coli - normally present in intestinal tract of humans and other animals; sometimes pathogenic. Extruding - The term used to describe a heat and pressure system used to "puff" dry foods into nuggets or kibbles. Destroys and or eliminates nutrients. Vomitoxin / Mycotoxin - A toxic substance produced by mold, and sometimes found in dry cat/dog food that has not been properly stored. Most common in those cat/dog foods that contain wheat, corn, cottonseed meal, peanut meal and fish meal. Fecal matter - Waste from an animal. Fetid Stench - Very offensive odor. Slaughterhouse - Where animals are killed and processed. A place where animals are butchered. Slaughter waste - What is left over after an animal was processed for human consumption. Typically used in animal feed. Carcasses - The dead body of an animal, especially one slaughtered for food. Condemned meat - Meat that is not fit for human consumption. Denatured - The act of making meat or left overs from being fit for human consumption. Usually be treated with chemicals, some times deadly chemicals so that meat cannot be used for human consumption. Carbolic Acid, Phenol - Used as a chemical for denaturing meat. A caustic, poisonous, white crystalline compound, C6H5OH, derived from benzene and used in resins, plastics, and pharmaceuticals and in dilute form as a disinfectant and antiseptic. Also called carbolic acid. Creosote - Used as a chemical for denaturing meat. A colorless to yellowish oily liquid containing phenols and creosols, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood tar, especially from the wood of a beech, and formerly used as an expectorant in treating chronic bronchitis. A yellowish to greenish-brown oily liquid containing phenols and creosols, obtained from coal tar and used as a wood preservative and disinfectant. It can cause severe neurological disturbances if inhaled in strong concentrations. Rancidity - Having the disagreeable odor or taste of decomposing oils or fats. Lead - Lead is a powerful neurotoxin that hurts almost all body organs, particularly the kidneys, red blood cells, and central nervous system. Propaganda - The systematic propagation of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a cause. Basically to drown you with information so that you tend to believe them more than not believe them. Like in advertising of pet food products, saying they are "pure" and "wholesome" when they really are not. 4-D meat - This is what the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) calls cattle that is dead, dying, disabled or diseased. This meat is considered unfit for human consumption, but is typically found in many pet food products. Pesticides - A chemical used to kill pests, especially insects. Road Kill - Any animal that is killed on the road, rats, snakes, possums etc. Some of these animals get rendered into pet food as well as animals that die in Zoo's. Sodium Nitrate - A coloring agent and preservative and potential carcinogen (cancer causing) is a common additive in pet foods. Peanut Hulls - The outside of a peanut when the nuts are removed. Used as a filler. No nutritional value. Powdered Cellulose - Saw dust. Added from saw mills to pet food as a filler. No nutritional value what so ever. Red dye 40 - Causes cancer in animals. Linoleic Acid - An unsaturated fatty acid, C17H31COOH, considered essential to the human diet, that is an important component of drying oils, such as linseed oil. |