I heard on the radio this morning, on the Steve Allen show on LBC 97.3, that some cat food labelled ‘beef’ is in fact chicken. Is this news or something which should surprise us? I have nothing else to go on. An Internet search did not reveal anything. I just wanted to make this short post to get ahead of the game but to be perfectly honest it doesn’t surprise me and does it make any difference in any case?
Wet cat food is reconstituted protein in some shape or form which is flavoured and water and other ingredients added. So whether the little bits of protein which come from an animal is beef or chicken makes very little difference. Often the protein does not come from an animal. For dry cat food any semblance to natural cat food has been well and truly lost. That’s the way I see it. The label ‘beef’ or ‘chicken’ only roughly relates to the flavour and the appearance.
The only real difference is that if manufacturers are doing this it would be a misrepresentation and illegal. I will hopefully be able to provide some details of this over the next 24 hours and if anybody else has heard anything please leave a comment.
If this is happening it reminds me of the horse meat scandal in the UK when beef was in fact horse, which increased the profit margins of the wholesalers.
Hmmm…
Oddly, any cat food labeled “beef”, regardless of what the real ingredients are, causes turned up noses here. Not one cat will eat it.
I just started to search, and found a reference to this in the Daily Mail site article labeled “The Pet Food Swindle”
The-pet-food-swindle-Popular-brands-contain-high-quantities-meat-not-label-including-tins-beef-really-63-cent-chicken