Meat meal, by-products and "animal derivatives" explained

A named meat meal is not a bad thing

“Chicken meal” or “lamb meal” is meat that has been cooked and dried into a powder, with most of the water and fat taken out. Because it is already dry, it carries far more protein per gram than fresh meat, which is mostly water.

So “chicken meal” second on a list can supply more protein than “chicken” first. The word to watch is not “meal”, it is whether the animal is named.

Vague names hide the source

• “Meat meal”, “meat and bone meal”, “poultry meal”
• “Animal protein”, “animal fat”, “animal digest”
• “Meat and animal derivatives” and “fish and fish derivatives”, common on European labels

These do not tell you which animal is inside, so the recipe can change between batches without the label changing. That matters most for a dog with a food allergy, where you need to know exactly what it eats.

What by-products are

By-products are the parts of an animal other than muscle meat, such as liver, kidney, lungs, spleen and other organs. Some of these are nutritious, and dogs in the wild eat them. The problem is that quality varies a lot and the label rarely tells you which parts were used. A named by-product (“chicken by-product meal”) at least says which animal, so it sits between named meat and the vague names above.

Animal digest and flavourings

Animal digest is animal tissue broken down into a liquid or powder and sprayed on kibble to make it taste better. It is a flavouring rather than a protein source, and like other vague flavourings it does not say what it is made from.

How SnoutScan scores them

A named meat or named meat meal first earns the most protein points. A named by-product first earns about half as many, and a vague source like “meat meal” or “poultry” earns a few. Vague names anywhere on the list also cost points under label transparency, and animal digest costs points under additives. See How SnoutScan scores dog food for the full method.

Common questions