Chicken is the most common first ingredient in dog food. But it’s often followed by “chicken meal,” “chicken by-product,” or “chicken by-product meal.” But what exactly is a chicken by-product? Chicken by-product is simply the part of the chicken that people don’t commonly eat. Is it good for your dog, or should you be avoiding it?
The good news is that chicken by-product is a perfectly safe protein option for most dogs. Let’s dig a little deeper to find out what these terms mean.
AAFCO Ingredient Definitions
The Association of American Feed Control Officials, commonly known as AAFCO, carefully defines what the labels on dog food mean. Here is how AAFCO defines common chicken ingredients:
- Chicken — A clean combination of skin and flesh with or without bone, derived from parts or whole chicken carcasses. Excludes heads, feet, feathers, and entrails.
- Translation: Chicken meat, bones, and skin
- Chicken Meal — Ground chicken or chicken that has been rendered (cooked at high heat), dried, and ground into a powder. It includes meat, skin, and bone but no feathers, heads, or entrails.
- Translation: Chicken meat, skin, and bones that are heat processed, dehydrated, and ground up into a fine powder.
- Chicken By-Product Meal — Ground-up clean parts of the chicken carcass, including rendered parts like feet, necks, undeveloped eggs, and intestines. Excludes feathers, except when they are unavoidable through processing.
- Translation: Heat processed, dehydrated, and ground-up organs, necks, and unborn chicken eggs.
Put simply, chicken or chicken-by products come from the ‘whole’ carcass, which are then processed by the pet food company into the product they sell. Chicken meal or by-product meal come from the chicken carcasses (or parts thereof) that have been deemed unsuitable for human consumption at the slaughterhouse, and are subjected to a process called rendering, which ensures that it is safe for use in pet foods. Meat- or by-product meal is processed at high temperatures, dehydrated, and ground up before being sold to the pet food company, and is a cheap, nutrient-dense option that is commonly incorporated into dry dog foods.
Is Chicken By-Product Healthy for Dogs?
Let’s use chicken feet as an example. They are bones covered in muscle. Having bone in dog food is a good thing. It helps increase the levels of phosphorus and calcium. As far as quality goes, it makes no difference whether that bone comes from a foot, a wing, or a breast bone.
Nutrient-wise, chicken eggs, organs, and intestines are not only healthy for your dog, but they also taste good! Keep in mind that the intestines are required to be cleaned so they don’t transfer bacteria and fecal matter into your dog’s food.
In fact, provided that the ingredients have been cleaned and prepared correctly, chicken by-products provide a much wider variety of nutrients than can be obtained from eating chicken meat alone.
Ingredient Quality
While chicken by-product aren’t cause for concern nutrition-wise, the quality of the ingredients can vary significantly between products. This is why the ingredient label often isn’t enough to help us determine if a dog food is “good.”
- Feed grade
- Pet food grade
While not officially defined by AAFCO or the FDA, pet food grade by-products are often described as superior to feed grade because they are typically higher in protein, easier to digest, and of consistent quality. All by-products used in pet food must be safe and suitable for animal consumption. Some dog food manufacturers are open about the grade of ingredients that they use, while others aren’t.
Why Does Dog Food Include By-Products?
The reason dog food manufacturers use chicken and other meat by-products in their food is that they are highly nutritious, cost-effective, and help reduce food waste. Generica by-products can’t be added to human-grade food, so they are left over after animals are slaughtered. Including these products in pet food reduces waste from the animal carcass, but it can also be bought at a lower price than whole meat because there is lower demand for it.
However, finding chicken by-product as an ingredient in your dog food doesn’t make it less healthy, and this shouldn’t be a reason not to buy a certain dog food. By-products such as liver, kidneys, hearts, and other organ meats are rich in essential nutrients like vitamins (A, B-complex), minerals (iron, zinc), and high-quality proteins. Many of these parts are more biologically valuable than muscle meat alone and are highly digestible when properly processed. Using by-products also supports sustainability by utilizing more of the animal, which would otherwise go to waste.
That said, many pet parents prefer to choose pet foods that specify by-products like “chicken liver” or “chicken heart” rather than vague terms like “animal by-products”, as clearly named ingredients indicate a more transparent and controlled ingredient source.
Conclusion
It is very hard to find dog food that doesn’t include some sort of by-product or by-product meal in the ingredients list. Chicken by-product is simply the part of the chicken that people don’t typically eat. These ingredients are nutritious for your dog, and their use in pet food reduces overall waste and increases sustainability.
Featured Image Credit: LADO, Shutterstock
AAFCO Ingredient Definitions
