AAFCO

AAFCO is an abbreviation found on most commercial pet food products. What exactly is the AAFCO and their responsibilities as it relates to the food you feed your pet?

According to the AAFCO… “The term AAFCO stands for the Association of American Feed Control Officials. A basic goal of AAFCO is to provide a mechanism for developing and implementing uniform and equitable laws, regulations, standards and enforcement policies for regulating the manufacture, distribution and sale of animal feeds; resulting in safe, effective, and useful feeds”.
From www.aafco.org

“The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) is a commercial enterprise which attempts to regulate the quality and safety of fodder and pet food in the United States. AAFCO is a voluntary organization comprised largely of regulatory officials who have responsibility for enforcing their state’s laws and regulations concerning the safety of animal feeds…. Unlike the FDA, AAFCO has no regulatory authority. However, its regulations on feed ingredients for a number of animals are adopted by most states. In 2007, the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA formalized its relationship with AAFCO in identifying feed ingredients.” 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“What is the AAFCO? - Before getting into the specifics, I would like to outline what the often-mentioned Association of American Feed Control Officials is. This group regulates the pet food industry, and while the board consists of state and federal representatives, it is not a government body and includes people directly involved in the industry. According to the definition on their website, the AAFCO "provides a mechanism for developing and implementing uniform and equitable laws, regulations, standards and enforcement policies for regulating the manufacture, distribution and sale of animal feeds", but if this process includes business insiders, they are likely to protect their own interests first before anything else. Their decisions are also the reason why pet food manufacturers (even if they wanted to) still can't use a more honest, descriptive labeling system, with less opportunity to make a product look better than it actually is, thus effectively protecting those companies that sell poor quality food. Manufacturers who use quality ingredients do not have anything to hide - they will proudly display e.g. chicken meal, whole grains and fresh vegetables. Those who are using ingredients like chicken byproduct meal, brewer's rice and corn gluten meal would have a hard time justifying the price of their foods.”
From the Dog Food Project

The AAFCO Ingredient Definitions

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) has set the following guidelines for animal feed, including pet food. (Red ink inserted by ATG for emphasis on wording)

• Alfalfa Meal: the aerial portion of the alfalfa plant, reasonably free from other crop plants, weeds and mold, which has been sun cured and finely ground.
• 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."
• Barley: consists of at least 80 percent sound barley and must not contain more than 3 percent heat-damaged kernels, 6 percent foreign material, 20 percent other grains or 10 percent wild oats.
• Barley Flour: soft, finely ground and bolted barley meal obtained from the milling of barley. It consists essentially of the starch and gluten of the endosperm.
• Beef (meat): is the clean flesh derived from slaughtered cattle, and is limited to that part of the striate muscle which is skeletal or that which is found in the tongue, in the diaphragm, in the heart, or in the esophagus; with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh.
• Beet Pulp ("beet pulp, dried molasses" and "beet pulp, dried, plain"): the dried residue from sugar beets.
• Brewer's Rice: the dried extracted residue of rice resulting from the manufacture of wort (liquid portion of malted grain) or beer and may contain pulverized dried spent hops in an amount not to exceed 3 percent.
• Brown Rice: unpolished rice after the kernels have been removed. Not a complete AAFCO definition.
• Carrots: presumably carrots. No AAFCO definition.
• Chicken: the clean combination of flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken or a combination thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet and entrails.
• 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.
• Chicken Liver Meal: chicken livers which have been ground or otherwise reduced in particle size.
• Chicken Meal: chicken which has been ground or otherwise reduced in particle size.
• Corn: unspecified corn product. Not a complete AAFCO definition.
• Corn Bran: the outer coating of the corn kernel, with little or none of the starchy part of the germ.Corn Germ Meal (Dry Milled): ground corn germ which consists of corn germ with other parts of the corn kernel from which part of the oil has been removed and is the product obtained in the dry milling process of manufacture of corn meal, corn grits, hominy feed and other corn products.
• 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.
• Corn Syrup: concentrated juice derived from corn.
• Cracked Pearl Barley: cracked pearl barley resulting from the manufacture of pearl barley from clean barley.
• Dehydrated Eggs: dried whole poultry eggs freed of moisture by thermal means.
• Digest of Beef: material from beef which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed tissue. The tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth and hooves, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice.
• Digest of Beef By-Products: material from beef which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed tissue from non-rendered clean parts, other than meat, from cattle which includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hooves.
• Digest of Poultry By-Products: material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed tissue from non-rendered clean parts of carcasses of slaughtered poultry such as heads, feet, viscera, free from fecal content and foreign matter except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice.
• Dried Animal Digest: dried material resulting from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissue 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.
• Dried Kelp: dried seaweed of the families Laminaricae and Fu-caeae. If the product is prepared by artificial drying, it may be called "dehydrated kelp."
• Dried Milk Protein: obtained by drying the coagulated protein residue resulting from the controlled co-precipitation of casein, lactalbumin and minor mild proteins from defatted milk.
• Dried Whey: the product obtained by removing water from the whey. It contains not less than 11 percent protein or less than 61 percent lactose.
• Feeding Oatmeal: obtained in the manufacture of rolled oat groats or rolled oats and consists of broken oat groats, oat groat chips, and floury portions of the oat groats, with only such quantity of finely ground oat hulls as is unavoidable in the usual process of commercial milling. It must not contain more than 4 percent crude fiber.
• 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.
• Ground Corn (ground ear corn): the entire ear of corn ground, without husks, with no greater portion of cob than occurs in the ear corn in its natural state.
• Ground Dehulled Oats: presumably ground cleaned oats with hulls removed (ground oat groats). Not an AAFCO definition.
• Ground Wheat: presumably a coarser grind of wheat flour. Not an AAFCO definition.
• Ground Whole Brown Rice (Ground Brown Rice): the entire product obtained by grinding the rice kernels after the hulls have been removed.
• Ground Whole Wheat: ground whole kernel, presumably equivalent to AAFCO's Wheat Mill Run, Wheat Middlings, Wheat Shorts or Wheat Red Dog, whose principal differences are in the percentage of crude fiber.
• Ground Yellow Corn: same as ground corn, except that the corn used is yellow in color.
• Kibbled Corn: obtained by cooking cracked corn under steam pressure and extruding from an expeller or other mechanical pressure device.
• 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 Digest: material resulting from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed lamb. The tissue used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth and hooves, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed.
• Lamb Fat: obtained from the tissues of lamb 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."
• 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.
• Liver: the hepatic gland (of whatever species is listed).
• Meat and Bone Meal: the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, 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.
• Meat By-Products: the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hooves.
• Meat Meal: the rendered product from mammal 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.
• Peas: peas.
• Potatoes: potatoes.
• Poultry By-Product Meal: consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered poultry, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.
• Poultry Digest: material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed poultry tissue.
• Poultry Fat (feed grade): primarily obtained from the tissue of poultry in the commercial process of rendering or extracting. It shall contain only the fatty matter natural to the product produced under good manufacturing practices and shall contain no added free fatty acids or other materials obtained from fat. It must contain not less than 90 percent total fatty acids and not more than 3 percent of unsaponifiables and impurities. It shall have a minimum titer of 33 degrees Celsius. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the word "preservative(s)."
• Powdered Cellulose: purified, mechanically disintegrated cellulose prepared by processing alpha cellulose obtained as a pulp from fibrous plant materials.
• Rice Bran: the pericarp or bran layer and germ of the rice, with only such quantity of hull fragments, chipped, broken, or brewer's rice and calcium carbonate as is unavoidable in the regular milling of edible rice.
• Soybean Hulls: consists primarily of the outer covering of the soybean.Soybean Meal (Dehulled, solvent Extracted): obtained by grinding the flakes remaining after removal of most of the oil from dehulled soybeans by a solvent extraction process.
• Soybean Meal (Mechanical Extracted): obtained by grinding the cake or chips which remain after removal of most of the oil from the soybeans by a mechanical extraction process.
• Soybean Mill Run: composed of soybean hulls and such bean meats that adhere to the hulls and such bean meats that adhere to the hulls which results from normal milling operations in the production of dehulled soybean meal.
• Tallow: animal fats with titer above 40 degrees Celsius.
• Turkey: unspecified turkey. Not a complete AAFCO description.
• Turkey Meal: the ground clean combination of flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of turkey or a combination thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet and entrails.
• Wheat Bran: the coarse outer covering of the wheat kernel as separated from cleaned and scoured wheat in the usual process of commercial milling.
• Wheat Flour: wheat flour together with fine particles of wheat bran, wheat germ and the offal from the "tail of the mill." This product must be obtained in the usual process of commercial milling and must not contain more than 1.5 percent crude fiber.
• Wheat Germ Meal: consists chiefly of wheat germ together with some bran and middlings or short. It must contain not less than 25 percent crude protein and 7 percent crude fat.
• Wheat Mill Run: coarse wheat bran, fine particles of wheat bran, wheat shorts, wheat germ, wheat flour and the offal from the tail of the mill. This product must be obtained in the usual process of commercial milling and must contain not more than 9.5 percent crude fiber.
• Whey: the product obtained as a fluid by separating the coagulum from milk, cream or skimmed milk and from which a portion of the milk fat may have been removed.

Against The Grain Pet Nutrition is a company that does things differently. We are a small business that is excited about offering pet owners better choices in pet nutrition. We believe that choosing appropriate pet food (be it commercial, raw or home prepared) is the most important factor in any pet's preventative health, convalescence and longevity.  Our name - Against The Grain - reflects our strong passion to provide pet owners with the knowledge to make healthy decisions about pet care even if we go ‘against the grain' of popular thinking.