95% Rule

Listed below are the 4 AAFCO rules in regards to the name of the food.

The food name on this can would be  - 95% Chicken & Turkey - Cat Food

95% Rule -

What to look for:

One the front of the can - simple is better - 

Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Rabbit, Duck, Venison, Fish ( Salmon, White fish, Tuna )

Followed by

For cats or cat food

- this means the product has 95% or more Chicken ( or Beef..ect )by total weight of the product. 
 

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Words like : Dinner , Entree , Stew, Formula, Feast, and Recipe 

Bring us to the second rule

25% Rule

Beef Stew, Salmon Dinner or Kitties Savory Entree are just a few ideas of names pet food companies use to describe their canned morsels. 

They do this because legally they have to add a descriptive word like 'Dinner' if the named protein is not 95%





Consider this product:

 









Wellness, thought of as a quality food, but it does not meet the 95 % rule
This is where you need to do a bit of reading.
These are the first 6 ingredients listed on the back of the can

 Beef, Chicken Liver, Chicken, Chicken Broth, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes


Now consider this product:

Beef, liver, wheat gluten, meat by-products, chicken, starch-modified

Sure there is chicken.. it's the 5th ingredient and it could be as little as 3%

If you base your choice on those first 6 ingredients alone - Wellness wins

If you base on the protein % 
 -Pro Plan has 55%
 -Wellness has 50%

How did I calculate that, if on the can it says 11%?
Start with 100% then minus the moisture which is 80% = 20
The listed protein is 11% divide that by 20 = 0.55
Take the 0.55 and multiply it by 100 = 55


I have absolutely no idea how they came up with that formula.. it just is how they convert the % to Dry Matter.

It is actually rather easy.

Pro Plan has 5 % more protein, but 2 of those protein sources do not actually list what animal the meat comes from. Liver - fantastic, what animal?

Meat by- products - this could include the spleen, lungs, brain, blood, bones, and other tasty items. Again, we do not know what animal or animals these things are derived from. 

Based on these elements I would go with Wellness. 


* The 95% has to be comprised of meat, poultry or fish.
* The 25% can include grains.

 

'With' Rule or 3% rule

Kitties dinner with chicken!

That statement means this food could contain as little as 3% of actual meat, poultry or fish. 

Yummy.. with salmon! What with salmon? 
If you read the ingredients, the first thing listed is poultry  - which could be chicken, turkey, or duck.

This is actually more of a misleading label because a person who has an animal who is allergic to chicken, may consider this. Little do they know...
Technically, little do we know as well. 

Next is Meat by-products, then Salmon. 
It contains 50% protein from some source...
Mmmm mystery meat.



Something like - Chicken Dinner with Cheese  - would fall under both the 25% rule ( Chicken Dinner) and the 3% rule (with cheese)

Flavor rule

If you read flavor on a food, it has just enough of that item to be detected through testing. 
It is for both making a product palatable for the animal, and marketable for the company.
A can could read 'Seafood medley with real lobster flavor'.. there ain't no lobster in that can!

Country style dinner with real turkey flavor.. I have no idea what would be in that.

Read the ingredients. Chances are it is corn.

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These are good rules to follow.. a bit confusing.. but good.

At least now, when you look at a can on the shelf you may notice different things. 

You may turn the can around and read the ingredients.

If you are anything like me, you will want to see if you can find the cans that say 'flavor' or 'with'.
Maybe even see if your pet food store carries one of the 95% products.
 - I checked out if Pet Valu sold any of the 95% products, and they do!
Wild Calling
Natures Valley - Instinct
Blue Wilderness ( not Blue Buffalo - same company but only the Wilderness variety seems to fit the 95% ) 
I was confused about -Instinct- because the name was 'Rabbit Formula'
- I am guessing the name 'Rabbit Cat Food' does have less of an appeal.
Blue Wilderness just had the one word on the cat like - Turkey - 
That works.. *************************

*There are no links on this post for a reason. I did not want to link any of the products because I was not trying to promote them. 
They were just tools for explaining the sometimes confusing rules.

*I may have misinterpreted things - I asked the cats but they refuse to look the rules over. 

  I will end this post with my own rule - Educate yourself, do not leave it up to people who are willing to put profit above your pet.