Pet Food Ingredients - L - L-Cysteine

L

L-CYSTEINE

I would like to thank my friend and fellow animal rescuer for directing me towards L-Cysteine, thank you.. for grossing me out..seriously.. I will never look at bread the same way again. 

Why do I feel like I need to drag this out before telling you what L-Cysteine is? 
Cuz I am a bit of a jerk, or I am giving you time to finish your sandwich. 

Probably both. 

My friend is Vegan, and she wanted to know if a product she was interested in trying was Vegan friendly. 

In case you are aware of the word Vegan, but unaware of the food restrictions

What is a Vegan?

• Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry. 
•  Vegans, in addition to being vegetarian, do not use other animal products and by-products such as eggs, dairy products, honey, leather, fur, silk, wool, cosmetics, and soaps derived from animal products.  

Now, considering all the chemically sounding words in products - and the weird ass words. It is not surprising that a person with such restrictions would have to call up a company. 

Is your product Vegan?

Yes except for L-Cysteine. 

What is L-Cysteine?

Basically Hair, or Poultry Feathers. 

So wait, there is hair purposely in this food?

Or feathers. 
(conversation is assumed, not actual)
 


She says to me - Why is it that I would rather eat feathers? ( she would never eat feathers - she also would choose not to eat human hair)

Think about it. What would you rather eat? 
Human hair or Animal feathers/fur? - Candy.


What is L-Cysteine used for? 
It is considered a great 'dough conditioner'

L-Cysteine
Dough Conditioner
Reaction Flavor
Hydrolyzed Poultry By-Product Aggregate
Feather Meal

 Some of the products that have 'hair' or 'feathers'

Bread
Buns
Pastries
Pizza Dough
Dog Food
Cat Food
Tortillas
Bagels
Pie Crust
Garlic Bread


So this is icky, but I have seen my cats eat fur, it would probably have no problem eating my hair. Duck would be probably okay them.

My dog, well I have seen her eat the stuffing from her favorite toy.  
Don't get me started on a dogs view of the kitty litter lunch box.

What's the big deal?

The big deal is the protein %

With a % of over 80, 'Feather Meal' is now being used as a protein source!
I thought corn was bad!

A pet food company is obligated to meet certain protein requirements. 
I do not believe there is a mandate on what type of protein. 

A company could list Turkey as their number one ingredient ( please check out my post on Ingredient Splitting) then have you believe it is a meat or poultry based protein that is most prevalent in the food. 

Crap - I betcha this is a fantastic cheap way to create a 'grain free product'

So it could be entirely possible to have a high protein food with no actual 'meat' listed in the ingredients. 

Lookie here....Royal Canin 'Anallergenic'

Crude Protein - 46.7 %

One should not be all that surprised. Royal Canin seems to love finding protein sources that are cheap. 

Well it must be at least useful right?

Lets look at Bioavailability

The bioavailability or biological value (BV) of a nutrient is the measure of its usefulness to the cells of the body.

Apparently an egg  has a BV of 100 (%)

• Fish -83
• Beef -80
• Chicken- 79
• Rice -74
• Soy -59
• Feather Meal -0  ( It says on the interwebs, but sometimes they lie)

I'm sorry what was that? 
0%

Feather Meal is highly digestible but absolutely useless - It's like eating sawdust or um.. hair.

So besides learning that you are eating hair - your pet may be eating feathers... as a protein source.

If this ever happens - 'Eww I just found a piece of hair in my Sub'

Please respond with - 'Only one?'



***************

How often we forget about the ones that suffer the most, the animals that become the ingredients.














There was actually a walk today to raise money for Farm Sanctuary. 
The friend that told me about L-Cysteine participated in it.
So this is Daisy a beautiful Duck from Farm Sanctuary