AAFCO Will Take Closer Look at Pet Food Labels
The Association of American Feed Control Officials told pet
industry representatives in January that they are seeing more
pet products with inappropriate labeling and will begin looking
more carefully for these products, according to the American
Pet Products Manufacturers Association (Greenwich, Conn.).
Specifically, products with “inappropriate” parenthetical
groupings of ingredients on the label will come under closer
scrutiny. AAFCO model regulations don’t expressly allow
for the practice, although Food and Drug Administration regulations
permit it under some circumstances, according to Dr. David
Dzanis, APPMA’s new pet food consultant. “It is
AAFCO’s interpretation of the FDA regulations that to
be able to declare ingredients in a parenthetical group within
an ingredient list, the ingredients all have to be added as
a single ingredient, and that single ingredient has to have
a standard of identity or a common or usual name.
”For example,” he said, “if you’re
adding several different fruits to your product as separate
ingredients, you couldn’t group them together as a single
ingredient in the ingredient list. Since that would move fruits
in general higher on the list, AAFCO would opine that could
misleadingly imply there’s more fruit in the product
than is the fact.”
In addition, officials will ensure that labeling of products
with enzymes comply with AAFCO regulations.
Other topics discussed at the San Diego meeting included
proposals to allow carbohydrate claims and to include mandatory
calorie content statements on labels. No votes were taken
on those issues. [March 2006 PET AGE]
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