What is rendered meat?

Rendered meat in dog food is the waste meat from human food production. It’s what’s left behind when food manufacturers have stripped clean an animal carcass of anything that’s remotely humanly edible.

The fragments of meat left on bones when the good stuff’s been removed. The sinew, the connective tissue and perhaps bones. That’s what goes into commercial dog food.

In other words, it can be virtually anything of an animal nature and of whatever animal the manufacturer chooses to use.

What is rendering

Rendering is the process of cooking this raw animal waste to remove the fat and the moisture. It’s denaturing the animal waste for the want of a better word. It’s removing all its natural qualities. Destroying its natural properties and altering its molecular structure.

It’s a process which involves grinding and cooking the raw materials at temperatures ranging from 115 to 145C.

Meat meal

Meat meal is the end result of all this rendering. The end result of rendered meat. It’s a fine, dry, brown powder that the commercial dog food industry considers protein.

The good news however is that, according to UK Feed Stuffs regulations, this meat meal “should be virtually free of hair, bristle, feathers, horn, hoof and skin and of the contents of the stomach and viscera”.

There. Makes you feel so much better doesn’t it!

The extent to which the rendering process affects the nutritional quality of meat is a matter of debate for some. Not for me though.

As a canine nutritionist, when I make homemade food for my dogs, I only use meat that has been passed fit for human consumption. Proper meat. High quality meat from the same suppliers who supply the meat that I myself eat every day of my life. I love my dogs and don’t believe they deserve anything less!

What do you think? Which would you rather feed your dog? The rendered meat in dog food or proper, fresh protein!