Do you know how to read a pet food label? What would you think if one of the first ingredients was “chicken by-product” or “chicken meal”? That means it is garbage, right? You may be surprised at what you read in this article. What I’m going to do is explain to you exactly what a by-product is and discuss whether this is a good or bad ingredient to have in food.

Definitions Let’s start by defining some common ingredients listed on a pet food ingredient panel – chicken, chicken meal, chicken by-product, and chicken by-product meal. Here is how AAFCO (the Association of American Feed Control Officials) defines these three ingredients: