as an example:

Chicken meal, according to the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), is the dry rendered product from a combination of clean chicken flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from whole carcasses of chicken, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet and entrails.[citation needed] A meal in general is "an ingredient which has been ground or otherwise reduced in particle size."[1]

Chicken meal is ground up chicken meat that has been carefully dried to a moisture level of 10%. The protein content is 65% and the fat level is 12%. Regular chicken contains about 70% water with 18% protein and 5% fat. To create chicken meal, ingredients are placed into large vats and cooked. [2] This rendering process not only separates fat and removes water to create a concentrated protein product, it also kills bacteria, viruses, parasites and other organisms.

Because meat can be rid of infectious agents through the rendering process, “4D” animals (dead, dying, diseased or disabled) are allowable chicken meal ingredients. While not always present, the possible inclusion of these ingredients makes chicken meal always considered unfit for human consumption.[3]

Chicken meal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

See here is where I get confused, I thought Poultry meal could include the 4 d's but chicken meal had to be from slaughtered chickens.

Some companies also claim that the meal they use is muscle meat.

 

chicken meal does come from chickens, but the end result is not for human consumption because chicken meal can come from slaughtered chickens that were sick or euthanised or any number of reasons....

i don't know anymore whether a company can be believed....as far as i know, if a company makes a statement and is then proven to have lied, it's called deceptive business practices...so if, let's say, champion foods says it only uses chickens that are human consumable, they cannot do otherwise....i believe that's illegal.

nor would it make good marketing sense, don't you think?

if champion says their chickens are human consumable as a source and i find out otherwise, i'm going to call the local news station, my attorney, and tell all of my friends.

 

Ah - may have found some more clarification:


There are a huge variety of quality with ‘meals’ in pet food. Some dog food and cat food ‘meal’ ingredients are provided by the Rendering Industry; known as the ‘Original Recyclers’. The Rendering Industry collects items that otherwise would have to be disposed of, and cooks (renders) them into sellable products to various other industries such as the pet food industry. ‘Items that otherwise would have to be disposed of’ include (but is not limited to) livestock animals rejected for use in human food because of disease, euthanized animals (ANY euthanized animal), road kill, used restaurant grease, and expired grocery store meat. Common pet food ingredients produced by the Rendering Industry are ‘Animal Fat’, ‘Meat and Bone Meal’, ‘Meat Meal’, and ‘Animal Digest’.

‘Meat and Bone Meal’ and ‘Meat Meal’ are NOT the highest quality pet food ingredient. There is a tremendous possibility that either of these ‘meal’ ingredients contain the cooked remains of a diseased animal and a tremendous possibility that either of these ingredients contain a lethal drug (pentobarbital) used to euthanize the diseased animal. Thus…these ‘meal’ ingredients easily could be considered ‘bad’ (risk) pet food ingredients.

On the other hand however, there is the common dog food or cat food ‘meal’ ingredient ‘chicken meal’ (or similar specific meat meal ingredient such as ‘turkey meal’). Chicken meal is as well a ‘rendered’ ingredient; however it from a completely different processing facility as those that provide ‘meat and bone meal’ and ‘meat meal’ ingredients. In most cases, facilities that produce chicken meal (or similar meat specific meals) ingredients are attached to human meat processing plants (versus independent meat rendering facilities that produce meat and bone meal and meat meal ingredients). Chicken meal, is generally perceived to be a higher quality pet food ingredient. However, just like all meal ingredients, chicken meal can vary in quality too.

Chicken meal (or similar specific meat meal ingredients) can be made from muscle meat only, or it can contain bone and or internal organs.............Thus, pet food meal ingredients that contain bone could be considered a risky ingredient and of lesser quality. Some pet food manufacturers use a muscle meat only chicken meal, while others use muscle meat and bone.

Chicken or Chicken Meal

 

Chicken meal, is generally perceived to be a higher quality pet food ingredient. However, just like all meal ingredients, chicken meal can vary in quality too.

that's the part that makes me sit up about meal....