What is meat meal?

Meat meal - what is this ingredient in pet food?

February 1, 2021

Meat meal is based on one of the oldest ways of preserve meat -drying.

This method was commonly used amongst humans before refrigerators and freezers were invented.

What is meat meal made from?

All ingredients for meat meal are sourced from human food slaughter houses -ill or dead (none slaughtered) animals are not included. A good chicken based meat meal does also not contain beaks, feet and feathers. Some meals do contain a limited amount of bones – in this case they are defined as meat and bone meals rather than meat meal. As calcium, which the bones amongst others provide, is an important component in the pets diet it can be beneficial that this ingredients is included in petfood in limited volumes

How is meat meal made?

When the meat scraps are processed into meat meal they are purely dehydrated/dried and ground into a fine flour. As this is done shortly after the animal has been slaughter the meat is well preserved and can help ensure a good and healthy petfood all the way to the expiry date.

Meat meal vs. meat slurry/fresh meat?

As the meat has been dehydrated it is also significantly more concentrated than meat slurries -a fresh meat “soup”. So keep this in mind if you attempt to compare a meat meal based petfood with a petfood based on meat slurry.