Nutrient Profiles were created by “expert committees” for Canine and Feline Nutrition.  A standard chemical analysis is done to make sure a food meets the profiles for “adult, growth, or all life stages, meaning it meets the growth standards and can be fed to all ages.

While this is great to determine if a food has the right balance of nutrients, it doesn’t address palatability, or digestibility which feeding trial did so, AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials)added a “safety factor” which was to exceed the minimum amount of nutrients required to meet the complete and balanced requirements.  In my opinion this still leaves out “palatability” but, feeding trials are no longer required.

In 2006 the NRC published new standards but, it will still take several years to impact AAFCO.

See you soon,

Kami

1. Did you know?

That  the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) created the Nutrient Profiles used today because the pet food industry found the National Research Council’s (the NRC) feeding trials too expensive and restrictive?

The NRC’s guidelines were the standard until the late 80’s.  However, the NRC’s standards were based on purified diets and required extensive feeding trials to determine if a pet food was “complete” and/or “balanced.”  The pet food industry found this too expensive and restrictive so AAFCO created an alternate method of determining the nutritional adequacy of pet food by testing for compliance with “Nutrient Profiles.”

hmmmm… this post is getting a bit long so, I’ll explain “Nutrient Profiles” in my next post.

Bye for now,

Kami