In contrast to the term “organic,” which applies to the production and handling requirements for specific ingredients in pet food, “natural” is an extremely broad term.
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), defines “natural” as follows:
“A feed or ingredient derived solely from plant, animal or mined sources, either in its unprocessed state or having been subjected to physical processing, heat processing, rendering, purification extraction, hydrolysis, enzymolysis, or fermentation, but not having been produced by or subject to a chemically synthetic process and not containing any additives or processing aids that are chemically synthetic except in amounts as might occur unavoidably in good manufacturing practices.”
Essentially, an “unnatural” ingredient is a chemically synthesized ingredient and can include things such as added:
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Preservatives
- Artificial flavoring
Many ingredients used in pet foods, organic or not, can claim to be “natural” because they are derived from “plant, animal, or mined sources.”
