2007 turned out to be the worst year in history for pet food recalls. There is no chance of being completely certain that your pet's food is poisoned or will be on a recall list - but there are some important thing to look for and avoid that can improve your chances to locate a healthy, safe pet food.

Begin by looking for the Ingredient Listing on your pet food. Some pet foods can contain 90 or more ingredients, but we are going to focus on just a few ingredients that have the potential to be risky.

'Wheat Gluten', 'Corn Gluten', or 'Rice Gluten'. These are the ingredients that were responsible for the pet food recall of 2007. While glutens have been used in some pet foods for years, the problem last year was the source of the products. The tainted ingredients were imported from China - a country with a history of poor quality control. The imported glutens were found to contain added chemicals that caused crystals in the kidneys of pets.

As well, glutens provide little nutritional value to a pet food. They can be used as a thickener and as a protein boost for pet foods. Adult maintenance dog foods must provide a minimum of 18% protein, adult maintenance cat foods must provide a minimum of 26% protein. Often times a pet food does not provide the required percentage of protein from meat ingredients and glutens can be added to boost the protein levels. An optimal pet food protein should be from a meat source.

'By Products'. By-products have never caused a pet food recall, but an understanding of this common pet food ingredient is required to understand the controversy that exists about it. To explain by-products, I am comparing it to pies. There are apple pies, cherry pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, pie in math, cow pies, and so on. Imagine if you purchased a pie without knowing what type of pie it was - no clue if it was an apple pie or if it was a cow pie. The same holds true with by-products in pet food.

AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials - the organization responsible for all animal feed manufacturing rules and regulations) defines by-products as "meat by-products is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto."

By-products are a catch-all pet food ingredient. Any or all left over animal tissue materials from the human food industry are clumped into this one ingredient. A pet owner has no certainty of what is in the pet food. One batch of pet food could contain liver or bone by-products, while the next could contain intestines - there is just no way of knowing for certain what is actually contained in the pet food.

'Meat Meal', 'Meat and Bone Meal', or 'Animal Digest'. These three ingredients are similar to by-products. AAFCO defines Meat and Bone Meal as "the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably to good processing practices." Again, a catch all ingredient name for the left-over parts of animals used for human food. No consistency to what is contained in these ingredients (all three of these pet food ingredient definitions are similar) - no way of knowing what is actually in your pet's food. Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain 'meat meal', 'meat and bone meal', or 'animal digest'.

'Animal Fat'. In 2002 the FDA tested many different brands of dog food (cat food was not tested) for the presence of the drug pentobarbital. Many brands of dog food tested positive to contain the drug. Pentobarbital is the drug used to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle, and horses.

How can the drug that is used to euthanize animals be found in pet food? The answer - euthanized animals are rendered (cooked) and the end ingredients are placed in pet food. It has long been rumored that euthanized dogs and cats (from animal shelters and veterinarian offices) is the major source of the pentobarbital in pet food. The FDA/CVM (Center for Veterinary Management) developed testing methods on two separate occasions to determine the species source of the drug. No results have ever been determined. The pet food manufacturers adamantly deny they use rendered dogs or cats - but again, NO clinical evidence has ever been released to confirm the pentobarbital is from euthanized cattle and horses in pet food as they claim.

The one piece of information the FDA report does provide pet owners is that the pet food ingredient 'animal fat' is the most likely ingredient to contain pentobarbital. If your pet's food contains the ingredient 'animal fat' it is very possible that you are feeding your pet euthanized animals - including the possibility of feeding your dog or cat a euthanized dog or cat. Not every batch of pet food that contained the ingredient animal fat was proved to contain pentobarbital, but many did.

'BHA', 'BHT', 'TBHQ', and 'Ethoxyquin'. These pet food ingredients are chemical preservatives that have a long controversial history. There is much scientific evidence that links these chemicals to tumors and cancer. All of these chemicals are rarely used to preserve human food and if so, are used in a far less quantity than is approved for use in pet foods.

'Corn', 'Wheat', 'Soy'. There is no clinical evidence that these common pet food ingredients are dangerous to pets, but they have been associated with pet food recalls of the past. Grains such as corn, wheat, and soy (and all their variations) are prone to a deadly mold called aflatoxin. According to AAFCO regulations, pet food manufacturers are not required to test ingredients for safety or absence of mold.

There is more to selecting a true healthy pet food for your dog or cat than avoiding the above mentioned ingredients. This is just a start - based on pet food history, AAFCO ingredient definitions, science and opinion of many pet food experts including myself. There are many quality pet foods available that do NOT use the above ingredients and that add health promoting ingredients to their foods and treats. Continue to learn as much as you can about what you are feeding your pet and ALWAYS read the labels!