Pet Food Label Modernization: What’s In, What’s Out, & How to Prepare for Changes
As a manufacturer of pet or specialty pet food, treats, toppers, or supplements, or perhaps as an ingredient supplier to these manufacturers, you are likely aware that changes are coming for product labels. The Association of American Feed Control Officials, AAFCO, officially rolled out recommendations for new label requirements on pet products. While AAFCO is not a regulatory body, US states have widely agreed they will adopt the recommended changes as listed in AAFCO’s Official Publication.
This update to labeling recommendations, known as Pet Food Label Modernization or PFLM, has been in progress for many years. Industry experts, regulators, and consumers all played a critical role in the recommended changes coming to fruition. Pet Food Label Modernization encompasses changes to the Primary Display Panel (PDP) and Nutrition Statements on pet and specialty pet food, treats, toppers, and supplements.
The previous guidelines set forth by AAFCO were referred to as a Guaranteed Analysis. A Guaranteed Analysis lists a minimum percentage of crude protein, a minimum percentage of crude fat, a maximum percentage of crude fiber, and a maximum percentage of moisture on pet foods, treats, and toppers/mix-ins. Calories would often be requested on a state-by-state basis. While some of these reported nutrients will stay on the label, some will be removed and the formatting will be much more aligned with human food products.
In this blog, we’ll help decipher what high-level changes are coming with Pet Food Label Modernization, as well as how to be prepared for the updated guidelines for pet food products.
Which nutrients will stay on labels?
Crude protein will remain but will be listed as protein. Crude fat will be listed as fat. Moisture will remain unchanged.
Which nutrients will no longer be listed on labels?
Crude fiber will no longer be explicitly listed on labels. However, crude fiber will still need to be part of your testing regimen due to calorie calculation requirements—this is addressed further in this article.
Which nutrients will be added to labels?
The updated guidelines require labels to include these additional nutrients:
- Calories (all calculated values): Total calories, calories from protein, calories from fat, and calories from carbohydrates will all be required on pet products.*
- Total carbohydrate values (calculated) with dietary fiber as a subset of the total carbohydrate values will be added to the label.
What does this mean in terms of testing?
Products will need additional assays performed, namely dietary fiber. However, crude fiber will still need to be part of your testing regimen as it is required for calculating calories in pet foods, treats, and toppers/mix-ins. At this time, there are no plans to replace crude fiber with dietary fiber as part of the caloric calculations.
Additionally, you may want third-party assistance in determining your serving size weight as both a household unit and weight are required on the Pet Nutrition Facts box. You should consider additional testing if you list voluntary claims on your product’s packaging. Voluntary claims may include starch, omegas, vitamins, and other nutrients.
Which dietary fiber method should be used?
This is a complex question that will be product dependent. Testing professionals recognize AOAC 991.43 as an appropriate method for most products, however, there could be instances where an alternate method is needed to quantify all fiber present in a product. AOAC 991.43 does measure high molecular weight soluble dietary fibers (ones that will precipitate in ethanol) and insoluble dietary fibers but does not measure the soluble fibers that are still soluble when ethanol is introduced. When oligosaccharides and inulin are present in a product, alternate methods such as AOAC 2009.01, AOAC 2011.25, AOAC 2017.16, or 2022.01 via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) should be considered to capture low molecular weight dietary fibers.
*Note: Calorie values will not be required on specialty pet products.
Still have questions? Need more guidance?
Eurofins can help you navigate the new labeling requirements and perform testing to align with the updates. Reach out today.
