Meat Meal... Bad?!

frisk

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Well, I was doing some research on cat food nutrition and I came accross an article that said any foods containing '(name of meat) meal' should be avoided...

Meat Meal, Meat By-Product Meal
"Meal" is generally produced by rendering, a process which raises a red flag to cat enthusiasts. I would definitely recommend avoiding cat foods containing these ingredients.
Now I understand any 'By-Product meal' is bad, but meat meals too? I thought they were good, they are usually the first ingredient of many high quality foods.


I'm hoping this is incorrect, the first ingredient in Frisco's food is chicken meal.
 

arlyn

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'meat' is vague, you always want to know exactly what kind of meat (rabbit, chicken, beef etc)

Meal in and of itself is actually not a bad thing, it is simply the meat with most of the water removed.

So chicken meal etc, would be good, but simply 'meat' is not as you simply do not know what kind of meat, could be anything from horse to God only knows.
 
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frisk

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

'meat' is vague, you always want to know exactly what kind of meat (rabbit, chicken, beef etc)

Meal in and of itself is actually not a bad thing, it is simply the meat with most of the water removed.

So chicken meal etc, would be good, but simply 'meat' is not as you simply do not know what kind of meat, could be anything from horse to God only knows.
I understand if an ingredient was labeled "Meat meal" without specifying what type of meat it is would be a bad thing. That's probably what they had ment... I was thinking they ment any type of meat, including chicken. Guess I misinterpreted it.

Thanks.
 

beandip

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"Meal" is often misunderstood. I agree with Arlyn...it is OK by me when it's a "named" meal, like chicken meal. It's a concentrated form of chicken, like Arlyn said...water (and fat, I think) removed.
 

sharky

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named meal is essentially muscle meat with some bone minus 80 % water and 50 ish fat....I liken it to jerky in a powder form...

MEAT meal unnamed could be horse , donkey , possum , beef , dog ???
 

trixtersmomma

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I think what they were saying is that the term "meal" means the meat was overprocessed and cooked at very high temps, making it less nutritious than when it is just labeled like "Turkey" or "Chicken".

Dr. Lisa Pierson mentions this on her site, too. www.catinfo.org
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by TrixtersMomma

I think what they were saying is that the term "meal" means the meat was overprocessed and cooked at very high temps, making it less nutritious than when it is just labeled like "Turkey" or "Chicken".

Dr. Lisa Pierson mentions this on her site, too. www.catinfo.org
She is rather alone in that .... Since nearly every other nutrition authority thinks that meal is better... Myself I like to see both , chicken and chicken meal as both have plus
... chicken or any meat loss up to 70 % of volume meaning a lb at the start"raw" is about 4 -5 oz after ... Chn meal has five lbs of fresh chicken in it ( yeas cooked once ) but the lb of chn meal is still one after cooking ..chicken fresh ( mind you most of it is frozen but that is another topic) would have less bone than meal by wt which is easier to balence .. The vitamin issue is mute as ALL COMMERCIAL foods that are complete have ADDED vitaminsand minerals cause the cooking process leaches most of them out... Meal is made by an extrution prossess and that is at temps under 300 degrees for a short period of time... Extruded foods are cooked about half of the time you and I would at temps much lower
 
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frisk

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Thanks for the info everyone.
 
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