what does 'chicken meal' mean?

the first 3 ingredients on my catfood are: chicken, chicken meal, and brown rice.

i was just wondering what the 'meal' part of it means?

thanks

dreamer

I also found this definition.

http://www.drweil.com/u/Article/P175/

Meat Meal/Dried Animal Digest – This is the dry byproduct of rendered meat. During rendering, all usable animal parts (including fetal tissues from pregnant cows and glandular wastes) are heated in vats and the liquid is separated from the dry meal. Manufacturers then cover the meal with charcoal and label it "unfit for human consumption" before processing it into pet food.

This one doesn't make it sound as good. Here I go with my "raw" banter again.

Rendering, regardless of the meat content, involves cooking the meat. Cooking meat alters the molecular structure of the proteins and minerals in the meat making them difficult to absorb by our cats. Cooking also kills the enzymes in the meat. Cooked meat is relatively usless to our cats and as such the food must be heavily supplimented in order to restore nutritional value.

The link below is one of many refrences to Pottengers studies of cooked vs raw meats in cats. While I don't support these kinds of tests with animals, the results are pretty conclusive. And yes, I know the link says "dogs" but read the article.

http://www.netpets.com/dogs/referenc...cookorraw.html

But take everything you read on the internet with a grain of salt.

Chicken meal is not a bad thing.

Not all rendering processes are identical and some are indeed suitable for human consumption.

I'll be the first to say that a raw diet is the best, most nutritious food possible, but not everyone is prepared to do it correctly.
Developments in supplementation have made processed foods for animals much more viable than mere cooked foods were in 1940.

And as far as Pottinger's studies (fascinating as they are), they were all done on cats whose adrenal glands had been removed, which was how he got into it to begin with- he was studying glandular replacements. Personally I suspect it was a mineral problem anyway, as I have no recollection of his using bone meal etc. in his cooked recipes.

I don't actually see any mention of bones being included at all in raw or cooked food so there are definately some issues with the study, but it does provide evidence that cooked meat if far less nutritious than raw meat. Of course, people would be better off eating raw meat too but our systems just can't handle it. Everyone knows that raw veggies are better for humans than cooked veggies, funny how they can't see that when it comes to meat.

If you are feeding dry food I advise using products with chn meal ... or lamb meal or beef meal or salmon meal ... THink beef jerky most water and fat removed.. Meal is five times the desity of fresh meat ( which has the h2o and fat cooked out and leaves the second ingrediant as the first by wt after cooking)...

Raw is best but unless you have vet help I dont advise it ..