There are three primary classifications of meat in the industry when referring to fresh, live kill.
Human Grade: the meat that will end up on grocery shelves in the form of steaks, ribs, briskets, loins, etc.
Pet Food Grade: the meat used from the above mentioned live kill animal that doesn't end up on grocery shelves.
Feed Grade: not suitable for human consumption.
I can't help but wonder how many companies are stretching the verbage by using the Pet Food Grade meat that didn't end up on grocery shelves, but try to insinuate that since their meat came from an animal that was qualified as Human Grade, but they are using the Pet Grade, which came from a "human grade" animal.
That's been a long ongoing battle in the industry right now. There is not the manpower in the FDA or AAFCO to regulate every company to specify that they indeed are spending the extra money for the Human Grade meat - and from the price of pet food, I'd venture to say their costs would have to be MUCh higher if they were. It seems that they are stretching the truth here. And this information comes from talking directly with the actual suppliers of meat to the pet food industry.
I use Pet Grade that comes from the animals initially used for Human Grade products, but will not mislead my consumer by saying I use human grade, even though the quality of Pet Grade is just as high.
See how large the skirts are this industry has to hide behind and the spins they can put on things? Issues like this are just the tip of the iceberg. This is NOT a highly regulated industry and the American pet owner gets feed a lot of advertising/marketing to give them false senses of security.
How about this one?? The company that says "we use USDA Inspected Beef" - and then proceed to use 4D beef (dead, dying, diseased, disabled) - hey, they weren't lying that the beef was USDA inspected - it was just rejected.
