Industry Has Been Plotting Serious Changes in the Regulation of Pet Food – Truth about Pet Food
A recent post on a pet food industry website admits manufacturers and ingredient suppliers have been secretly working to change how pet food is regulated. The change will remove pet food from state regulation, remove pet food from discussion at AAFCO, and move it to only federal regulations.
Currently pet food is regulated on a state and federal level. There are state laws – which can vary from state to state – pet food manufacturers are governed by. And there are federal regulations pet food manufacturers are governed by. Industry stated their challenge is a lack of consistent regulations between states and they intend to change that; “…there’s really only one answer and it’s one federalized system.”
The trade association Pet Food Institute indicated this dramatic shift in how pet food is regulated is a done deal – already agreed to by regulatory authorities. The PFI President stated “This isn’t going to happen tomorrow. It’s two to four years at best.”
What does this mean for pet owners?
We agree that the current system of pet food regulation is a failure. We agree that even though AAFCO has been meeting for more than 100 years with the mission of “unified regulation”, the regulation of pet food is not unified across all US states. Millions of tax payer dollars have been spent trying to achieve that unified regulation, but again – the goal has not been achieved.
But…
If pet food is regulated solely by FDA, will the agency have the funding to properly handle the task? As example state regulatory authorities currently enforce labeling laws, reviewing each and every pet food label annually. Will FDA review pet food labels? Or will pet food labels become even more misleading than they currently are with little to no supervision?
Another concern we have is funding to states. Currently pet food manufacturers are required to register each product they manufacture in each US state and pay fees based on amount of pet food sold (in most states). Those fees help the state to randomly test pet food products – potentially removing a dangerous pet food from store shelves. If those fees to states are stopped through only federal regulation of pet food, will FDA take over the task of randomly testing all styles of pet foods in all regions of the US for safety? Or will more dangerous pet foods slip though regulatory cracks sickening and killing more pets?
The industry post about this significant potential change in pet food regulation stated industry has been discussing this with “states, with AAFCO, with the FDA and with the members of Congress that have a keen interest in supporting this change” for the past 18 months. What about consumers? Did anyone in all those discussions ever think that consumer advocates need to be included? Did those members of Congress – “that have a keen interest in supporting this change” ever think to include us (the largest stakeholder of pet food) in the discussion? Clearly, they did not.
At this point, we are VERY concerned what industry is planning, VERY concerned about the future of pet food regulation.
We sent the FDA the following email (5/22/23):
In a recent post on PetFoodIndustry.com, the publication shared that the Pet Food Institute as well as others have been lobbying FDA, states, and Congress for a federal only system of pet food regulation. The post indicated these significant changes in pet food regulation will be made in “two to four years at best.”
As a representative of pet food consumers, we are extremely concerned these discussions have been happening without any input from consumers, consumer stakeholder organizations.
Please consider this email as an official request for Association for Truth in Pet Food to be included in any and all future discussions regarding the regulation of pet food.
We will be closely watching for any signs that changes are being made without consumer input. As always, anything we learn will be shared with pet owners.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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