Campaign for Real Pet Food

Open a newspaper this week or switch on the radio and you are likely to encounter TV vet Joe Inglis reciting the words: 'good, honest ingredients'. This is the wholesome if somewhat vague core message being used to launch the new Campaign for Real Pet Food, (CRPF).

CRPF is the creation of a group of independent pet food companies which is promoting, in its words, pet food made from good quality, natural ingredients, free from artificial colours, preservatives and flavours, and whose ingredients are openly labelled.

The statement, and a proposed package labelling scheme threaten to drive a wedge between CRPF manufacturers and all other pet foods manufactured from what it calls 'poorer quality ingredients' or which include artificial preservatives (and so on), and which, says CRPF, 'hide' behind minimum EU ingredient labelling requirements.

No longer satisfied with appealing to pet owner sensibilities, natural/organic pet food brands carrying the CRPF logo are hoping to force consumers to open their eyes and choose between two sides of a divide. The weapon that CRPF has unsheathed this week may be poised to slice the pet food market cleanly in two.

Labelling

Pet food manufacturing across the board necessarily relies on waste or by-products taken out of the processing of human foods. These include animal viscera such as organ meat and intestines which although perfectly edible, are not what we expect to find in our own food. Often, in pet food, such ingredients are a processed mix from the carcasses of different animals. The constituents of these mixes can vary by batch. For this and other reasons, the pet food industry has traditionally been resistant to detailed labelling of its products.

Current legislation allows for three categories of pet food ingredient to be listed under very general terms:

  • Derivatives of vegetable origin - refers to anything derived from a vegetable source


  • Meat and animal derivatives - refers to any meat or animal by-product


  • EC permitted additives - refers to a list of around 4000 chemical additives which do not need to individually named


  • All of the above have become key issues on which a small number of pet food companies under the CRPF banner have decided to fight. They say these labels should be banned in pet food because they do not clarify the ingredients. And these companies can afford to make this call because they trade on producing highly quality controlled organic or additive-free or free range products.

    The Pet Food Manufacturers Association, (PFMA) represents over 50 pet food companies, (around 90% of the UK pet food market). It says it has been concerned about possible misinformation releating to the CRPF and has tried and so far failed to arrange meetings with Joe Inglis. But says it has commissioned independent market research to seek UK consumer views on the labelling of additives in pet food. It reports that consumers wanted reassurance on additives (e.g. 'EC approved'), but not full listings. According to the PFMA 79% of respondents said they either wanted some information about additives, or just reassurance on safety without a lot of detail.

    The PFMA says that listing ingredients by categories, such as 'Meat and animal derivatives', means producers can select ingredients based on availability of supply without having the high cost of constantly changing labels.

    This may be so, but once it has been pointed out to them, the phrase 'Meat and animal derivatives' does nothing to allay a general feeling amongst consumers that pet food is somehow, at the very least, low grade.

    If organisations such as CRPF are successful at getting that message out, then the unsheathed weapon will set about its task. For as long as consumers can afford to pay, the division could well become one that separates the perceived safe side of pet food from the perceived risky side. What then?

    Timing

    PFMA has also expressed surprise at the timing of the CRPF campaign. It points out:

    "The EU is currently revising the legislation on labelling of pet food. This has reached quite an advanced stage and it is rather late in the day to start a campaign around pet food labelling, as there is really little chance to now influence the new rules."

    About the timing, CRPF said today that there was no strategic plan to the timing of the campaign and it has simply been waiting until its campaign was fully prepared. One cannot help noting however that Glee is just around the corner. It is probably also just a coincidence that on the day CRPF launched, new research published by Global Industry Analysts, (GIA) reported that concerns related to pet health and nutrition are expected to drive future demand for natural, organic and premium pet food products across the world.

    In fact, in almost its opening statement GIA writes:

    "Rising consumer interest in organic pet foods, and pet nutrition and health is expected to push the demand for products that are promoted as preservative-free, natural and organic."

    It seems that CRPF may well have got its timing just right.