I hear an advert fairly often that this one company’s dog food is “human-grade food”. Is this a thing?
There sure is a difference but not one that benefits your pet (it might or might not).
“Human-grade” is a specific legal term regulated by the FDA and AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials). For pet food to be labeled human-grade, every single ingredient must be human-edible and the food must be manufactured, packaged, and stored according to federal regulations for human food production. This means the facility must meet the same standards as a facility producing food for people.
Most pet food is manufactured in facilities and under conditions that don’t meet human food standards, even if some individual ingredients might be human-edible.
Mary Roach’s Gulp features a story about the humand whose job is to taste pet foods. I assume (though don’t remember) that these were not human-grade.
“Animal digest” is allegedly road kill.