AAFCO Feeding Studies | What are They and Why Should They be Conducted?

There has been quite a bit written in the past couple of years on the importance of AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) feeding studies by some nutritional experts. It is important to understand exactly what these feeding studies entail and why a pet food company should want to do feeding studies with their diets.

AAFCO allows for two ways to substantiate the nutritional adequacy of diets

The first way is through formulation. This means that pet food is formulated to meet all the AAFCO nutrient requirements, as set forth in the annual AAFCO official publication. It is also recommended to check the macro and micro-nutrient levels of the diet via analysis from a reference laboratory to ensure AAFCO compliance, but this is not required.

The second way AAFCO allows nutritional substantiation is to perform an AAFCO feeding study. Let’s start by defining exactly what an AAFCO feeding study is. Eight healthy adult dogs begin the study. A veterinary exam is performed at the beginning and end of the six-month study. Dogs are weighed weekly, and the following criteria must be met; no dog may lose more than 15% of its body weight throughout the study and the average weight loss of the entire group cannot be greater than 10% for the six-month duration. Two of the eight dogs can be removed from the study for non-nutritional reasons. Four blood parameters including alkaline phosphatase, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and albumin are collected only at the end of the study.¹

There may be several reasons why companies do not perform AAFCO feeding studies with their diets. The fact that AAFCO allows nutritional substantiation via formulation, which is much less expensive and less time-consuming, is probably the main reason. The cost and time involved to do an AAFCO feeding study can play a role in this decision. Some companies may not want to do feeding studies with purpose-bred dogs, which is how these feeding studies are typically done.

Breaking the mold and changing perception

There is a perception that only the largest pet food companies routinely do such feeding studies. It has also been stated by some nutritional experts that only diets that meet WSAVA (World Small Animal Veterinary Association) guidelines should be recommended and WSAVA guidelines require that feeding studies be performed.^2,3 Feeding studies are a way to evaluate the quality of pet food and make those results available to veterinarians and consumers. This is important because it gives insight into how the diet performs on the health of the animal.

BSM Partners AAFCO feeding studies

Even though a standard AAFCO feeding study protocol is a good start, it lacks detailed measures of pet health that should be included in a feeding study. BSM Partners has identified more robust feeding study protocols and can customize a feeding study to a specific pet food brand’s need. BSM Partners utilizes privately owned dogs for “in-home” AAFCO feeding studies. This alleviates concerns about using purpose-bred dogs, without compromising on the controlled environment aspect. BSM Partners can customize an AAFCO feeding study to fit a brand’s needs by measuring specific health parameters through extensive bloodwork and veterinary examinations. Measurements of cardiac health in dogs eating diets over the length of the study can also be done. Measurements of specific nutrients in the plasma and blood indicating whether a diet is delivering essential nutrients to the pet can also be added to the study protocol. Stool quality is also an important aspect for any consumer purchasing pet food and BSM Partners monitors stool quality throughout the entire study.

A standard AAFCO study is primarily concerned with cats and dogs not losing weight, but it is just as important to not have cats and dogs become obese while on a pet food study. BSM Partners custom AAFCO feeding studies feed calories based on a specific animal’s daily energy requirements. This is based on age, weight, reproductive status, and activity level. BSM Partners also thinks it is important to monitor body and muscle conditioning in addition to measuring body weight.

BSM Partners’ custom feeding studies are performed and overseen by veterinary professionals who are experts in pet nutrition, feeding study design, interpreting the results, and helping the company to communicate the results of the study to their consumers and stakeholders.

All in all, BSM Partners can offer our clients a custom (AAFCO-qualifying) feeding study protocol with privately-owned dogs that measures over 60 different health parameters compared to a standard AAFCO study that only measures 7 health parameters and gives a limited view of overall health.

References: 

1. AAFCO Official Publication. 2022. p. 185
2. WSAVA global Nutrition Committee: Recommendations on Selecting Pet foods. 2013
3. Freeman, L. M., J. A. Stern, R. Fries, D. B. Adin, and J. E. Rush. 2018. Diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs: what do we know? Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 253:1390–1394. doi:10.2460/ javma.253.11.1390

 

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About the Author

Dr. Bradley Quest is the Principal Veterinarian at BSM Partners. He has practiced clinical veterinary medicine and has developed, studied, and clinically tested pet health products (including dental products for pets) for the past two decades.