Cited by 'Program for Improving Canned Dog Food', Veterinary Medicine 32 (1) (Jan. 1937), pp. 31-2.
Description:

'Standards as adopted provide that canned dog food shall contain a minimum of 10% of protein, 75% of which must be of animal origin; a minimum of 2% of fat; a maximum moisture content of 74%; a maximum crude fibre content of 1.25% and a nutritive ratio not greater than 2.0.

This minimum standard is far above that of many canned dog foods at the present time. It is notwithstanding subject to criticism for being low in fat and protein and even more for not being more specific as to the protein content - hair horns and hoof are proteins "of animal origin" but obviously not suitable for dog food.

The standards further provide proof that in cases where claims are made by a manufacturer as to vitamin and mineral content, satisfactory support of the accuracy of such claims must be submitted for approval to the Referee Board of the Dog Food Division. In this matter of advertising claims the Institute is following a policy established by Veterinary Medicine two years ago.'

 

Relevant passage from 'Dog Food Advertising Policy':

'We believe that all of the dog foods advertised in these pages are meritorious products. We have declined the advertisements of a number of brands, the quality of which we had reason to question. However divergent the opinions of veterinarians may have been in the past, there is now a nearly universal agreement among them that biological value is practically the only standard by which the adequacy of a dog food may be judged, and we think the time has arrived when no manufacturer of dog food should expect the approval of the veterinary profession for his product unless he can show by scientific, biological tests, that it possesses real value as a food for dogs.

To this end, after October 15th next, no advertising will be accepted by this publication for any brand of dog food that cannot and does not submit with its application for advertising space, a record of scientifically conducted biological tests to show that the product possesses high food value for the type or class of dogs for which it is recommended, and all statements made in the advertising must conform to the facts established by these tests. Record of the tests will be accepted subject to verification in our own laboratories when and if we see fit to conduct tests on these brands.

The date for effectuating this policy will permit all manufacturers, who have not made such tests on their products, to make than, and thus give the purchaser information without which he cannot make an intelligent selection or use of the product.' (191)