"The history of commercial dog food is short in comparison to the length of time that dogs have
been companion animals. The use of bagged and canned foods became popular in the United States
after World War II. Most people born in the last fifty years do not have any memory of feeding
dogs in any other manner. The notion of the term ‘dog food’ has become so entrenched in the
vocabulary that most people state they would never feed their dog ‘people food’. The
misunderstanding is that food is ‘food’, and that commercial dog foods are simply heavily
processed ‘people food’ that is specifically made for shelf life and economy.
Until commercial dog food grew in popularity, dogs generally ate whatever food was available in
their environment. For farm dogs, this could include raw meat scraps, raw milk, eggs and food
found scavenging. City dogs probably depended on scraps from the owners’ table and offal and
cheap cuts of raw meat from the butcher. Dogs owned by the very rich and royalty are reported to
have had meals specially prepared them, with great attention to the quality and addition of
seasonings to the diet.
In 1860, the first processed dog food was introduced by James Spratt of Cincinnati, Ohio who
developed a biscuit made of wheat, beet root, vegetables and beef blood. His inspiration for this
product came from watching stray dogs eat hardtack thrown away by sailors off ships in port. The
name of this new product was called Spratt’s Patent Meat Fibrine Dog Cakes. Other companies
quickly jumped on the bandwagon and more baked dog products were on the market. Some offered
paid endorsements by veterinarians, while others made claims to cure a dog of worms and certain
diseases.
While the controversy continued on dog nutrition, new forms of packaged dog foods were
appearing on the market. The depression in the 1930’s also prompted dog owners to look for less
expensive methods to feed their pets. Less raw meat was fed and more grains and cereal products
were introduced in home diets. Canned meat products were introduced in the 1940’s and in 1943
dehydrated dog food was introduced with the instructions of ‘just add water’.
New debates were developing on feeding dogs and several marketers of the new dog products
were stating that their products were superior as they were able to utilize waste products such as
grain hulls, sweepings and meat unusable for human consumption. Another argument was that
fresh meat was just too expensive to feed dogs and that it actually made them too ‘finicky’. While
it was noted fresh meat and vegetables were superior, they argued that dogs could be fed more
economically with these factory waste products and still do well.
The sales of dry processed dog foods picked up considerably after World War II. Mill operators
and grain dealers were finding a good source for their by-products in the dog industry.
Slaughterhouses were also available to sell non-human grade, diseased meats, unusable parts, and
meat by-products to pet food manufacturers. This created a market for products that previously
had been discarded. Since many of these meat sources were non-human grade, the practice
became common to mix these with the grains and cook them together for many hours or days to kill
bacteria and disease. The final mix was then formed into pellets that were easily bagged for
convenience of feeding.
Then, in the 1950’s the Purina Company discovered an innovative new concept for dry dog food.
Dry dog food was generally found in two forms prior to this. One was biscuit, or crumbled biscuit,
known as kibble, which was baked. The other type was dog food made in pellets of which the
ingredients had to be hand mixed. Purina’s new technique was called “extrusion”. The extrusion
process consisted of combining and cooking the ingredients together in a liquid form and then
mechanically pushing them through the extruder, which expands the piece of dog food and then it is
baked again. These dog food pieces were much larger and lighter than the pellets, giving an
appearance of ‘more for your money’. Thus began the onset of ‘clever marketing’ in the race to
promote dog food to the public.
In 1969, according to Dr Kronfeld DS PhD DSc MVSc from the University of Pennsylvania, School
of Veterinary Medicine, the pet food industry utilized veterinarians to proclaim that all meat dog
foods were incomplete. He reports the editor of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical
Association also agreed with this and said dog foods needed to be fortified with nutrients, too much
protein was harmful and some carbohydrates are necessary for dog’s health.
Convenience was the first selling point for prepared and packaged dog foods. Scooping dry pieces
of food into the dog’s food bowl was more time saving than cooking or preparing their pet’s dinner.
The second selling point was developed by a professional marketing campaign. Dog food
companies began labeling their dog foods as complete, with no additional foods or supplements
being necessary. In fact, they began warning the public that adding table scraps could actually be
dangerous to the dog’s health. An active campaign was developed in 1964 through the Pet Food
Institute to inform the public of the dangers of table food scraps and the importance of feeding
processed dog food. This was accomplished through press releases to one thousand newspapers,
articles in 16 magazines, including Redbook, and Good Housekeeping and airing this information
on 91 radio stations.
Continuing marketing strategies included using celebrities in television commercials, making dog
foods that produced their own ‘gravy’, making dog kibble into various shapes, and using dyes in
the dog food so it would look ‘natural’ and pleasing to the dog owner’s eyes. Pet food ads were
appearing regularly in the media and designs were developed more to attract the owner’s idea of a
tasty and visually attractive meal than for the dogs’ health. Pet food sales moved from the feed
stores to the grocery stores, with bright labels and appealing pictures. The marketing strategies
were paying off and soon pet food sales were surpassing the amount of money spent on baby food.
Aisle and shelf space for dog food sales were expanding by leaps and bounds each year as more
dog food companies joined the marketing competition.
The next marketing strategy was in specialty diets formulated for specific diseases or disorders in
pets. The first diets were developed for kidney and heart disease in 1948. These have expanded
to more than 20 specialty diets being offered today. Dr Mark Morris DVM, founder of Hill’s Pet
Products (Science Diet) was the first in the field to develop this idea. The Purina Company quickly
followed, along with several other companies. Only veterinarians offered these Hill’s prescription
products. This really began to portray dog nutrition as complex, and the public relied more on their
veterinarian’s advice about nutrition than trusting their own judgment or common sense. Shopping
now expanded from the supermarkets to the veterinarian’s office.
Up until 1974 the National Research Council (NRC) developed the protocol for the nutritional
values needed in pet food. The Animal Protection Institute (API), in their article “What’s Really in
Pet Food” points out that in 1974; a new organization was formed, called the American Association
of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). This group was organized by the pet food industry. They
decided to change the standards of the NRC (National Research Council) testing procedures from
extending feeding trials of the dog food over a period of time, to simple testing of the chemical
analysis of the dog food. While this provided results for the percentages and breakdowns in the
dog food, it certainly didn’t address the type of food used, freshness or digestibility of each of the
ingredients. As API states in their article, this leaves the pet food industry to police itself, without
government intervention.
In 1985, the National Research Council updated their guidelines for nutrition, instituting three
important changes. The first was that the percentage requirement was removed for protein and
instead, requirements for ten amino acids were listed by weight of the dog. These were developed
for growth and adult stages. The second change was removing the word allowances from the guide
and replacing it with the word 'requirements'. This was to provide information on the availability of
nutrients in the food when eaten and digested. It also developed a chart that listed factors that
could affect the bio-availability of the ingredients of the food chosen and mixed together for dog
food. Bio-availability is defined as the efficiency of absorption and the availability of amino acids
in the food. The intent of this classification was to take into consideration that many of the
ingredients are affected by processing, heating and cooking. Combining certain ingredients also
affects nutrient value, especially in the phytates in grains that block certain minerals and the
differences in animal and plant amino acids profiles. "
By Lew Olson • August 2005 Newsletter
http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/history-of-dog-food/
been companion animals. The use of bagged and canned foods became popular in the United States
after World War II. Most people born in the last fifty years do not have any memory of feeding
dogs in any other manner. The notion of the term ‘dog food’ has become so entrenched in the
vocabulary that most people state they would never feed their dog ‘people food’. The
misunderstanding is that food is ‘food’, and that commercial dog foods are simply heavily
processed ‘people food’ that is specifically made for shelf life and economy.
Until commercial dog food grew in popularity, dogs generally ate whatever food was available in
their environment. For farm dogs, this could include raw meat scraps, raw milk, eggs and food
found scavenging. City dogs probably depended on scraps from the owners’ table and offal and
cheap cuts of raw meat from the butcher. Dogs owned by the very rich and royalty are reported to
have had meals specially prepared them, with great attention to the quality and addition of
seasonings to the diet.
In 1860, the first processed dog food was introduced by James Spratt of Cincinnati, Ohio who
developed a biscuit made of wheat, beet root, vegetables and beef blood. His inspiration for this
product came from watching stray dogs eat hardtack thrown away by sailors off ships in port. The
name of this new product was called Spratt’s Patent Meat Fibrine Dog Cakes. Other companies
quickly jumped on the bandwagon and more baked dog products were on the market. Some offered
paid endorsements by veterinarians, while others made claims to cure a dog of worms and certain
diseases.
While the controversy continued on dog nutrition, new forms of packaged dog foods were
appearing on the market. The depression in the 1930’s also prompted dog owners to look for less
expensive methods to feed their pets. Less raw meat was fed and more grains and cereal products
were introduced in home diets. Canned meat products were introduced in the 1940’s and in 1943
dehydrated dog food was introduced with the instructions of ‘just add water’.
New debates were developing on feeding dogs and several marketers of the new dog products
were stating that their products were superior as they were able to utilize waste products such as
grain hulls, sweepings and meat unusable for human consumption. Another argument was that
fresh meat was just too expensive to feed dogs and that it actually made them too ‘finicky’. While
it was noted fresh meat and vegetables were superior, they argued that dogs could be fed more
economically with these factory waste products and still do well.
The sales of dry processed dog foods picked up considerably after World War II. Mill operators
and grain dealers were finding a good source for their by-products in the dog industry.
Slaughterhouses were also available to sell non-human grade, diseased meats, unusable parts, and
meat by-products to pet food manufacturers. This created a market for products that previously
had been discarded. Since many of these meat sources were non-human grade, the practice
became common to mix these with the grains and cook them together for many hours or days to kill
bacteria and disease. The final mix was then formed into pellets that were easily bagged for
convenience of feeding.
Then, in the 1950’s the Purina Company discovered an innovative new concept for dry dog food.
Dry dog food was generally found in two forms prior to this. One was biscuit, or crumbled biscuit,
known as kibble, which was baked. The other type was dog food made in pellets of which the
ingredients had to be hand mixed. Purina’s new technique was called “extrusion”. The extrusion
process consisted of combining and cooking the ingredients together in a liquid form and then
mechanically pushing them through the extruder, which expands the piece of dog food and then it is
baked again. These dog food pieces were much larger and lighter than the pellets, giving an
appearance of ‘more for your money’. Thus began the onset of ‘clever marketing’ in the race to
promote dog food to the public.
In 1969, according to Dr Kronfeld DS PhD DSc MVSc from the University of Pennsylvania, School
of Veterinary Medicine, the pet food industry utilized veterinarians to proclaim that all meat dog
foods were incomplete. He reports the editor of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical
Association also agreed with this and said dog foods needed to be fortified with nutrients, too much
protein was harmful and some carbohydrates are necessary for dog’s health.
Convenience was the first selling point for prepared and packaged dog foods. Scooping dry pieces
of food into the dog’s food bowl was more time saving than cooking or preparing their pet’s dinner.
The second selling point was developed by a professional marketing campaign. Dog food
companies began labeling their dog foods as complete, with no additional foods or supplements
being necessary. In fact, they began warning the public that adding table scraps could actually be
dangerous to the dog’s health. An active campaign was developed in 1964 through the Pet Food
Institute to inform the public of the dangers of table food scraps and the importance of feeding
processed dog food. This was accomplished through press releases to one thousand newspapers,
articles in 16 magazines, including Redbook, and Good Housekeeping and airing this information
on 91 radio stations.
Continuing marketing strategies included using celebrities in television commercials, making dog
foods that produced their own ‘gravy’, making dog kibble into various shapes, and using dyes in
the dog food so it would look ‘natural’ and pleasing to the dog owner’s eyes. Pet food ads were
appearing regularly in the media and designs were developed more to attract the owner’s idea of a
tasty and visually attractive meal than for the dogs’ health. Pet food sales moved from the feed
stores to the grocery stores, with bright labels and appealing pictures. The marketing strategies
were paying off and soon pet food sales were surpassing the amount of money spent on baby food.
Aisle and shelf space for dog food sales were expanding by leaps and bounds each year as more
dog food companies joined the marketing competition.
The next marketing strategy was in specialty diets formulated for specific diseases or disorders in
pets. The first diets were developed for kidney and heart disease in 1948. These have expanded
to more than 20 specialty diets being offered today. Dr Mark Morris DVM, founder of Hill’s Pet
Products (Science Diet) was the first in the field to develop this idea. The Purina Company quickly
followed, along with several other companies. Only veterinarians offered these Hill’s prescription
products. This really began to portray dog nutrition as complex, and the public relied more on their
veterinarian’s advice about nutrition than trusting their own judgment or common sense. Shopping
now expanded from the supermarkets to the veterinarian’s office.
Up until 1974 the National Research Council (NRC) developed the protocol for the nutritional
values needed in pet food. The Animal Protection Institute (API), in their article “What’s Really in
Pet Food” points out that in 1974; a new organization was formed, called the American Association
of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). This group was organized by the pet food industry. They
decided to change the standards of the NRC (National Research Council) testing procedures from
extending feeding trials of the dog food over a period of time, to simple testing of the chemical
analysis of the dog food. While this provided results for the percentages and breakdowns in the
dog food, it certainly didn’t address the type of food used, freshness or digestibility of each of the
ingredients. As API states in their article, this leaves the pet food industry to police itself, without
government intervention.
In 1985, the National Research Council updated their guidelines for nutrition, instituting three
important changes. The first was that the percentage requirement was removed for protein and
instead, requirements for ten amino acids were listed by weight of the dog. These were developed
for growth and adult stages. The second change was removing the word allowances from the guide
and replacing it with the word 'requirements'. This was to provide information on the availability of
nutrients in the food when eaten and digested. It also developed a chart that listed factors that
could affect the bio-availability of the ingredients of the food chosen and mixed together for dog
food. Bio-availability is defined as the efficiency of absorption and the availability of amino acids
in the food. The intent of this classification was to take into consideration that many of the
ingredients are affected by processing, heating and cooking. Combining certain ingredients also
affects nutrient value, especially in the phytates in grains that block certain minerals and the
differences in animal and plant amino acids profiles. "
By Lew Olson • August 2005 Newsletter
http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/history-of-dog-food/
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