PROTEIN · ANIMAL
Salmon meal
PETLYTIC SCORE
Excellent
5/100 risk index
Salmon meal is one of the better ingredients you'll find in commercial pet food. Here's why it earns a high score, what to look for on the label, and which brands use it well.
THE HONEST ANSWER
Named fish protein providing omega-3 fatty acids and high-quality amino acids.
FDA PET STATUS
GRAS
FDA HUMAN STATUS
Not evaluated
EFSA STATUS
Not evaluated
NTP CARCINOGEN
Not listed
AAFCO DEFINITION
Clean flesh of fish, with or without bones.
What Salmon meal actually is
Named fish protein providing omega-3 fatty acids and high-quality amino acids.
Why it's still in pet food when human food has moved on
Two reasons: cost and regulatory inertia. Pet food regulation lags human food regulation by decades. Premium brands have largely moved away from it. The cheap ones still use it.
WHICH BRANDS STILL USE SALMON MEAL
We checked every brand in our database. Here's the partial list — the products with the highest sales volume that still include this ingredient.
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