AAFCO Feeding Trial

What is an AAFCO Feeding Trial

AAFCO: The Association of American Feed Control Officials https://affco.org

Many people believe the AAFCO is setting a standard of excellence & quality for dog food. Or they that certify dog foods in some way. It’s really not the high standard you think it is.

To be AAFCO approved ONE of the following three things much be achieved:

1) Complete an AAFCO approved feeding trial for 6 months that keeps 8 beagles in a lab environment alive with no more than a 15% weight loss.

2) Make a food that has been solely made from an “approved ingredient” list (See: Ingredient List)

3) Make a formula that is sufficiently similar to a formula that is already AAFCO approved.

Now, that being said, AAFCO bases all of its guidelines on the National Research Counsel’s (NRC) guidelines, which are based on scientific studies. In my mind, NRC is more unbiased. You can google the NRC’s daily nutritional requirements for dogs and use that as your standard.

It is not a real feeding trial involving multiple breeds, sizes, regional location, and ages with blood work testing for life of the animals — as Volhard has done for nearly 40 years now.

A food that meets AAFCO is not required to offer optimal levels of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that will allow your dog to thrive in health for years to come. We have to look much closer at the ingredients in the food & read the label carefully to understand the quality of a food.

So to say a food has met AAFCO standards isn’t really exciting. It’s meeting a minimum threshold. Volhard significantly exceeds this minimum standard. But it is true, Volhard doesn’t have the the “stamp of approval”. Why? We’re not doing lab testing as defined. The ingredient list and quality for the Volhard recipes is far better than the outlined ingredient list. And the recipe isn’t similar to any others already on the AAFCO approved list. But that’s OK — the food is WAY better, results have been amazing for over 40 years, and dogs a thriving with this great food.

I can tell you with great certainty that Volhard significantly exceeds AAFCO standards for nutrients, quality, health outcomes, and thriving pets.