They have different dietary needs than us humans, who are more of the omnivorous type, munching on plants and animals alike. So, while a few bites of cat food won’t harm you, making it a regular part of your diet might leave you with some nutritional gaps that not even a can-opener can fix.
Canned Cat Food vs Dry
Compared to food in cans, dry pet food is more prone to contamination. It’s ripe for E. coli infection and other harmful pathogens. However, because of the canning procedure, cat food in cans is sterile. Generally speaking, canned cat food is preferable to dry kibble.
However, even canned cat food can become contaminated. More than 150 brands of pet food were recalled in 2007 as a result of a Chinese manufacturer including plastic in their protein exports. Many pets in the US died as a result of this, and you might have died too if you had consumed any of that pet food.
Strangely, there’s a greater chance that you will eat tainted human food, which is frequently recalled. Baby formula in China was recalled for the same melamine plastic contamination shortly after the 2007 recall, which led to over 300,000 sick children and over a dozen deaths.
Dana Hunnes, an assistant professor at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a senior dietitian at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, says that the short answer is that pet food can be harmful to humans if it is contaminated. Foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli impact pet food, just as they do human food. According to Healthline, this is why it’s crucial to abide by your pet food’s storage instructions in order to keep your animals safe. For instance, the U. S. The Food and Drug Administration advises keeping pet food, both dry and canned, in a cool, dry location that doesn’t get above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 6 degrees Celsius).
It is customary to give our animal companions scraps from the table. However, is the opposite safe? Is it possible for a human to consume pet food without risk of death?
But because we often arent as careful storing pet food as we are our own food, eating your pets food may run a greater risk of contamination, Dr. Beth Ann Ditkoff, a biology faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, told VICE.
According to Hunnes, it’s advisable to restrict pet food consumption to a brief period of time, ideally no longer than a few days. Pet food provides a source of protein and calories in an emergency. However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that pet food is designed with their specific requirements in mind, not ours. Related mysteries.
Its also important to know that most pet food is labeled “not fit for human consumption.” So if eating pet food does make you sick, either from nutritional deficiency or from a contaminant that got into the food before it reached your house, youd have limited legal recourse, according to a report from VICE.
Food from the Same Farms
The majority of the components found in your cat’s food are sourced from the same farms that make our food. But there are significant differences between the ingredients in cat food and human food. Only the finest parts of each animal are used to make food for humans.
By-products are generally not made into food for humans. Your TV dinner won’t contain ground-up bones, scraps, or offal, but your cat’s food will. Manufacturers use animal parts that weren’t used for human food to make cat food. Good cuts like tenderloins and back straps are available to us, but everything else—including many parts you’d probably prefer not to eat—ends up in cat food.
FAQ
What happens if cats eat human food?
Is pet food safe for human consumption?
What happens if a human eats cat or dog food?
Is cat food human grade?