Named Meat/Poultry Meal (e.g., Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal)
Named Meat/Poultry Meal (e.g., Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal) appears on 711 of the 2,354 pet food labels we have verified against the official product label — 30.2% of the corpus. That is 473 dog foods (42.5% of the dog corpus) and 238 cat foods (19.2% of the cat corpus), which makes it substantially more a dog-food ingredient than most discussion admits. Nobody publishes that split because computing it means reading every label.
What it is, and why it is in the food
A rendered, water- and fat-reduced concentrate from a named species (AAFCO, e.g., 'chicken meal'). Because most moisture is removed it is a dense protein source (poultry meals commonly around 57-69% crude protein) and it names the species for allergy avoidance. Protein quality is not identical across suppliers: high rendering heat can lower the availability of heat-sensitive amino acids such as methionine, so digestibility varies with processing.
The evidence base is moderate: real studies exist, but the number of them is small enough that a single new trial could move the picture.
How common it is, and where it sits on the label
Ingredients are listed by pre-cooking weight, so position carries information: something in the first five is present in bulk, something near the end is a trace addition. Named Meat/Poultry Meal (e.g., Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal) is in the first five ingredients on 571 of the 711 foods that contain it — 80% — so on those it is a structural part of the recipe rather than an additive.
| Cut | Foods | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dog foods | 473 | 42.5% of the dog corpus |
| Cat foods | 238 | 19.2% of the cat corpus |
| Dry food | 702 | 99% of foods containing it |
| Wet food | 9 | 1% of foods containing it |
| In the first five ingredients | 571 | 80% of foods containing it |
Every food that contains it, cheapest calories first
Ranked by cost per 1,000 kcal, which is the only price basis that survives different bag sizes and moisture levels. 288 of the 711 foods containing named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal) have a matched price; the rest are verified but unpriced.
| Item | Value (%) |
|---|---|
| Dog foods | 42.5% (473) |
| Cat foods | 19.2% (238) |
| Dry (of those with it) | 99% (702) |
| Wet (of those with it) | 1% (9) |
| In the first 5 ingredients | 80% (571) |
What actually differs about the foods that use it
Held to one species and one form — dry dog food — so the comparison is not just measuring moisture. 467 verified dry dog foods list named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal); 183 do not. These are medians across those two groups.
| Measure | Contains it (467) | Does not (183) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protein, dry matter | 30.0% | 27.8% | 2.2 points higher |
| Estimated carbohydrate, dry matter | 39.8% | 43.3% | 3.5 points lower |
| Cost per 1,000 kcal | $1.89 | $2.25 | $0.36 lower |
Across every food that lists it, named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal) sits at position 2 in the ingredient list on a median food. The brands using it most in our corpus are Blue Buffalo (155), Hill's Science Diet (93), Wellness (48), Merrick (47), Fromm (46). A difference in this table is an association, not a cause: brands that reach for one ingredient tend to make similar formulation choices across the whole recipe.
Comparable foods that do not list it
Most people searching an ingredient name want the other half of the answer: what to buy instead. These are verified dry dog foods — the same species and form as most of the foods above, so the comparison is like for like — that do not list named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal) anywhere in their ingredients, cheapest per 1,000 kcal first.
| Food | Protein (DM) | Est. carbs (DM) | Cost / 1,000 kcal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purina ONE Healthy Puppy Formula Dry Dog Food | 31.8% | 36% | $0.69 | Check price |
| IAMS™ PUPPY LARGE BREED | 31.1% | 40% | $0.70 | Check price |
| PEDIGREE® Adult Marrobites Steak and Vegetable | 23.9% | 51% | $0.79 | Check price |
| PEDIGREE® Healthy Weight Dry Dog Food – Chicken & Veg | 23.9% | 55% | $0.83 | Check price |
| Rachael Ray Nutrish Real Chicken & Veggies Recipe Dry Dog Food | 25.6% | 47% | $0.85 | Check price |
| Purina ONE Chicken & Rice Formula Dry Dog Food | 29.5% | 40% | $0.86 | Check price |
| Purina ONE Lamb & Rice Formula Dry Dog Food | 29.5% | 31% | $0.91 | Check price |
| IAMS™ LARGE BREED LAMB & RICE | 25.0% | 47% | $0.94 | Check price |
| IAMS™ ADVANCED HEALTH™ SKIN & COAT | 27.8% | 44% | $0.97 | Check price |
| IAMS™ HEALTHY AGING | 26.7% | 47% | $1.04 | Check price |
Avoiding one ingredient is rarely a good reason to switch on its own. Use this table the way you would use any other single filter — alongside the AAFCO statement, the protein figure and the recall record, all of which are on each food's page.
What we don’t know
Our figure counts what manufacturers print. An ingredient that arrives inside another component — a preservative already in the fish meal, say — does not have to be declared separately by the pet-food maker, so a count from labels is a floor, not a ceiling. We also cannot see inclusion rate: a label tells you named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal) is present and roughly where it sits by weight, never how much.
The gap here is definitional. AAFCO ingredient names describe what went into the rendering process, not the quality of what came out, and two foods listing the same meal can sit far apart on digestibility and ash content. A label cannot tell you which you are holding. We do not translate any of this into a score. There is no honest way to weigh one ingredient against a food’s AAFCO substantiation, its recall history and its cost, and sites that do it anyway are making the weighting up.
Sources
- AAFCO — What's in the Ingredients List? (2024)
- Faber et al. — Prediction of crude protein digestibility of animal by-product meals for dogs by the protein solubility in pepsin method, Journal of Nutritional Science (2014)
- Chicken meal is not an appropriate reference protein for estimating protein quality of ingredients used in extruded diets intended for dogs, Journal of Animal Science (2024)
- Prevalence figures: Verified Pet Food Data corpus, 2,354 labels verified against official product labels. Machine-readable, CC BY 4.0.
Related ingredients
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Corn Gluten Meal
On 115 labels (4.9%). Neutral.
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Meat and Bone Meal
On 28 labels (1.2%). Neutral.
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Generic "Meat Meal" / "Poultry Meal" (unspecified species)
On 1 labels (0.0%). Worth knowing.
Frequently asked
How common is named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal) in pet food?
It appears on 711 of the 2,354 pet food labels we have verified — 30.2% of the corpus. That breaks down as 473 dog foods (42.5%) and 238 cat foods (19.2%).
Is named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal) a main ingredient or a minor one?
On 571 of those 711 foods it appears within the first five ingredients, which means it is present by weight rather than as a trace addition. On the remaining 140 it sits further down the list.
Is named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal) bad for dogs or cats?
A rendered, water- and fat-reduced concentrate from a named species (AAFCO, e.g., 'chicken meal'). Because most moisture is removed it is a dense protein source (poultry meals commonly around 57-69% crude protein) and it names the species for allergy avoidance. Protein quality is not identical across suppliers: high rendering heat can lower the availability of heat-sensitive amino acids such as methionine, so digestibility varies with processing.
Which foods do not contain named meat/poultry meal (e.g., chicken meal, lamb meal)?
Among verified dry dog foods with a matched price, Purina ONE Healthy Puppy Formula Dry Dog Food, IAMS™ PUPPY LARGE BREED, PEDIGREE® Adult Marrobites Steak and Vegetable are the cheapest per 1,000 kcal that do not list it. The full table is on this page.
All 35 ingredients we found on a real label are indexed on the ingredient hub. To see how these fields are read off a label in the first place, start with how to read a pet food label.