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Royal Canin president Keith Levy has admitted in an interview with US-based Forbes magazine that chicken feathers are being used in a special brand of the company's dog food.
He said that an Anallergenic formula used chicken feathers as the main source of protein.
"This product was 10 years in development, and designed to address a very specific need. Some dogs have intense allergic reactions to certain kinds of proteins. Conventional wisdom was focused on limited ingredient diets – fewer ingredients that would minimize the chances of an allergic reaction. But some dogs would not respond even to these diets. Anallergenic takes it a step further – through a completely different source of proteins," said Keith Levy in an interview for Forbes.
"We have a team in France that is travelling the world to find ingredients. In this case it’s feather meal. It’s not only nutritious but can also be made very palatable to dogs.
"Feathers are broken down to an amino acid level and don’t have much of a taste. Then we add palatisers for taste. In this case, we have to be very careful not to provoke an allergic reaction. That’s why it took so long to develop this particular food.
"We’re looking for lots of different sources of protein for our foods. For some of our foods in China we use worm meal. I tried some kibble made with worm meal once – it tasted very good. So our approach goes way beyond feathers."
Mr Levy said that sustainability was an important issue for Royal Canin and its parent company Mars.
"By using alternative sources of protein, we’re using something that would otherwise end up in a landfill. It’s the best of both worlds: you’re not competing with the human food chain, reducing waste and providing an incredibly nutritious protein," he said.
And he claimed the company wasn't using alternative sources of protein for financial reasons.
"Feather meal is actually not cheaper because breaking it down to amino acid level is a costly process. In fact, feather meal is more expensive than chicken meat. Last year we had a hard time getting enough feather meal from suppliers."
You can read the full interview with www.forbes.com by clicking here
