per:
David Syverson
Chair, AAFCO Pet Food Committee
Located at:
Minnesota Department of Agriculture
Dairy and Food Inspection Division
625 Robert Street North
St. Paul, MN 55155-2538
Web Site**
Commercial Feed Program
"I want to be real sure that you have the correct understanding of the nutritional adequacy statement. It is not an "approval" of any kind. AAFCO does establish the standard, it is the responsibility of the firm to meet the standard, but AAFCO does not approve any products."
Mr. Syverson continues:
"A bit more on the life stages issues. An "All Life Stages" product is a general use, "one size fits all" product which is formulated so that no nutrient (of the 30-40 required) will be below the minimum for any particular life stage. What this means is that such a product will likely be over-formulated for certain life stages, particularly for maintenance. All Life Stages diets are perfectly safe nutritionally, however, a mature couch potato pet may gain weight on this type of product since it will have higher energy and protein values than what is required for maintenance purposes."
And:
"In most consumer situations, growth and maintenance are the life stages of interests and an all life stages product and will work out for a normal and healthy animal if a person watches their adult pet's body condition and avoids overfeeding an older animal. Again, All Life stages is OK for a health animal, but, for example, an older animal with kidney issues should not be fed an all life stages/growth/lactation/reproduction diet because the protein levels will add additional loads to the kidneys."
Debbie