Marion Nestle Co-Authors Book on Pet Food Industry

New York University Professor Marion Nestle has announced the publication of Feed Your Pet Right, an extension of What to Eat that traces the evolution of commercial pet foods and recommends alternative diets. According to a May 10, 2010, Food Politics blog post, even those people without pets should pay attention to this $18 billion industry because “[p]ets eat the same food we do, just different parts… The safety issues are identical.”

Written with Cornell University Professor Emeritus Malden Nesheim, the book turns a critical eye on the five major companies that produce pet food. The authors apparently explain “how pet foods are and are not regulated, how pet food companies influence government oversight and veterinary training and research, and how ethical considerations affect pet food research and product development.” In addition, they make recommendations for pet food owners, industry, government regulators, and veterinarians.

Nestle also notes the similarities between pet and human food marketing, citing non-standard labeling and a dearth of comparative studies as sources of consumer confusion. As she told Time magazine in a May 11 promotional interview, “In the book we recommend that pet-food labels be changed to resemble human-food labels so that they’re easier to understand.” She admitted, however, that her research “found no evidence that complete and balanced pet food is harmful to pets, except where mistakes have been made in the course of production.”