Legislation
The manufacture of pet food in the UK is highly regulated - there are more than 50 pieces of legislation governing the manufacture of pet food.
Foods for all animals are governed by the same legislation and, as farm animals form part of the human food chain, the laws are necessarily stringent.
Furthermore, as pet food is manufactured and distributed in the same way as human food, some legislation governing human food is equally applicable to pet food.
Pet food enjoys the additional legal protection of the law which was designed to safeguard raw materials destined for the human food chain, from which the pet food industry also sources its raw materials. Examples of this include the laws restricting the residue levels of veterinary substances in meat and those of pesticides in cereal products.
In this section we include details on what is in pet food. To find out more, look at the ingredients section to discover why using the right ingredients in pet food is so important, what the right ingredients are and how they are sourced.
The production of pet food is highly regulated to ensure that it is of utmost safety, hygiene and quality. This is illustrated in our sections dedicated to manufacturing and codes of practice. See more about the production of cat and dog food, including an animation here.
We also have a useful factsheet dedicated to helping you decipher pet food labels. Additionally, see our Resource Library, hosting a wide range of fact sheets from labelling and additives to raw and homemade diets.