• Turbofish@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I’m a very small sample size being one guy who works in a dog food factory. But we absolutely do not test our products on humans. All our meat products are marked not for human consumption.

    The seasonings and what have you are often tested by the npd crowd but I can’t imagine a scenario where anyone would actually try the finished product.

    • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net
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      7 months ago

      The seasonings and what have you are often tested by the npd crowd

      This is the “at some stage” portion, I assume (tho I don’t understand the lingo you are using tbh)

      Dry foods are bland and flavorless kibbles without the flavor coating, often using the same meal for multiple lines, so you just test the coating. But other products don’t have that luxury, like wet foods and treats that have soft core or whatever.

      Obviously nobody is consuming it as a diet, but they do test it :)

      https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-facts/food-careers/food-taster3.htm

      https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephenlaconte/i-just-found-out-that-dog-food-gets-taste-tested-by-humans

      https://www.merieuxnutrisciences.com/na/sensory-and-consumer-testing-of-pet-food/

      • Turbofish@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        New product design.

        What testing is done is that core temps are monitored, moisture levels checked and there’s micro testing for bacteria and what not. Its all also run through metal detectors at multiple stages throughout the process.

        This should theoretically be safe for human consumption but all of the unprocessed meat is marked as cat 3 and isn’t fit for humans. A company would be opening themselves to liability if they were to make people test it.

    • Maalus@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      In many places catfood and such is mandatory to be safe for human consumption.

          • flicker@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            I dunno what to tell you. It’s been a thing since I worked a retail job as a kid and was warned to advise management if someone was buying “a lot” of cat food and seemed poorer than average. Found an article. It’s one of those things where there were PDAs about it in the 80s, there’s articles of it happening during the pandemic, but I’m not finding any scholarly articles.

            Probably hard to get someone to admit to.

          • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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            7 months ago

            “real” food is cheaper, but also has to be cooked and can’t sit on a shelf for 15 years and still be edible.

            This is why stuff like spam continues to be sold, it’s cheap and easy and lasts forever.

            • Aux@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              When someone talks about cat food the real alternative is food like SPAM. And SPAM IS cheaper than cat food. Buying cat food to eat is an expensive enterprise, thus the original point is false.