Beef meal is a common ingredient in many commercial dog food brands. It is a dried end-product of the cooking process known as rendering, which is a lot like making stew, except that this stew is intentionally overcooked. With rendering, you start with a meat stew, cook away the water, and bake the residue. The result is a highly concentrated protein powder, or meat meal. Beef meal is generally perceived to be a lot less nutritious than fresh dog food, but it’s important to remember that every dog requires a different kind of diet.

Meat meal can be made from a variety of sources, including beef, chicken, and lamb. Better meals are typically made from the meat of clearly identified sources, while low-grade meals come from anonymous materials like slaughterhouse waste and spoiled supermarket meats, even diseased or dying cattle, or dead zoo animals. If a product is labeled as containing “meat meal,” then the meal can come from any mammalian species (or a combination of mammalian species). But if the product label says “beef meal,” the meal comes only from cattle.

It is important to note that not all meat meals are created equal. Some meat meals are made from whole meat that has been cooked and ground into a form that can be utilized in dry food, making them a nutritious form of protein for dogs. Examples of these include salmon meal, chicken meal, and turkey meal. On the other hand, some meat meals are made from low-quality ingredients like meat and bone meal and by-product meal, which are not as digestible for dogs. These ingredients are usually made from discarded parts from human meat rendering plants and are cheaper.

In summary, beef meal is a dried end-product of the cooking process known as rendering, which is used as a source of protein in many commercial dog food brands. It can be made from a variety of sources, and not all meat meals are created equal. Some are nutritious, while others are made from low-quality ingredients.