Hi Meg, I am soo sory. Please don´t feel frustrating , I am thankfull for all your support and information you posted to this post. 
Lets wait post from David. I believe he will make the dry meat matter more clear.
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Finished products containing less than 14 % moisture (dry products) or semi-moist products To avoid misleading purchasers, in order to make a claim for a component added in a dehydrated or concentrated form, all dehydrated or concentrated component s must be rehydrated and the claim will be based on the percentage of the claimed component in the rehydrated form.This is quotation from FEDIAF Code of Practice...
Dried Chicken and Turkey (>28%), Maize, Wheat, ...This is a meat component in the ingredient list description of "Eukanuba Puppy Medium Breed" that is signed with "30% and more meat in dry matter".
If you would apply the FEDIAF instruction to this Eukanuba food the meat content would be something like 10%.
So who/what is wrong - food producer using wrong product descriptor or something else?
FEDIAF says “all dehydrated or concentrated components must be rehydrated”. In my opinion the meat meal is a “concentrated component” and as a such it should be rehydrated in the same way as dehydrated meat. Shouldn´t it?
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Hi all,
Apologies for taking so long to get back to you.
First off I did hear back from Bern (the UK distributors of Orijen) on Friday.
There are two kinds of dried meats, rendered meals or dehydrated meats.The process of creating a meat meal involves cooking and separating the fats and oils from the meat, and then the remaining ingredients are heated to remove the moisture content.
The process of creating a dehydrated meat is similar, but takes less time and involves mechanical centrifuge rather than heat to separate the fats and oils. The meats are then dried at low temperatures (90°C). Dried meats are concentrated protein sources that are custom made for us in Wholeprey ratios, using the flesh, meat, bones and cartilage. All ingredients are from animals deemed fit for human consumption and processed exclusively in human grade facilities.
So, in the case of Orijen, the ‘dehydrated’ meats do indeed refer to something other than meat meal. Thank you for bringing this to my attention 4max. This is news to me as numerous other companies use exactly the same term (‘dehydrated meat’) to refer to meat meal so I was assuming Orijen was in the same boat. You are quite right that it will throw my dry matter meat content calculations off somewhat so I will add that to my ever-lengthenning list of updates. I have asked Bern to confirm the moisture content of their dehydrated meats and I will post here when I get a reply.
On the subject of rehydrated percentages, they may be used by manufacturers to highlight a particular dried ingredient but it must be made clear that it is doing so. For example you might see “dried carrots 2 % (equivalent to 9.6 % of carrots)” but the second part is completely optional. If you do not see this kind of statement after an ingredient, then any percentage provided will refer to the mixing bowl amount (i.e. not reconstituted). Ingredients must also always be listed in order of their mixing bowl percentages (again, not reconstituted).
I hope this clears up at least a little of the confusion but if not I’ll be right here.
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Thank you David. We are a step further. Let´s wait reply from Orijen.
In the meantime I would come back to the rehydration matter.
This is a statement from the Eden original page.
Freshly Prepared Chicken 19%, Dried Chicken 18%, Freshly Prepared Salmon 15%, Dried Herring 12.5%, Sweet Potato 12%, Chicken Fat 4.5%, Dried Duck 4%,
At you page the same Eden product has this declaration:
Chicken 19%, Chicken 18% (from Dried Chicken), Salmon 15%, Herring 12.5% (from Dried Herring), ... Duck 4% (from Dried Duck),
The above declarations are an example of what I understand with the "FEDIAF says “all dehydrated or concentrated components must be rehydrated”. The declaration at the Eden page content “dried meats”. The declaration at Allaboutdogfood seems to be adapted to the version that FEDIAF prescribes.
I don´t understand why the Eukanuba dried meat component is treated differently.
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@David
So, in the case of Orijen, the 'dehydrated' meats do indeed refer to something other than meat meal. Thank you for bringing this to my attention 4max. This is news to me as numerous other companies use exactly the same term ('dehydrated meat') to refer to meat meal so I was assuming Orijen was in the same boat. You are quite right that it will throw my dry matter meat content calculations off somewhat so I will add that to my ever-lengthenning list of updates. I have asked Bern to confirm the moisture content of their dehydrated meats and I will post here when I get a reply.
I am wondering when will we get more information about the dehydrated meat. I would also like to know, whether this site allready started to use the new meat content calculation?
4Max - your question is very specific and one which is beyond my remit. David would be able to help you with this. Hopefully he will pick up on the thread soon.
Great question 4max and apologies for my slow response. I didn’t get a response from Bern in the end and with a series of big jobs taking priority over the last few months, I’m sorry to say it dropped off my radar a bit but I have just sent them a follow up email and will keep at them this time
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