This amount of processing leaves the meat meal with lower nutritional benefits. Although its protein values are measured like that of its very distant cousin, fresh meat, meals have lower digestibility. This means your dog’s body cannot process meal powders like it can fresh meat. Meals end up passing through your dog’s system without being properly absorbed by the body.
Along with decreased nutrition and lower digestibility, meat meals can also contain questionable ingredients including parts from diseased animals. Shockingly, the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine Director is on record saying, “We do not believe that the use of diseased animals or animals that died otherwise than by slaughter to make animal food poses a safety concern.” It might not pose a safety concern, but it’s definitely something no pet parent would knowingly want to feed to their dog.
The way protein is measured in the finished product quantifies protein content but not protein quality. Therefore, most meat meals do meet regulatory requirements for protein levels, but nothing in the regulations sets quality or digestibility thresholds.