US: Upper limit on copper concentration in dog food won’t happen for now

The Association of American Feed Control Officials’ (AAFCO) Pet Food Committee (PFC) has voted against the establishment of voluntary “controlled copper” claims for dog food, given the limited availability of data on the ingredient’s impact on canine health.

The expert panel concluded that setting a limit “would simply be an arbitrary decision not based on science.” Furthermore, it would imply that foods over the established limit may be unsafe or foods under the limit may be safe, with “neither condition having been demonstrated to be true.” 

The committee reviewed findings from an established expert panel, notes from the Copper Claim Workgroup and feedback from industry stakeholders. 

AAFCO is open to revisiting the claim if future data “warrants” a review.

Industry split

Groups in support of the claim—including the Pet Welfare Alliance—argue for it to create easy identification of foods with less copper against non-therapeutic commercial products. They also believe that it would prevent brands from claiming disease prevention.

The claim was opposed by the Pet Food Institute (PFI), the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) due to a lack of data on maximum ingredients. These groups also argued that establishing a “controlled” claim would give copper a bad reputation.

Speculated impact

The pet food industry has been debating whether to set copper limits on dog food ever since the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) published a study in 2021 concerning the upper limit of copper concentration in pet food.

The PFC then proposed a regulation for a “controlled copper” claim on dog foods, which would have limited the ingredient concentration to no more than 15 mg copper/kg DM and 3.75 mg copper/1,000 kcal of metabolizable energy.