Ingredients listed as beef, chicken and poultry by-products are not required to include actual meat. Rendered meat can be any rendered mammal meat including dogs and cats. These synthetics work primarily by binding with the free radicals and producing a non-reactive, inert molecule. Since your pet eats the same food every day, these chemicals accumulate in your pet's body. BHA, BHT, and Ethoxyquin have been linked to cancer, and liver and kidney dysfunction.
Artificial color is put in the food for the benefit of the pet owner.
Artificial flavor is put in the food so that the pet will think it is eating something he is not, namely meat. Obviously artificial flavoring is much cheaper than actual meat and other natural, real ingredients. ANY pet foods contain fillers that have little or no nutritional value. Cheap fillers include feathers, soy, cotton seed hulls, corn cobs, peanut hulls, citrus pulp, screenings, weeds, straw, and cereal by-products. Most pet food using chemical preservatives and low quality fillers may be associated with dry skin, allergic reactions, dental disease, poor health and degenerative organ dysfunction.