Have you ever wondered who does the taste test....

All the research and development dollars are ear marked for different aspects and they seem to have a scientific way of telling which foods appeal more to different animals. Now it is edible and some people on limited incomes have been reduced to consuming cat food. It does come in easy open cans! Disgusting as that is it would be something to find out which person or persons have that job of eating pet food!

LOL!! That is a really funny thought. You're right, they have to have someone taste-testing it! I mean, I'm sure that they can have pets do it, but how can they really prove that the pets think that the taste is improved? Just because one cat might eat more of the new 'improved' flavor than the other, doesn't necessarily prove anything, does it? I don't know. I don't think that I would want to be the taste tester, anyway! I'm pretty sure that cat and dog food tastes pretty gross to us humans, not that I can remember ever trying the wet kind. I know that I probably ate a piece or three of dry cat/dog food, though, in my time. I also ate some of our gerbil / hamster seed food when we had those animals in our home, and lol, it was pretty good.

They do use aniamls to test the cat and dog foods. You have the dishes with the food and you let a hugry cat in the room and they will go to the most delicious one at that time. I have seen how they do it when i have watch a program on the Tv

I would imagine the harder a dogs tail wags the tastier the dish, and if the cat eats it without hesitation it's gotta be good!! lol But the image of a spoon taster...that brings shivers, not down my spine but up my spine!! rofl

Good point! You made me laugh! Not a great mind picture...some person tentatively putting a spoon of catfood to their tongue to taste test! Yuck! Some of it really smells good, though!

I was sure that humans taste tested pet food but I've been searching and searching and I can't find any mention of companies doing that. I did find a couple of nuts with blogs who have done it for their own research but it seems that animals most likely are used for taste tests. They just see which ones the pets prefer. I apologize if it's not okay to post a link but while I was searching, I found a super interesting page from the Animal Protection Institute that has a lot of information about what is in pet food and whether it's good or bad. I was very surprised to find out that a lot of ingredients are not suitable for human consumption. Here is the link, I hope, for those who are interested. www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1

Just watch the animals response.

Too funny, no I have never thought that far into it but yes, someone human would have to taste test it, can you imagine their total and what kind of person it takes to do such a job

I sure wouldn't want that job some of that food really has a foul smell to it........Wonder what the pay for that one would be have to be more than mim wage don't think they could pay anyone enough mone for that one.......

You love your cats & dogs. They should let you know, You must be keen observer on how they eat and react to their food, and wonder also on how they react to their foods, Maybe, just maybe thats how one knows without tasting it actually.

I dont know, never been for this, it must be some pet :P

Good question! It gave me a good laugh too. I've always wondered that myself. Maybe they have animal taste-testers. If they eat it up, then they know it's good. But the problem with that is that most large dogs will eat anything, and I DO mean ANYTHING! Mine will. So it could taste just like crap, the dog taste-testers eat it, and so they say it tastes good. Hmmm...

I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of flack over saying this but, cat and dog food doesn't really have all that much of a taste to it! So that being said, I guess *I* could be one of those people (if indeed they're people) that do the taste tests. But I understand what you're saying, how DO they know it's better other than just whether the cat/dog will eat it or not?

I realize this is kind of an old discussion but I just had to chime in. This is so hysterically funny to think about. Maybe they do actually get people to taste test the food to see if the flavor is indeed improved or maybe they should just hire my two very finicky cats who will only eat Fancy Feast..oh, has to be the regular kind, no grilled, flaked, marinated, and no way the new Florentine versions...So they should hire my two cats as taste testers too.

That's a good one, I never thought about this too much. Now I'm wondering the same thing. So, I guess animal's food isn't bad for us after all if they have a human tasting those food for them, right?! LOL!!!