Hi Phaewryn, Do you know where you learned this? When I was investigating Pet Food labels (since 99), this is the information that I found in 2000 and haven't found any reliable source that disagrees.
<http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/fdavet/1998/november.htm#PET> INTERPRETING PET FOOD LABELS -- PART 1: GENERAL RULES by David A. Dzanis, D.V.M., Ph.D., DACVN ..."For example, one pet food may list "meat" as its first ingredient, and "corn" as its second. The manufacturer doesn't hesitate to point out that its competitor lists "corn" first ("meat meal" is second), suggesting the competitor's product has less animal-source protein than its own. However, meat is very high in moisture (approximately 75 percent water). On the other hand, water and fat are removed from meat meal, so it is only 10 percent moisture (what's left is mostly protein and minerals). If we could compare both products on a dry matter basis (mathematically "remove" the water from both ingredients), one could see that the second product had more animal-source protein from meat meal than the first product had from meat, even though the ingredient list suggests otherwise." Kind regards, Glenda FeLV/FIV cats and a bunch of other stuff: http://community.webshots.com/user/sicky_icicle
