Animal product
An animal product is any material that comes from the body or waste of a non-human animal. Examples include meat, fat, blood, milk, eggs, honey, and less common items like isinglass, rennet, and cochineal. Animals here means all species in the animal kingdom except humans, including fish, birds, insects, and mollusks.
Not everything from animals is called an animal product. Things from decomposed animals or crops grown with animal manure are not usually described as animal products. Materials from humans (such as breast milk) are not considered animal products.
Impact on people and the planet: In the last 50 years, production and consumption of animal products have grown a lot, bringing environmental and welfare concerns. They are linked to deforestation (for example in the Amazon) and to serious animal-welfare questions, like the culling of day-old chicks in some industries.
Diet patterns: Some diets exclude animal products or certain categories of them. This includes secular patterns (like vegetarian or pescetarian, and paleo) and religious patterns (like kosher, halal, macrobiotic, and sattvic). Vegan and vegetarian diets exclude all animal-origin foods.
Common terms: The term animal source foods (ASFs) is often used to refer to these products. In international trade rules, the term products of animal origin (POAO) is used for foods and goods from animals or closely related to them.
Environment and farming: Since 1950, meat production has risen sharply, dairy and eggs have increased too. Livestock farming uses a lot of water and land and contributes to climate change and biodiversity loss. It is a major cause of habitat destruction and is linked to the killing of billions of animals every year.
Greenhouse gases: Ruminant animals (like cows) produce methane; livestock also contributes to nitrous oxide emissions. These gases affect the climate.
Welfare and ethics: People have grown more concerned about how farm animals are kept and treated. Some people argue it’s acceptable to use animals if suffering is minimized and benefits to humans are high; others say animals have rights and should not be used by humans.
Live export and ethics: As demand grows, some live animals are moved long distances for farming. This has raised welfare concerns and led to bans in some places.
Food efficiency: A common criticism is that animals eat more human-edible food than the calories their products provide. For example, in the United States, feeding humans’ edible crops to animals to produce meat, dairy, and eggs means fewer calories reach people overall. Globally, livestock consume more calories than the amount returned to the human food supply.
Animal by-products (ABPs): In the United States, by-products are parts of slaughtered animals or other animal-sourced materials not eaten by people. In the European Union, ABPs include materials from animals that people do not eat. They can come from slaughterhouses, shelters, zoos, veterinarians, and catering waste. These by-products are often processed (rendered) into fats, proteins, and other materials used in foods, cosmetics, cleaners, ink, and more. This helps the meat industry compete with plant-based proteins.
Slaughterhouse waste: Waste from preparing meat can include various parts. Much of this ends up in pet food, and many large pet-food brands use such by-products (like feet, livers, lungs, heads). These parts are not usually eaten by humans in many cultures but are safe and nutritious for pets.
Sustainability note: Some pet foods advertise that they avoid by-products to appeal to buyers, but this can be related to waste and sustainability issues rather than safety or quality.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:24 (CET).