Named Meat

Named meat refers to an ingredient line that specifies the animal species, like 'chicken,' 'beef,' or 'lamb,' as opposed to generic 'meat' or 'animal protein.' Named meat is a quality signal because it tells you the species was identified at the supplier level and the brand can verify their sourcing. Generic 'meat' on a dog food label means the source was unspecified, which usually indicates a multi-species rendering pipeline with batch-to-batch variation. Premium brands always use named meat. Budget brands sometimes use generic meat to keep costs low. The same logic applies to fat sources (named chicken fat vs generic animal fat).