{"topic_id":"calorie_pet_vs_human_declaration","category":"pet-food-energy","context":"---\ntopic_id: calorie_pet_vs_human_declaration\ncategory: pet-food-energy\ntitle: \"Pet-food calories are declared per unit of Metabolisable Energy (ME), not as human 'Calories' — different energy bases\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines for Dogs and Cats (2025)\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/fediaf-historical/fediaf_nutritional_guidelines_2025.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-28\ntokens_estimated: 260\nverified: true\nverification: c1_substring\nsource_document: \"FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines for Dogs and Cats (2025)\"\ncitation:\n  authority: \"FEDIAF (European Pet Food Industry Federation)\"\n  title: \"Pet-food calories are declared per unit of Metabolisable Energy (ME), not as human 'Calories' — different energy bases\"\n  url: \"https://www.fediaf.org/\"\n  retrieved: \"2026-07-28\"\n  ref: \"\"\n  doc_type: \"official guidelines (first-hand)\"\n  needs_review: false\n---\n# Pet-food calories are declared per unit of Metabolisable Energy (ME), not as human 'Calories'\n\nThe text below is reproduced verbatim from the first-hand source (FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines 2025).\n\n> Unit per 1000 kcal of metabolisable energy (ME)\n> Unit per MJ of metabolisable energy (ME)\n> Recommended nutrient levels for complete dog food: unit per MJ of metabolisable energy (ME)\n\nSource: `pdf-raw/fediaf-historical/fediaf_nutritional_guidelines_2025.txt` (first-hand official guidelines, whitespace-normalised for C1 matching).\n\n## Claims (verified C1 substrings of source_file)\n- `Unit per 1000 kcal of metabolisable energy (ME)`\n- `Unit per MJ of metabolisable energy (ME)`\n- `Recommended nutrient levels for complete dog food: unit per MJ of metabolisable energy (ME)`\n\n## Analysis — is pet-food energy the same as human food energy? (not a C1 claim)\n\nNo. Pet food is expressed on an **ME (metabolisable energy)** basis — declared \"per 1000 kcal of ME\" or \"per MJ of ME\" (verbatim above) — and pet energy is estimated with the **modified Atwater method** (species-specific for dogs and cats; see the companion topic). Human food \"Calories\" on nutrition labels are computed with the **general Atwater factors** (~4 kcal/g protein, 9 kcal/g fat, 4 kcal/g carbohydrate) and declared per serving or per 100 g. Because the energy basis (ME vs gross metabolisable energy for humans) and the conversion factors differ, a pet-food calorie figure is **not directly interchangeable** with a human-food calorie figure. The human-side general Atwater figures above are standard nutrition methodology cited here as background; no first-hand human-side official source was reachable in this session, so they are presented as analysis, not as C1-verified claims.\n","sources":["FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines for Dogs and Cats — Pet-food calories are declared per unit of Metabolisable Energy (ME), not as human 'Calories' — different energy bases (retrieved 2026-07-28)"],"source":{"authority":"FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines for Dogs and Cats","title":"Pet-food calories are declared per unit of Metabolisable Energy (ME), not as human 'Calories' — different energy bases","url":"https://www.fediaf.org/","retrieved":"2026-07-28","ref":"","doc_type":"official PDF","source_document":"FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines for Dogs and Cats (2025)","verification_file":"pdf-raw/fediaf-historical/fediaf_nutritional_guidelines_2025.txt"},"source_document":"FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines for Dogs and Cats (2025)","source_file":"pdf-raw/fediaf-historical/fediaf_nutritional_guidelines_2025.txt","tokens_estimated":260,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}