The Man Who Tests Pet Food
Meet Simon Allison. He samples pet food for a living.
Allison, a UK resident, is a senior food technologist for Marks & Spencer and is responsible for pet produce.
He said he has trained his palate to detect the delicacies preferred by dogs and cats - and their owners.
Allison added, “I have trained my palate to look for materials that we will not allow in the recipe, such as tripe - pet owners react badly to the smell of tripe. I’m looking for a patè texture, almost to the point where you could spread it on crusty bread.”
This pet food taster said he loves his job and his favorite sample is the organic luxury chicken dinner with vegetables for cats.
Although Allison does love his job, he doesn’t swallow the pet food because he said he would gain too much weight if he ate everything he tasted.
To keep his breath from smelling like dog food, he keeps a glass of water ready to rinse his mouth out and always has gum on hand.
He said he is extremely proud of what he does, and added, “The more we can make the pet food like the owner’s food, the more comfortable we think customers will be serving it.”
Source: Daily Mail
(Thanks menusux)
February 19th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I’ll bet he’s never had any of the crap Menu Foods makes. Even with not swallowing it, he’d get sick.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:32 am
All petfood manufacturers should have someone like this.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Yep…good idea…and I volunteer the big shots at Menu to be the tasters!
February 19th, 2008 at 10:59 am
EWWWW Not the job for me . . .
February 19th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Why don’t they just ask U.S. seniors living in povery? I’m sure a few of them know what pet food tastes like.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I suspect that our digestive system is much better at handling most ingredients in pet food than the pets themselves. So this taster of a job ain’t exactly helpful.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I suspect that our digestive system is much better at handling most food ingredients than the pets themselves. So this taster of a job ain’t exactly helpful.
February 19th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I like this idea better
http://davegranlund.com/cartoo.....d-tainted/
February 19th, 2008 at 11:46 am
I vote for all the suits at the pf companies to taste test the food they make. After all, they keep telling us how safe it is & how nutritious the human-grade ingredients are…..I say bon appetit…….
As somebody so gracefully put it in the forums, yuckie poo……
February 19th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
he doesn’t swallow the pet food because he said he would gain too much weight if he ate everything he tasted.
–yeah? well we don’t swallow that pfi bull either because we’d lose too many pets
To keep his breath from smelling like dog food, he keeps a glass of water ready to rinse his mouth out and always has gum on hand.
–to keep pfi bs from smelling like bs we keep some facts on hand
He said he is extremely proud of what he does, and added, “The more we can make the pet food like the owner’s food, the more comfortable we think customers will be serving it.â€
–there is no way to disguise pfi bs. toxic is toxic, poison is poison, greedy ba$ards are still greedy. dead pets are dead pets.
get a life buddy.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
“He said he is extremely proud of what he does, and added, “The more we can make the pet food like the owner’s food, the more comfortable we think customers will be serving it.—
Of course. Because humans, cats and dogs have the same nutrition requirements. The pet food industry certainly plays off of the ignorance of the general public - I don’t think they quite want to admit that we’re not all that blind anymore.
February 19th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
What a joke.
Once again the customer is the village idiot.
Won’t use tripe.Why?Because it smells bad to the consumer.
Never mind what dogs and cats love.
More of the same.
Laughing all the way to the bank,they are.
Not with *my* money though.
Lorna
February 19th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I agree with everything you all said - but would like to add that I think all CEO’s of pet food manuf. should taste the pet food they make.
Katie
February 19th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Too funny….we all know that he doesn’t swallow it because he doesn’t want to have kidney disease, thyroid problems or bad teeth. If he wants us to serve it and feel comfortable in doing so why don’t they put Human grade Pet food on their lables?. Better yet, stick with a raw diet or human food from the table so that we no longer have to buy these products again.
As my granny always says ” whatever happened to table scraps “?Hmmmmmm.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
“The more we can make the pet food like the owner’s food … â€
Hello?!! Then we have no reasons to buy pet food because we’re cooking for ourselves as well as our pets!
This guy is a scam artist!
February 19th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
What a brave, brave man. Someday when he has mouth or throat cancer, he’ll wonder why.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Iams test there food on dogs and cats they keep for that reason. when they found out that they had a problem they decided to kill 6 or their own dogs and cats that they keep for testing. I mean couldn’t they just send it to a lab. I am sick of these people and this guy spits it out so he can’t be that brave. Cathy I think your right. I love Hazel’s ideas and all of everyone here there ideas we think alike. take care Denise
February 19th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
americans may not be aware that marks and spencer is known as an upscale grocers- it’s not akin to your local chain grocery. they have their own brand of products- including wines- that they tout as being made in England and being held to very high standards.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Humans better start tasting the crap made for our beloved pets.
After almost a year (really longer than that) I am still so disgusted with the pet food industry. I lost two of my best friends to the tainted pet foods plus my new cat throws up dry food all the time. I’ve tried numerous both better and lower quality brand pet foods. I believe this situation has not gotten much better than a year ago. Sad to say. I am completely disgusted with our legislators.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:20 am
need more ppl like him, eh?
dru
February 20th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
re: they tout as being made in England and being held to very high standards.
what a joke
October 15th, 2009 at 11:38 am
It is his life and if that is what he wants to do for a living than he can go ahead and do that but I will NEVER do that in my whole life. It may be gross to you guys but to him, it may be delicious.