"This is Simon Allison, the man who eats pet food for a living.
Chicken dinners, beef strips or campfire jerky bars - it is all the same to him: if it's a dog's dinner (or cat's breakfast), he eats it. What's more, he enjoys it.
Mr Allison is a senior food technologist for Marks & Spencer with special responsibility for pet food. This means no M&S product goes into the nation's pet bowls unless it has been tasted by him first...
"It's quite bland, really," he said. "Dogs enjoy all food universally, while cats can be very choosy about what they will eat. They respond more to aroma than seasoning flavours that you would recognise."
...The human tester does, however, draw the line at swallowing the stuff - "I would be quite a different shape" - and always has a glass of water on hand to wash his mouth out.
Afterwards, he chews gum to prevent "dog breath".
(Posted for Charles, a taster of (human) food, and for Jay, who in a recent comment suggested that cat food tastes bad...)
Jay's comment was just a joke. I have smelled and tasted pet food that was far superior to some name brand human food. Several years ago when the "don't let the animals breed" fad was in full swing, it was suggested that a birth control substance be put into canned animal food. It was rejected by the FDA because "Many of the elderly living on fixed incomes rely on pet foods for their nourishment"!
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