For centuries tallow was essential to soap and candle making. Not until the late 20th century was fat from ruminants considered as a feed ingredient. Before then, it was much too rare and valuable. Now there is a surplus of tallow due to increased demand for ruminant meats, development of a sophisticated rendering infrastructure and an increased volume of competing vegetable fats and oils.
In 2004, the US production of edible and inedible tallow was approximately 2.53 million metric tons (US Census), somewhere between half and three-quarters the global tallow production. This is a small fraction compared to the >40 million metric tons of vegetable fats and oils produced globally. Much of the tallow still goes to the soap and chemical industries to produce household items, but now there is a plentiful supply for use in animal feeds. This surplus may be why, in less than a half-century, tallow has gone from a rare and prized ingredient to one that is reviled by some as a low-quality, inferior commodity. So much so, its critics consider tallow nutritionally unfit for dogs or cats.
