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What can you learn from a pet food ingredient label?


You walk into a pet store and ask an employee, "How do I know if a food is good?". The likely response, "Look for meat as the first ingredient."

By most accounts, I am considered well-educated on what constitutes good nutrition for dogs and cats. So let me make this clear - it is impossible to determine if a pet food is high quality or low quality by looking at the ingredient list. Here's why:

Ingredients are listed on the label by weight. Those ingredients that make up the largest % of the food by weight will be listed first. Water is heavy. Therefore, if you used meat that still has the water in it versus a meat meal (rendered, dry meat), the water meat weighs more and will be higher on the ingredient list. Although the two ingredients may provide the exact same protein and amino acid content, the meal will always be further down the list.

Another trick to make meat your first ingredient is to use only one or two sources of protein and lots of different carbohydrate sources. If you had 3-4 different protein sources (remember protein can come from both plants and animals) and only one carbohyrate source (like corn or wheat), the carbohydrate would weigh more than the individual meats and all of a sudden corn is your first ingredient - even if you have lots of protein in the food from multiple sources. In contrast, if you only use meat for protein but have corn meal, sweet potatoes, rice, and wheat as carbohydrate sources, you will have meat as your first ingredient even if you have overall low levels of dietary protein.

Another issue with the ingredient label is that it provides no information about the quality of the ingredients being used. Are the ingredients safe and wholesome for consumption (e.g. Is there mold in the corn? Was the meat stored safely?) Are they digestible? A key concept to remember is that animals require NUTRIENTS, not ingredients. A diet of chicken, blueberries, and spinach sounds wonderful, but without a source of calcium, fatty acids, etc. it will not provide sound nutrition for pets.

- Dr. Angela Witzel


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