Decoding Pet Food Labels
Finding goodness in the label

By Leila Meyer

With the sheer number of pet food brands on the market, it’s no wonder people have a hard time choosing a healthy dog food for their canine companion. And since the massive pet food recall of 2007, it’s not only the nutritional value of the food pet guardians are concerned about, but its safety.

According to Dr. Glenna Mauldin, DVM, MSc, a board-certified specialist in small animal nutrition, your two best sources of information about what to feed your dog are your veterinarian and the label on the dog food package. “You can’t overestimate the importance of that relationship with a veterinarian who knows your animal and can make nutritional recommendations based on that long-term relationship,” she says. As for reading and understanding the label, that can get a little tricky. There are three main components to consider when scrutinizing a pet food label: the ingredients list; the statement of nutritional adequacy; and the guaranteed analysis.?

Understanding the ingredients list can be complicated. First of all, it’s important to understand that the ingredients are listed in descending order by amount, with the largest-quantity ingredient listed first, down to the smallest ingredient, listed last. According to Dr. Mauldin, a source of animal protein should be one of the first two ingredients in the list if it’s a canned food and one of the first three ingredients if it’s a dry food.?

However, manufacturers can manipulate the order of ingredients in this list. Dr. Mauldin says that “in poorer quality foods, the manufacturer might include less digestible ingredients.” She explains that manufacturers can hide these less digestible ingredients by listing their component parts instead of the whole. For example, says Dr. Mauldin, “(Manufacturers) can take the amount of wheat that they added and split it up into wheat bran, wheat flour, wheat gluten, and so on, which makes them smaller in quantity, (hence) they can move them farther down the list.” When reading the label, check whether vegetables and grains are listed by their component parts or as a whole.

Dr. Marion Smart, DVM, PhD, professor of small animal nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan and co-author of the book, Not Fit for a Dog! The Truth About Manufactured Dog and Cat Food, points out another method of manipulating the order of ingredients. She says they are listed in order of “weight as added,” which means the weight at the time the ingredient was added to the product. But, during the manufacturing process for dry food, most of the moisture is removed, so “the first ingredient in the list may not be the primary ingredient when you look at the end product because it was added with all its moisture, but the moisture was taken away at the end product, reducing it to the third or fourth ingredient,” she says. Unfortunately, as a consumer, there is no way to determine from the label if this is the case.

A healthy diet for dogs includes sufficient calories in the right balance of protein, fat, minerals, vitamins, and other micronutrients, and a minimum of carbohydrates since “dogs have no real requirement for carbohydrates, except when they are puppies,” says Dr. Smart. There are many different sources of animal- or plant-based protein available in dog foods, although Dr. Smart says, “If people are looking for a source of protein that’s more nutritious for their dog, they should look for mostly animal-based protein.”

There are many different types of animal-based protein. Some, such as beef, chicken, pork, turkey, or lamb, are straightforward. Meat or poultry “by-product meal,” however, is a more complex subject. According to Dr. Smart, by-product meal is made from the “parts of the animal that people won’t eat, but that are quite adequate for dogs because they’re composed of offal like liver, lungs, pancreas, and other organs.” To make by-product meal, these parts are “taken to a rendering plant where they are heated, the fat is extracted and the remaining material is dried and ground up into a protein source,” says Dr. Smart.

“Beef by-product meal” is made of beef by-products only, “chicken by-product meal” is made of chicken by-products only, but “meat by-product meal” or “poultry by-product meal,” could contain by-products of several types of meat or poultry, and you can’t tell from the label exactly which ones. “Not that by-product meals are harmful or anything,” says Dr. Smart, “but because they’ve been heated twice if it’s a dry dog food — once at the rendering plant and again during the manufacturing process — there are chemical alterations that change their digestibility.” When reading the list of ingredients, it’s important to look for a source of high-quality protein high on the list.

Pet food labels may contain one of a couple of different types of statements of nutritional adequacy. One is a statement that the food has been tested according to standardized AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) feeding trials. Dr. Mauldin says these trials are the best method of substantiating nutritional adequacy because “the food actually has to be fed to animals and the manufacturer has to prove that it does what it says it does in maintaining those animals over a period of time in a healthy condition.” Dr. Smart, however, believes that feeding trials are flawed because they’re “too short to detect any long-term nutrient deficiencies.”

If a label doesn’t include a feeding trial statement, it may include a statement that the food has been formulated to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles. AAFCO develops profiles of the nutritional needs of dogs at various life stages and a manufacturer can formulate a food, test it in a lab, and prove that it meets that nutrient profile. “The problem,” says Dr. Mauldin, “is that the food hasn’t actually been fed to an animal like the feeding trial foods have.”

Another piece of information included on the label is the guaranteed analysis, which tells you the minimum or maximum percentage of protein, fat, carbohydrate, and other. The problem with the guaranteed analysis is that “it’s not accurate enough,” says Dr. Mauldin. That’s because it only tells you minimums and maximums, but it doesn’t tell you the exact percentage of each of those nutrients in the food.

Some dog guardians have given up trying to determine which manufactured dog foods are healthiest or safest and have begun making homemade dog food instead. “The best diet for your dog, if you’re willing to do it, is a homemade diet,” says Dr. Smart. However, she cautions that people who don’t feed their family nutritionally balanced, wholesome meals probably aren’t up to the task of cooking for their dogs. She has also found that many homemade dog food recipes are deficient in calcium, so ensure that your recipe contains a source of this important mineral. Dr. Mauldin agrees that homemade dog foods can work for some people, but she warns that “unless you have a recipe that has been shown to be nutritionally complete and balanced, the risk of that dog having a diet that’s less than ideal is significant.” She also stresses that it’s criticial to follow the recipe exactly because any additions, subtractions, or substitutions of ingredients can make the diet nutritionally unbalanced or incomplete.

Whether you purchase your dog food from your specialty pet supply store, veterinarian or make your own at home, make sure that it contains the right balance of high-quality protein, fat, minerals and other nutrients based on the list of ingredients or the recipe, and if you’re unsure, consult your veterinarian.