How to Understand Pet Food Labels

How to Understand Pet Food Labels

Trying to understand the information on pet food labels can be quite

confusing. As a pet owner you want to feed your dog or cat what is the

healthiest for them. As a consumer you need to keep an eye on your

budget. Every time we look at the ingredients panel for dog or cat food

we get thoroughly frustrated and just end up purchasing based on

recommendations and budget.

Finally I decided to do some research myself to learn what it all

means. This paper may be a little in depth but it’s worth it. There is

information in here that most people don’t know.

The Ingredients

All pet foods must list the ingredients present in dog food.

Ingredients are listed in descending order, according to weight. Be

careful of one tactic used by manufacturers to disguise less desirable

ingredients. Breaking an ingredient into several different smaller

ingredients and listing them individually is used to lower these

undesirable ingredients farther down the ingredient list. For example, a

product list could contain chicken, ground corn, corn gluten, ground

wheat, corn bran, wheat flour, wheat middling, etc. If we were to group

all of the corn ingredients as one, they would probably far out-weigh

the amount of chicken, and wheat. As a consumer, you must read all of

the ingredients carefully.

Let’s look at the some of the ingredients on the example panel

below:

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Ground whole grain corn: Ground whole grain corn is the entire

corn kernel ground or chopped. Since this is the first ingredient

listed then the pet food contains more whole ground corn than

any other ingredient.

Chicken by-product meal: Chicken or Poultry by-products are

clean parts of slaughtered chicken or poultry such as heads, feet,

and internal organs (like heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, abdomen,

and intestines). It does not contain feathers.

Animal Fat: Animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of

Vitamin E) this is fat that was obtained during the rendering

process of mammals or poultry. Note that the animal source is

not specified and is not required to originate from “slaughtered”

animals.

Soybean Mill Run: Composed of soybean hulls and soybean

meats that adhere to the hulls which result from normal milling

operations. In other words, leftover soybean parts.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_rendering#Kitchen_rendering

Flaxseed: Flax seed is the richest plant source of antioxidant

lignans and Omega-3 fatty acids that both help support an active

immune system. The high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids in flax

seed meal also help promote healthy skin and a shiny coat. Flax

seed meal also has a very high level of highly digestible protein

and essential amino acids needed to keep dogs fit and healthy.

In addition, flax seed meal contains high amounts of fiber (aids in

digestion), Vitamin E, Folic Acid, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6

and is extremely high in the minerals Potassium, Calcium and

Phosphorus. This ingredient has many good qualities, but

unfortunately is farther down the list in quantity. Below is a list of

the good fatty acids found in flaxseed oil.

o FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF FLAXSEED OIL

Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acid………..57%

Omega-6 EFA………………………….16%

Omega-9 EFA………………………….18%

Chicken Liver Flavor: Just that. Chicken liver flavor.

Corn Gluten Meal: Corn gluten meal is a by-product of processing

corn to make corn starch and corn syrup and is the dried residue

after the removal of the bran, germ, and starch.

Dried Egg Product: Dried Egg Product is one of the most

nutritiously beneficial ingredients that can be used in any feed

product. It has a digestibility rate of over 98% which is higher

than any other protein used in the Pet Food Industry. Egg has a

good ratio of Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignans

Those are the top eight ingredients from this particular food

label. All in all it isn’t the worst thing you can feed your pets. It

could use more meat, but maybe your pets need something more

easily digested instead the larger quantities of meat. That is

something that you will have to weigh against other factors when

you buy.

Other pet foods will have different variations so here is another

quick list of some of them and what they are.

Meat: Meat is the clean flesh of slaughtered animals (chicken,

cattle, lamb, turkey, etc.). The flesh can include striated skeletal

muscle, tongue, diaphragm, heart, esophagus, overlying fat and

the skin, sinew, nerves and blood vessels normally found with

that flesh.

Meat By-products: Meat by-products are clean parts of

slaughtered animals, not including meat. These include lungs,

spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bone, and stomach and

intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns,

teeth, or hooves.

Lamb Meal: Lamb meal is rendered lamb tissue such as skeletal

muscle, some bone and internal organs which have been cooked,

dried and ground.

Fish Meal: Fish meal is the clean ground tissue of un-

decomposed whole fish or fish cuttings, with or without the oil

extracted.

Beef Tallow: Beef tallow is fat derived from beef.

Brewers Rice: Brewers rice is the small fragments of rice kernels

that have been separated from larger kernels of milled rice.

Brown Rice: Brown rice is the unpolished rice left over after the

kernels have been removed.

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After all the main ingredients are listed you will have the various

additives at the end of the list that may include vitamins,

supplements, minerals, colorings and preservatives.

The same preservatives are used in food for people and pet food.

They are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, are

safe and are used in very small quantities. Pet foods contain

preservatives for the same reason food for people does - to keep it

fresh. Preservatives keep food from spoiling. Eating spoiled food can

cause illness in pets just as it can in people.

The Guaranteed Analysis

The guaranteed analysis on the information panel of the dog food label

lists the minimum levels of crude protein and fat ("Crude" refers to a

specific method of measuring the nutrient, and is not an indication of

quality.) and the maximum levels of fiber and water.

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The protein and fat are listed as crude sources and not as digestible

sources. The digestibility of protein and fat can vary widely depending

on their sources. Although not required, some manufacturers also

specify the percentages of other nutrients, such as ash and taurine in

cat food, and calcium and phosphorus in dog food.

The amounts of crude protein and most other nutrients appear less for

canned products than for dry ones because of differences in moisture

content. Canned foods typically contain about 75 percent water, while

dry foods contain only about 10 percent.

Converting Dry Matter Basis

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This can be the tricky part. All pet foods have different levels of

moisture. Canned foods can have up to 80% moisture whereas; some

dry foods can have as little as 6%. This is important for 2 reasons. The

first is that the food is priced by the pound, and when you buy dog

food that is 80% water you get 20% food and the rest is water. So the

amount of food your pet consumes is small and expensive. The other

reason for understanding percent moisture is to help you compare

crude protein and fat between brands and between canned and dry.

The listings on the label are for the food as it is, not as it would be on a

dry matter basis. So without converting both brands of food to a dry

matter basis you will not be able to compare them accurately.

Fortunately, the conversion is not that complicated. Please refer the

numbers below to the label above.

1. If a dry dog food has 10% moisture we know that it has 90% dry

matter (100-10=90).

2. So we look at the label and check the protein level that reads

16%.

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1

2

3. Next, we divide the 16 percent protein by the 90% dry matter

and we get 17% (16÷90=17), which is the amount of protein on

a dry matter basis. Does this make sense so far? Good.

4. Now let us compare this to canned food that has 80% moisture.

We know that with 80% moisture we have 20% dry matter (100-

80=20). Let’s assume the label shows 5% protein. So we take

the 5% and divide it by 20% (5÷20=25) and we get 25% protein

on a dry matter basis. So the canned food has more protein per

pound on a dry matter basis after all the water is taken out.

5. We can do the same for fat, fiber, etc.

Making Sense of 'Light' and 'Lean' in Pet Food

The calorie and fat contents listed below are the maximum limits

allowed in dog and cat food labeled "light" or "lean." These definitions

are established by the Association of American Feed Control Officials

(A.A.F.C.O.) and authorized by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).

Comparisons between products in different categories of moisture

content are considered misleading.

Dry Foods

(Less than 20

percent

water)

Semi-moist

Foods

(20-65 percent

water)

Moist Foods

(Greater than

65 percent

water)

Light, lite or

low calorie

Dogs: 1,409

calories per

pound

Cats: 1,477

Dogs: 1,136

calories per

pound

Cats: 1,205

Dogs: 409

calories per

pound

Cats: 432

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calories per

pound

calories per

pound

calories per

pound

Lean or low fat Dogs: 9

percent fat

Cats: 10

percent fat

Dogs: 7 percent

fat

Cats: 8 percent

fat

Dogs: 4

percent fat

Cats: 5

percent fat

(Feed ingredients as defined by the FDA) Feed ingredients might

include grains, milling byproducts, added vitamins, minerals, fats/oils,

and other nutritional and energy sources.

Conclusion

It really isn’t all that hard to figure this information out and with

a little bit of attention to detail and armed with the information

presented above you should have no troubled finding the right food for

you and your pet, one that fits into your budget and most importantly

a pet food that your furry friends will love!

Jeff McCoy: Owner Operator of CreatureComfortsPetSupply.com

References:

Palika, L. The Consumer's Guide To Dog Food. Howell Book House

of Simon & Schuster/Macmillan Company. New York, NY; 1996.

Ralston Purina Company. Nutrition and Management of Dogs and

Cats. St. Louis, MO; 1987.

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http://www.creaturecomfortspetsupply.com/

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/animalfeed_info.htm#ingredients

Veterinary & Aquatic Services Department, Drs. Foster & Smith,

Inc.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

PetFoodReport.com

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How to Understand Pet Food Labels

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