When it comes to determining the quality of food some aspects to consider are manufacturing, sourcing and testing. A high-quality food constitutes: a high grade of ingredient, 3rd party testing, and transparency about the sourcing of their ingredients.
Grade of Ingredient
There are two terms talked about when determining the grade of pet food: Human Grade and Feed Grade. Human grade is a final product that passes FDA guidelines for human consumption. Feed Grade is a final product that does not pass FDA guidelines for human consumption. Human grade and feed grade were talked about in our last article (https://wisewoofs.com/health/human-vs-animal-grade-food/). The issue with categorizing grade this way is that pet food manufactures are not required to disclose whether or not they are human grade or feed grade. Dog lover and research enthusiast, Sarah Irick, created a system to “grade” dog foods and compare their quality. It’s important to note this system will not produce precise results. We feel it is a great tool for dog owners to use to gain a better understanding about differences between various types and brands of foods. From there, we can make more informed, healthy choices for our woofs which are driven by reasoned analysis instead of marketing.
Grading Scale – A: 100-94, B: 93-86, C: 85-78, D 77-70, F: <69
Penalties
- For every listing of “by-product” subtract 10 points
- For every non-specific animal source (“meat” “poultry” “meat meal” “fat”) reference subtract 10 points
- If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin subtract 10 points
- For every non-specific grain source subtract 5 points
- If the same grain ingredient is used two or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. “ground brown rice,” “brewer’s rice” and “rice flour” are all the same grain), subtract 5 points.
- If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than two meats in the top three ingredients, subtract 3 points.
- If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points.
- If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points.
- If corn is listed in the top five ingredients, subtract 2 more points.
- If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2 points.
- If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points.
- If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points.
- If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points.
- If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to beef), subtract 1 point.
- If it contains salt, subtract 1 point.
Bonuses
- If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points.
- If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5 points.
- If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points.
- If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points.
- If the food contains fruit, add 3 points.
- If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points.
- If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points.
- If the food contains barley, add 2 points.
- If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points.
- If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point.
- If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point.
- For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one; count “chicken” and “chicken meal” as only one protein source, but “chicken” and “fish” as 2 different sources), add 1 point.
- If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point.
- If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free, add 1 point.
The eye-opening part of doing these analyses is discovering how poorly some of most popular brands grade out compared to their competitors. “Pedigree Adult Complete” tallied an astounding score of only 14 (F). Science Diet, the most common brand sold inside Veterinary offices, also received failing grades in the 60’s for the majority of their recipes. As well as “Purina Dog” recipe scoring a 62 (F). It’s worth noting different recipes of Purina had stronger scores. Foods grading in at an A or B reflect high quality ingredients. To fully analyze the quality of a dog food we should still consider the company’s type of testing and sourcing.
Cooking temperature and Capacity: Higher cooking temperatures which are correlated with a faster method to produce food, leads to more changes in the contents and their bioavailability. Often degrading the nutritional value of a substance. Depending on how they’re prepared, foods with the same contents will result in two different products. Despite starting out with the same ingredients, one will be better for your pup’s nutrition.
Batch-Sample Retention: Determines how long the food stays fresh and maintains its nutritional value. This is tested by taking a final product, and testing contents over a period of time to see if there is a change in nutritional value.
Evidence-Based Formulation: The ingredients are put together based on evidence found through scientifically backed research to ensure we meet all of our pup’s biological nutrition needs.
Third party testing: Companies send their product to independent labs to test and confirm results, ensuring quality meets intended standards.
Given the impacts on our dogs’ lives, all food should undergo these thorough testing practices. Not all companies do it. The motives behind lack of testing are most often considered related to money and production time. Companies that perform all these tests prove that the goal is for the pups’ health, not the company’s pocket. Along with some of the poor scores which are difficult to defend on a scientific level (scientists are the folks who create the recipes), lack of rigorous testing indicates a value system that places profits over pets. We believe companies should be judged by their practices and this is one area of importance.
Sourcing
The last factor when determining the high quality food is the sourcing of ingredients. If you weren’t already frustrated by the confusion all these factors lead to, prepared to be! Companies have to put their address and phone number for where the food is being manufactured, but not where the ingredients are being sourced. While it may not seem like a big deal, if ingredients are coming from another country there is likely a different set of regulations governing the contents. Oftentimes these standards are below those of the FDA which regulates food production in America. We can have a little more faith in commercial dog food companies who are upfront and open about their sourcing location. It doesn’t take a wise woof to figure out companies who hide sourcing of their products aren’t doing so for reasons beneficial to customers or dogs.
While this was a long list of things to look for, with the many loopholes in dog food companies it’s important for us as owners to do our diligence in determining what’s best for our best friend. Their health is very much in our hands.
https://magrr.org/learn/nutrition/grade-your-dogs-food https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=211.170
https://authenticapets.com/en/blog/heating-or-cooking-food-kills-off-nutrition
