3 Important Facts About Pet Food Labels

Here are some tips for reading those often confusing labels:

1.  Don’t Fall for Marketing Gimmicks: 

Big name companies use fancy packaging and emotional commercials to sell their products.  It’s important to know many of their claims are false.  For instance, terms such as “premium,” “super premium,” “ultra premium,” or “gourmet” mean NOTHING because there are no regulations that say these foods must use different ingredients or change their nutritional standards.

2.  “Natural” v. “Organic”:

“Natural” does not mean “organic.”  It simply refers to the conditions in which the plants or animals used to make the food were raised.  “Organic” standards are questionable in the US.  BUT it is extremely likely that if a food is listed as “organic” or “hormone-free” it is human grade and a much higher quality.

3.  How Much Meat is Really in My Pet’s Food?

 If a food is named specifically, e.g. “Beef Dog Food”, the named ingredient must

not be less than 95% of the total weight if the water required for processing is excluded, no less than 70% if the water is included in the calculation. If more than one ingredient is named, e.g. “Beef and Liver Dog Food”, all of them combined must not be less than 95% (or 70% respectively) and they must be named in descending order of content by weight. This description is used almost exclusively for canned foods.

If a food name includes the word “dinner” (or similar ones like “formula”, “nuggets” etc.), e.g. such as in “Lamb Formula”, the named ingredient must not be less than 25% of the total weight. If more than one ingredient is named, e.g. “Lamb and Rice Formula”, all of them combined must not be less than 25% and they must be named in descending order of content by weight.

 

Comments are closed.