Know If Your Dog Food is Genuinely Healthy

1. It Includes Food-Grade Ingredients

If you can identify the ingredients without doing a Google search or asking ChatGPT, chances are the dog food has real ingredients. Even better, if it has food-grade ingredients, that is, ingredients that are completely safe for human consumption.

Many a times, brands use substitutes, by-products, artificial flavours, feed-grade ingredients to bring the cost down. There’s nothing wrong in this as long as the brand discloses and prints the correct ingredients on the packaging.

2. It Avoids Misleading Terms on the Packaging

If the packaging uses the terms like “Real Meat”, “Real Chicken”, “Quality Protein”, “Superior Ingredients”, “Premium”, or “Super Premium”, etc., and it is among the cheaper brands available in the market, they are straight-up lying. Being a manufacturer of dog food, we know that quality ingredients don’t come cheap and which is well reflected in the final pricing of the product. So if a brand uses the above mentioned or similar terms on the packaging while still being very cheap, it is just a marketing gimmick and has no correlation with the actual quality of the ingredients.

Please don’t misunderstand this point as saying that cheap brands are not good. Not at all. On the contrary, what we mean is that as a responsible pet parent, one should go through all the information printed on the packaging including its pricing, and then come to a conclusion regarding the authenticity of their claims and consequently the quality of the dog food.

3. It Mentions Exactly Which Nutrients Are Added

The label should clearly mention the specific nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids) added in the dog food. For instance, if it has added Copper, Zinc, and Potassium, the label should mention their mineral compounds, Copper Proteinate, Zinc Methionine, and Potassium Chloride respectively*. Similarly, any added vitamin should be mentioned by its prescribed name, for instance, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B5, and Vitamin A should be mentioned as “Riboflavin Supplement”, “d-Calcium Pantothenate”, and “Vitamin A Supplement” respectively. And the same applies to added amino acids as well, for instance, a few commonly added ones are DL-Methionine, L-Carnitine, and Taurine.

Many brands use generic terms like “Vitamins Premix”, “Vitamin Blend”, “Vitamins and Minerals”, “Essential Amino Acids”, etc. without disclosing the exact nutrients they have added in the dog food. This is problematic on two fronts. First, this gives zero information to the dog parent on what specific nutrients are there in the dog food. If their dog is allergic to, or is advised to avoid any specific nutrient on health grounds, they have no way to figure this out. Second, there is no way to ascertain the quality of added nutrients. For instance, Choline Chloride is available as “Choline Chloride 90%” and “Choline Chloride 50%” with the former being purer and more bio-available than the latter, and consequently more expensive as well. Similarly, Zinc Methionine is better than Zinc Sulphate or Zinc Oxide as it is more bio-available but also more expensive than the latter two.

So a complete list of exact vitamins, minerals, and amino acids added in the dog food keeps the dog parent well informed and they can accordingly make a conscious choice as per the dietary and health considerations of their dogs.

4. It Mentions Exactly Which Preservatives or Flavours Are Added

The label should clearly mention the specific preservative, antioxidant, or flavour added in the dog food. Many brands use generic terms like “Natural Preservatives and Antioxidants”, “Permitted Preservatives”, “Antioxidants and Flavours”, “Permitted Preservatives & Flavours”, etc. without disclosing the specifics. In such cases, there is a high chance that the flavour added in your dog food is synthetically produced and does nothing to add nutrition, it just enhances the taste. Similarly, it is highly likely that the preservative added is also an artificially produced one and may be harmful for your dog in the long term.

So look for the exact names of the preservatives or flavours added in the dog food. Don’t be deceived by the words “natural” or “permitted” unless they are followed by the specifics. For instance, Citric Acid is one of the most commonly used natural antioxidants which is perfectly safe for humans and pets alike. Other natural antioxidants include Rosemary Extract, Turmeric, and Cinnamon.

5. It Avoids an Unusually Large List of Ingredients

If the number of ingredients excluding vitamins and minerals exceeds 30 (even this is a bit on the higher side), it is just an exercise in vanity to inflate the variety of ingredients without adding anything meaningful to the nutrient quotient of the food. For instance, some dog food can have a large list of ingredients (even upto 40-45 in some cases), but a majority of those, especially the expensive ones, would have been included in very small quantities to offer any perceptible nutrition boost or health benefits. These ingredients were added just to put a checkmark against a list of marketing-approved ingredients. It may have names of 15 to 20 fruits and vegetables just so that the ingredients appear to have variety.

In addition to above, if the packaging does not even mention the specific vitamins and minerals added in the dog food, it is highly likely that those ingredients were added just as a marketing exercise, and the actual nutrient requirements are being met by other ingredients and the vitamins and minerals premix.

*In the case of mineral compounds, every manufacturer chooses a compound based on its cost, availability, and how well it works with other ingredients. An honest brand will prioritise the compound’s health benefits, while others will prioritise cost instead.