Deciphering Dog Food Labels: Good Luck with That!

“There’s no way anyone can look at a label and tell anything about the quality of the dog food.”

- Tom Carney

Arguably, many of us hunting dog owners devote much more time and energy trying to figure out the best food for our dogs than we do on food for ourselves. But the decks are stacked against consumers in this pursuit, and we’re left with a “the best you can do” situation.

Federal laws seem to thwart dog food manufacturers to such a degree that they are hamstrung in any efforts to help consumers to determine the quality of the food we choose. Additionally, there seems to be no agreement among manufacturers even about the value of ingredients as simple as chicken or corn, for example.

Depending on which dog food brand is doing the selling, any one of these ingredients is better than the others: real chicken, chicken meal or chicken byproduct meal. Industry standards define each one, but each company’s take on the ingredients might be different. For example, Dr. Jill Cline, Site Director at the Eukanuba pet foods Pet Health and Nutrition Center (PHNC) says, “Chicken byproduct meal includes the heads, feet, intestines, livers and hearts of the birds.”

Just when you’re convinced that chicken meal is the best and chicken byproduct meal is icky, she adds that the liver and hearts are rich in nutrients dogs need, so byproduct meal isn’t so bad after all.

Here’s another one. Numerous dog foods advertise themselves as “grain free.” But Eukanuba proudly proclaims, “A grain, such as corn, is one of the most important ingredients in high-quality dog food. … While there are no stated biological needs for carbohydrates in dogs, there are studies that show the benefits of a diet containing carbohydrates/grains.”