Dog Food Labels & How They Trick You by the Name

When shopping for dog food, the first thing you see on the label is the name of the food. For example, the food may be called something like "Gourmet Beef Dinner" but did you know that if it is labelled as "Gourmet Beef Dinner," it can legally contain 70% fish? That's right. I'm not kidding. Dog food called "Gourmet Beef Dinner" can legally contain more fish than beef. It can also legally contain road kill, euthanized dogs and cats, zoo animals, cancerous tumors, and diseased chickens. Depending on the particular batch of food it comes from, "Gourmet Beef Dinner" could contain a healthy dose of dead giraffe from the zoo that died from died from mysterious causes, roadkill skunk (fur and all), or various types of diseased birds (feathers and all).

The way dog food labels read is actually very complicated and difficult for consumers to interpret. It is exceedingly difficult to understand what is really going on. This is absolutely intentional and pet food companies pay lobbyists a lot of money to keep it that way. Although the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does establish some federal regulations (compliance is another ball of worms), by and large the pet food industry polices itself via the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). This is like the fox guarding the hen house.

To give you a sense of how dirty they play, I'm going to describe to you the "rules" they follow for the basic name of the dog food. The name of the product is of course one of the most important factors consumers use in deciding which dog food to buy. I believe this will illustrate how tricky this business really is and how most consumers really have no idea what they are actually feeding to their pets. If they did, I don't think they'd actually feed their beloved dogs the vast majority of commercial canine food out there

95% Rule

The 95% rule applies to dog foods where the main ingredients are derived from mammals, poultry, and fish. It almost always applies to can dog food and not to dry dog food. It includes names like:

Beef For Dogs

Chicken Canine Food

Chicken & Tuna Dog Food

In these examples, at least 95% of the product must be the product(s) listed in the name, not including water. If you exclude the water, it must contain at least 70% of the product listed. So, for example, "Beef For Dogs" must include at least 95% beef, excluding the water content. "Chicken & Tuna Dog Food" must include at least 95% chicken and tuna and there must be more chicken than tuna by weight. Very few dog foods will fall into this category because it is more expensive to make so let's move on.

25% Rule (aka the "dinner rule")

If the ingredient(s) listed in the product name accounts for less than 95% of the total product, excluding water, and more than 25%, excluding water, then the listed ingredient(s) must have a "qualifying descriptive term" such as dinner, entree, or formula. If you count the water, then the listed ingredient(s) must constitute at least 10% of the total product. Here are some examples:

Beef Dinner

Beef Entree

Beef Formula

Beef Platter

Beef Nuggets

Beef Recipe

Chicken and Fish Formula

Beef and Rice Entree

The truth is that a can of dog food that contains beef can also contain dozens of other types of animals. In fact, a product for your dog that lists "beef" in the name with a qualifying descriptive term may in fact have MORE of another type of animal and/or a vegetarian source than beef. So, "beef dinner" could very well be more chicken than beef or if you get the right batch, more roadkill alligator than beef or more corn than beef. In other words, if they add the qualifying descriptive term, the primary ingredient(s) does not have to be the one listed in the name of the product. Each listed ingredient must make up at least 3% of the total product. So "Chicken and Fish Formula" must have at least 25% combined chicken and fish and at least 3% fish. Here's another trick. They can also add a cheaper ingredient of plant origin to bring their cost down. So, "Beef and Rice Entree" might contain only 13% beef and 12% rice to total 25% beef and rice combined.

3% Rule (aka the "with rule")

Now it gets really tricky. You need to be on the look out for the word "with" in the name of the product because it is usually designed to trick you into believing the majority of the product is a certain ingredient where in reality it is only a very small portion of the product, i.e. just 3% of the total product. Consider the following name:

Dog Food With Beef

Hungry Chow With Beef

Stew With Beef

Both of the examples above only have to contain 3% beef to be legal. These names can of course be easily confused with foods containing a much larger percentage of beef like:

Beef Dog Food

Beef Chow

Beef Stew

The Flavor Rule

Under the "flavor rule," a specific percentage is not required. The FDA simply states that the food must contain "an amount sufficient to be able to be detected" and "impart a distinctive characteristic"

So, a food called "Chicken Flavor Dog Food" doesn't even have to have 3% chicken as long as the word "flavor" is included in the name and the print size of it is as large as the rest of the name of the product. A dog food company could simply add some chicken "digest" to give it the taste of chicken and call it this.

Many of the Ingredients In Most Brands of Commercial Dog Food Are Dangerous, Vile, and Disgusting

These vile and disgusting ingredients can cause serious harm to your dog and it's gotten increasingly worse over the last few decades. Harmful ingredients in your dog's diet can cut your dog's lifespan in half. They can also give your dog cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other life threatening painful diseases. Many chronic diseases such as skin allergies that substantially lower the quality of your dog's life is also caused by the bad ingredients in most commercial brands of dog food. If you love your dog, you need to learn more. You need to know the few exceptional pet foods that don't contain these harmful ingredients (and MANY of the dog food brands you think are good are NOT good) and/or you need to learn how to make simple home made dog food. For more information, visit Dog Food Ingredients at: http://dog-food-ingredients.blogspot.com

Gourmet Dog Treat Labels - A Guide to Requirements

The gourmet dog treat option - Gourmet dog treat labels are outlined below for those who are considering starting a dog treat bakery. And even if you aren't starting your own bakery, understanding what your gourmet treat baker knows, may help you make more informed choices. If you are the designer of your own treats, we hope this section will be very helpful.

So you want to start your own gourmet dog treat business. Dog treat bakeries are becoming a booming business. Getting started can be very easy. You need some ingredients, some way to package or ship your products, and you need some basic kitchen equipment.

Since dog treats are intended to supplement a dog's diet, and not be the source entire of a dog's nutritional intake - all of the stringent requirements for dog food manufactures do not impact treat makers. For instance, if you are making dog food, you must conduct feeding trials for several months to years to confirm that your dog food will adequately sustain dogs. For the gourmet dog treat baker, you simply need to have adequate labeling for your product. Product claims such as all natural and organic are often made about dog treats.

This is where there are minimal expectations for dog treats. Our expectations (having been in the people food industry) are much higher than what is required in the dog treat industry. Be assured that all of the treats that we make are labeled according to people food labeling requirements. We would encourage you to do the same.

When you have your product, you will need to provide on your label:

Product name

Ingredient statement (a list of all of the ingredients ** see our notes below)

Net weight (minimum weight of your package)

Your Bakery contact info (name, address, phone number)

Minimum crude protein %

Minimum crude fat %

Maximum moisture %

Maximum crude fiber %

The protein, fat, moisture and fiber information will need to be obtained by sending your product out to a lab for analysis. This series of tests at a lab facility is called a proximate analysis. When we do our proximate analysis, we also request the Ash content. This allows us to calculate the approximate number of calories (kcal) in our treats. You are not required to do this, but it could be helpful for your customers.

The cost for this test varies usually runs about $40, plus shipping costs. If you need a rush on these tests, most labs can do it for a much higher cost.

That Ingredient Statement

With regard to the ingredient statement, this is where we disagree with what is allowed today. Below we explain what most folks are doing, and how it is different than the people food industry.

Most gourmet bakers simply list the ingredients from the recipe. This is not an actual ingredient statement. What do I mean? Here is an example. Let's say that your gourmet dog treat recipe has the following ingredients:

1 cup Wheat flour

1 egg

¼ cup of chicken broth

Most bakers will list their ingredient statement like this on their gourmet dog treat labels:

Wheat flour, eggs, chicken broth.

And, most baker's will call this "All Natural".

However, if this was for human consumption, it would not be allowed to be called "All Natural". Many of the flavors and chemical in this product are not considered "all natural" by the FDA or USDA (food and meat industry government agencies). And, ALL of the ingredients would need to be listed. Chicken broth is NOT a single ingredient. It has many MANY things that are in it.

For instance, if you used Swanson's chicken broth in the gourmet dog treat recipe above, this is actually what is in your treat and how we would recommend you label your treats:

Wheat flour, eggs, and chicken broth (chicken broth, salt, monosodium glutamate, dextrose, flavoring, hydrolyzed soy protein, carrots, hydrolyzed corn protein, celery, onion, chicken fat, sugar, disodium guanylate, autolyzed yeast extract.)

Now, all of these ingredients are fine for people to eat, and probably fine for your customers' dogs. But you may not want to feed your dog monosodium glutamate (MSG) if you yourself don't eat it. The same may be true for your customers. If you don't let your customers know that the chicken broth you use has MSG, then how will they be able to make an informed decision for their beloved pet? Again, the requirements today for gourmet dog treat labels would allow you to simply list "chicken broth."

OUR POSITION: The regulations around the gourmet dog treat labels are lacking and may in fact be contributing to the rise of dog obesity. We would recommend that if you are able, listing EVERYTHING in your treats, including the ingredients in your cheeses, broths, applesauces and peanut butters.

Learn more about baking your own dog treats and starting your own dog treat business at http://www.everything-dog-treats.com