How to read a dog food label

Start with the first five ingredients

Ingredients are listed by weight before cooking, heaviest first, so the first five make up most of the food. You want a named meat at the top and few grains, potatoes or legumes close behind it.

Fresh meat is mostly water, so “deboned chicken” first can shrink to much less once the food is cooked and dried. A named meat meal (“chicken meal”) is already dried, so it counts for more protein than its place suggests.

Named meats versus vague ones

“Chicken”, “lamb meal” or “salmon” tell you exactly what the protein is. Vague terms do not:

• “Meat meal”, “poultry meal” or “animal protein”
• “Animal fat” or “animal digest”
• “Meat and animal derivatives”, common on European labels

Vague names let the recipe change without the label changing, and they matter if your dog has an allergy. Named by-products (“chicken by-product meal”) are a step down from named meat but at least say which animal.

Watch for ingredient splitting

In the sample label, peas appear three times: peas, pea starch and pea protein. Split up like this, each part sits lower on the list, but together they may outweigh the chicken. Pea protein, potato protein and corn gluten meal also raise the protein figure without adding meat.

SnoutScan takes points off when the same crop appears more than once near the top.

Read the guaranteed analysis on a dry matter basis

The guaranteed analysis lists crude protein, fat, fiber and moisture “as fed”, water included. A wet food at 8% protein looks poor next to a kibble at 26%, but once the water is taken out the wet food can have more. To compare them, divide by the part that is not water:

Dry matter % = nutrient % ÷ (100 − moisture %) × 100

AAFCO’s minimum for adult dogs is 18% protein on a dry matter basis. SnoutScan caps a food below that at 55, however good its ingredients look.

Check the additives, and anything toxic

Near the end of the list, look out for:

• Artificial preservatives: BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, TBHQ and propyl gallate. Mixed tocopherols (vitamin E) do the same job naturally.
• Artificial colors: dogs do not care what color their food is, so these are there for the buyer.
• Added sugar and salt: sugar, molasses, corn syrup or honey, and salt high on the list.

Some ingredients are toxic to dogs whatever the amount, like xylitol, chocolate and grapes or raisins. SnoutScan scores any label with one at 0. Garlic costs 30 points and caps the score at 40. See the full list.

Look for "complete and balanced"

A statement that the food is “complete and balanced” to AAFCO (US) or FEDIAF (Europe) standards means it can be fed on its own. “For intermittent or supplemental feeding” means it cannot, so it belongs alongside a complete food. SnoutScan caps those foods at 60 as a main meal.