Dry Matter Basis… the Only Fair Way to Compare Dog Foods

Without a measuring method known as dry matter basis, it can be nearly impossible to compare dog foods.

That’s because pet food companies report the nutrient content of their products using something known as Guaranteed Analysis.

In essence, Guaranteed Analysis is the dog food industry’s version of the Nutrition Facts panel printed on every package of human food sold in North America.

The whole point of the panel is to make it easy for consumers to compare four critical nutrients…

• Protein
• Fat
• Fiber
• Moisture

But when using this method, these numbers can be misleading.

The Problem with Dog Food Labels

Guaranteed Analysis is supposed to be a reliable way to compare two or more pet foods. But the method falls notably short of its intended goal.

That’s because the system used for reporting the percentages fails to consider water content… an important factor when comparing moist canned foods to dry kibble.

Even the Food and Drug Administration admits to the importance of this problem on its own website…¹

“To make meaningful comparisons of nutrient levels between a canned and dry product, they should be expressed on the same moisture basis.”

Let’s see why moisture content is so important and how you can use your knowledge of this issue to choose better dog food.

How to Calculate Dry Matter Basis

Now, let’s say you have a can of dog food listing crude protein at 10%. This is the protein percentage content just as it comes from the package…. what the industry calls “as fed”.

Doesn’t sound like much protein, does it?

But what if that same label revealed the product contained 75% moisture? And what if you were to completely remove all that water from the can?

You’d be left with just 25% “dry matter”. 

To determine the amount of protein on a dry matter basis, simply divide the reported amount of protein (in this case, 10%) by the total amount of dry matter (25%).

Then, multiply the result by 100.

Dry Matter Protein Content = (10/25) x 100 = 40%

That gives you a dry matter protein content of 40%… a lot more than the label’s reported number of just 10%… four times the amount of protein claimed by the Guaranteed Analysis.

By the way, this same formula can be used to compute the dry matter fat and fiber contents, too.

Making the Most of Dry Matter Basis

Now, as long as you’re comparing canned food to canned food, dry matter basis isn’t all that important.

But when you’re comparing canned food to dry kibble, the issue becomes critical.

Take a look at this example…

Say you’d like to compare two products… a can of dog food with a bag of kibble.

The canned “wet” product lists protein content at 10% and the dry kibble reports protein at 23%.

At first glance, the kibble looks like the easy winner. Right?

Well, now, let’s use dry matter to level the playing field.

Using Guaranteed Analysis, the wet food shows a water content of 75% and the kibble, just 10%.

Now, let’s remove all the water from both dog foods. Take a look at the protein values after converting the data to dry matter basis…

Can you see how the canned product now lists 40% protein, compared to kibble’s 26% figure?

Now, which one is the winner?  If you had simply followed your first impression and chosen the kibble for its higher protein content, you’d have been wrong.

The wet food actually contains much more protein (on a dry matter basis) than does the kibble.

The Bottom Line

On the surface, when reading a package label, canned dog foods almost always look inferior to their kibble counterparts.

But looks can be deceiving.

So, don’t be fooled by a dog food label’s protein or fat numbers.

And remember, numbers are just numbers. They can’t reveal the true quality (or the digestibility) of the product’s proteins or fats.

Once again, be sure to take the time to look over the ingredients list. Your dog will surely be better off for your efforts.

The Dog Food Advisor publishes independent reviews to help pet owners make better choices when shopping for dog food.

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