Rating: 
Alpo Chop House dog food receives the Advisor’s second-highest rating of two stars.
The Alpo Chop House product line lists seven canned dog foods… each meeting AAFCO nutrient profiles for adult maintenance.
- Alpo Chop House Ribeye Flavor
- Alpo Chop House Top Sirloin Flavor
- Alpo Chop House Filet Mignon Flavor
- Alpo Chop House T-Bone Steak Flavor
- Alpo Chop House Beef Tenderloin Flavor
- Alpo Chop House Roasted Chicken Flavor
- Alpo Chop House Rotisserie Chicken Flavor
Alpo Chop House Dog Food Beef Tenderloin Flavor was selected to represent the others in the line for this review.
Alpo Chop House Roasted Chicken
Canned Dog Food
Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content
Ingredients: Water sufficient for processing, chicken, liver, meat by-products, soy flour, salt, added color, carrageenan, locust bean gum, potassium chloride, sodium tripolyphosphate, guar gum, artificial roasted chicken flavor, tricalcium phosphate, xanthan gum, zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, choline chloride, sodium nitrite (to promote color retention), thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, manganese sulfate, vitamin A supplement, niacin, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, vitamin B-12 supplement, vitamin D-3 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, potassium iodide, folic acid, sodium selenite, biotin
Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 8.3%
Red items when present indicate controversial ingredients
The first ingredient in this dog food lists water… which (of course) adds nothing but moisture to this food. Water is a routine finding in most canned dog foods.
The second ingredient is chicken. Chicken is considered “the clean combination of flesh and skin… derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken”.1
Chicken is naturally rich in the ten essential amino acids required by a dog to sustain life.
The third ingredient lists liver. Normally, liver can be considered a quality component. However, in this case, the source of the liver is not identified. For this reason, it is impossible to judge the quality of this item.
The fourth ingredient is meat by-products… otherwise known as slaughterhouse waste. This is what’s left of a slaughtered mammal after all the prime cuts have been removed.
In a nutshell, meat by-products are all those unsavory leftovers of slaughter frequently deemed “unfit for human consumption”.
With the exception of hair, horns, teeth and hooves, this stuff can include almost anything else… heads, ovaries, developing fetuses… you name it.2
What’s more, since the source animal is not named, the meat can come from anywhere. Road kill, dead zoo animals, diseased or dying livestock… even euthanized cats and dogs.
Although this item does contain all the amino acids a dog needs, we do not consider meat by-products a quality component.
The fifth item is soy flour… a high-protein by-product of soybean processing.
Compared to meat, soy protein has a notably low biological value. Yet it is still capable of raising the protein content of this food.
We’re always disappointed to find artificial coloring in any dog food.
Coloring is used to make the product more appealing to you… not your dog. After all, do you really think your dog cares what color his food is?
Carrageenan is a gelatin-like thickening agent extracted from seaweed. Carrageenan has been safely used as a food additive for hundreds of years.
From here, the list goes on to include a number of other items.
But to be realistic, ingredients located this far down the list (other than nutritional supplements) are not likely to have much of an effect on the overall rating of this product.
With two notable exceptions…
First off, we note the presence of sodium nitrite… a controversial color preservative. Sodium nitrite has been linked to the production of cancer-causing substances (known as nitrosamines) when meats are exposed to high cooking temperatures.
Finally, the minerals here do not appear to be chelated. And that can make them more difficult to absorb. Non-chelated minerals are usually associated with lower quality dog foods.
Alpo Chop House Dog Food
The Bottom Line
Judging by its ingredients alone, Alpo Chop House appears to be a below-average canned dog food.
But ingredient quality by itself cannot tell the whole story. We still need to estimate the product’s meat content before determining a final rating.
The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 44%, a fat level of 22% and an estimated carbohydrate content of 25%.
As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 46% and an average fat level of 18%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate portion size of 28% for the full product line.
Above-average protein. Below-average fat. And average carbs… as compared to a typical canned dog food.
Yet when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the wheat gluten (three of the recipes) as well as the soy flour, this looks like the profile of a wet food containing an average amount of meat.
Bottom line?
Alpo Chop House dog food is a meat-based canned product using a moderate amount of beef or poultry as its main sources of animal protein… thus earning the brand two stars.
Not recommended.
Those looking for a comparable kibble from the same company may wish to visit our review of Alpo dry dog food.
A Final Word
Remember, no dog food can possibly be appropriate for every life stage, lifestyle or health condition. So, choose wisely. And when in doubt consult a veterinarian for help.
Have an opinion about this dog food… or maybe the review itself? Please know… we welcome your comments.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
This is found at the dollar store, sometimes even for .59 cents a can! Big difference (in quality) from the $2.89 a can Evo .