Rating: 
Supreme Dog Food gets the Advisor’s lowest rating of 1 star.
The Supreme Dog Food product line includes three dry kibbles, one claimed to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles for growth (puppies), one for adult maintenance and one for all life stages.
The following is a list of recipes available at the time of this review:
- Supreme High Protein Dog Food
- Supreme Mini Chunks Dog Food
- Supreme Value Pack Dog Food
Supreme Mini Chunks Dog Food was selected to represent the others in the line for this review.
Supreme Mini Chunks
Dry Dog Food
Estimated Dry Matter Nutrient Content
Ingredients: Whole grain ground corn, soybean meal, poultry by-product meal, wheat middlings, poultry fat (preserved with BHA and citric acid), natural flavors, salt, choline chloride, minerals (zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, calcium carbonate, copper sulfate, sodium selenite, manganous oxide, mineral oil, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate), vitamins (vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, niacin, D-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement)
Fiber (estimated dry matter content) = 4.5%
Red items when present indicate controversial ingredients
| Estimated Nutrient Content | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Method | Protein | Fat | Carbs |
| Guaranteed Analysis | 21% | 9% | NA |
| Dry Matter Basis | 24% | 10% | 58% |
| Calorie Weighted Basis | 22% | 23% | 54% |
The first ingredient in this dog food is corn. Corn is an inexpensive and controversial cereal grain. And aside from its energy content, this grain is of only modest nutritional value to a dog.
For this reason, we do not consider corn a preferred component in any dog food.
The second ingredient is soybean meal. Soybean meal is relatively useful by-product — what remains of soybeans after all the oil has been removed.
Although soybean meal contains 48% protein, this ingredient would be expected to have a lower biological value than meat.
And less costly plant-based products like this can notably boost the total protein reported on the label — a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this dog food.
The third ingredient is poultry by-product meal, a dry rendered product of slaughterhouse waste. It’s made from what’s left of slaughtered poultry after all the prime cuts have been removed.
In a nutshell, poultry by-products are those unsavory and inedible leftovers deemed “unfit for human consumption”.
In addition to organs (the nourishing part), this stuff can contain almost anything — feet, beaks, undeveloped eggs — anything except quality skeletal muscle (real meat).
We consider poultry by-products slightly lower in quality than a single-species ingredient (like chicken by-products).
On the brighter side, by-product meals are meat concentrates and contain nearly 300% more protein than fresh poultry.
The fourth ingredient is wheat middlings, commonly known as “wheat mill run”. Though it may sound wholesome, wheat mill run is actually an inexpensive by-product of cereal grain processing.
In reality, wheat middlings are nothing more than milling dust and floor sweepings — and an ingredient more typically found in the lower quality pet foods.
The fifth ingredient is poultry fat. Poultry fat is obtained from rendering, a process similar to making soup in which the fat itself is skimmed from the surface of the liquid.
Poultry fat is high in linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid essential for life.
However, poultry fat is a relatively generic ingredient and can be considered lower in quality than a similar item from a named source animal (like chicken fat).
What’s worse, this fat is preserved with BHA, a suspected cancer-causing agent.
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 affect the overall rating of this product.
With three notable exceptions…
First, this Supreme Dog Food product also contains menadione, a controversial form of vitamin K linked to liver toxicity, allergies and the abnormal break-down of red blood cells.
Next, we find no mention of probiotics, friendly bacteria applied to the surface of the kibble after processing.
And lastly, the minerals listed 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.
Supreme Dog Food
The Bottom Line
Judging by its ingredients alone, Supreme Dog Food appears to be a below-average kibble.
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 24%, a fat level of 10% and estimated carbohydrates of about 58%.
As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 25% and a mean fat level of 10%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 58% for the overall product line.
Below-average protein. Below-average fat. And above-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food.
When you consider the protein-boosting effect of the soybean meal, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing only a modest amount of meat.
Bottom line?
Supreme Dog Food is a plant-based kibble using only a modest amount of poultry by-products meal as its main source of animal protein, thus earning the brand 1 star.
Not recommended.
Those looking for a better quality kibble from the same company may wish to visit our review of NutriSource dry dog food.
Special Alert
Rice ingredients can sometimes contain arsenic. Until the US FDA establishes safe upper levels for arsenic content, pet owners may wish to limit the total amount of rice fed in a dog's daily diet.
A Final Word
The descriptions and analyses expressed in this and every article on this website represent the views and opinions of the author.
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Notes and Updates
10/22/2010 Original review
07/21/2012 Last Update
