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Beneful Simple Goodness Dog Food receives the Advisor’s mid-tier rating of 3 stars.

The Beneful Simple Goodness product line includes 2 dry dog foods.

Each recipe below includes its related AAFCO nutrient profile when available on the product’s official webpage: Growth, Maintenance, All Life Stages, Supplemental or Unspecified.

• Beneful Simple Goodness with Real Chicken [M]
• Beneful Simple Goodness with Real Beef [M]

Beneful Simple Goodness with Real Chicken was selected to represent both products in the line for this review.

Ingredient Analysis

The first ingredient in this dog food is chicken. Although it is a quality item, raw chicken contains up to 73% water. After cooking, most of that moisture is lost, reducing the meat content to just a fraction of its original weight.

After processing, this item would probably account for a smaller part of the total content of the finished product.

The second ingredient is malted barley extract. Malting is a process in which a cereal grain is allowed to sprout and to then be dried into a coarse flour.

Malted barley is more commonly used to make beer, whisky and other malted foods and beverages.

The third ingredient is soy flour, a high-protein by-product of soybean processing.

Although soy flour contains about 51% 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 fourth ingredient includes soy grits, soybeans which have been toasted and broken into small pieces. Although high in protein, compared to meat, soy grits are an inferior source of amino acids.

Even though soy grits are relatively high in protein, this ingredient would be expected to possess 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 fifth ingredient is water, which adds nothing but moisture to this food. Water is a routine finding in most canned dog foods.

The sixth ingredient is wheat flour, a highly-refined product of wheat milling. Like corn, wheat is an inexpensive and controversial cereal grain of only modest nutritional value to a dog.

For this reason, we do not consider wheat a preferred component in any dog food.

The seventh ingredient is beef fat. Beef fat (or tallow) is most likely obtained from rendering, a process similar to making soup in which the fat itself is skimmed from the surface of the liquid.

Although it may not sound very appetizing, beef fat is actually a quality ingredient.

The eighth ingredient is glycerin. Glycerin is used in the food industry as a natural sweetener and as a humectant to help preserve the moisture content of a product.

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 4 notable exceptions…

First, this dog food contains menadione, a controversial form of vitamin K linked to liver toxicity, allergies and the abnormal break-down of red blood cells.

Since vitamin K isn’t required by AAFCO in either of its dog food nutrient profiles, we question the use of this substance in any canine formulation.

Next, we notice dried peas in this recipe. Dried peas are a good source of carbohydrates. Plus they’re naturally rich in dietary fiber.

However, dried peas contain about 27% protein, a factor that must be considered when judging the meat content of this dog food.

In addition, we find no mention of probiotics, friendly bacteria applied to the surface of the kibble after processing to help with digestion.

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.

Nutrient Analysis

Judging by its ingredients alone, Beneful Simple Goodness Dog Food looks like an average dry product.

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 27%, a fat level of 10% and estimated carbohydrates of about 55%.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 39%.

Near-average protein. Below-average fat. And above-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food.

Even when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the soy flour, soy grits, and dried peas, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing a moderate amount of meat.

Bottom line?

Beneful Simple Goodness is a plant-based dry dog food using a moderate amount of named meat as its main source of animal protein, thus earning the brand 3 stars.

Recommended.

However, those concerned about the presence of menadione in this recipe may wish to ignore our rating and look elsewhere for another product.

Please note certain recipes are sometimes given a higher or lower rating based upon our estimate of their total meat content and (when appropriate) their fat-to-protein ratios.

Beneful Dog Food Recall History

The following list (if present) includes all dog food recalls since 2009 directly related to this product line. If there are no recalls listed in this section, we have not yet reported any events.

• Purina Beneful and Pro Plan Dog Food Recall (3/11/2016)