How We Rate Dog Food

Although there are many ways to rate a dog food, we’ve settled on using the only information we believe is equally available for all foods, reliable and therefore fair: what’s on the label. 

Our animal nutrition experts interpret government-regulated and standardized information on each dog food’s packaging, including its ingredients list and guaranteed analysis. This offers a fair way to compare foods, as the same information is available for every food.

While we understand that this means using only a fraction of the potential nutritional information to rate dog foods, it does give us a way to compare foods based on the information that pet owners have available.

We have a tried-and-trusted method, which the team uses to formulate each dog food review. These reviews and ratings are then checked and adjusted by our in-house nutritionist Laura Ward (who also selects and reviews our Best Dog Food pages). 

Laura has a BSc (Hons) in Animal Science with an accreditation in Nutrition from the University of Nottingham in the U.K. She also has many years’ experience working in the pet food and nutrition industry, advising on and developing pet foods for large and independent brands. 

Laura owns her own company, Rewarding Pet Nutrition Ltd.

We acknowledge that meat is an ingredient that adds nutritional value to dog food, as well as being palatable to dogs. Often, quality meat ingredients contribute positively to a food’s rating.

Meat content, however, is not the be all and end all of the rating process. While meat is hugely nutritious for dogs, there are other ways to deliver nutrition. Equally, there are meat ingredients, such as meat by-product meals which are anonymous and often low-quality, that can have a negative impact on a dog food’s rating. 

As dogs are so varied in their physicality, lifestyle and preferences, it makes sense that variety in dog food is also beneficial. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, so it follows that a high meat content is not ideal for every dog. As a result, we don’t insist on dog food being high in meat ingredients in order to rate well on the Dog Food Advisor website. 

Although it’s our goal to maintain the accuracy of our reviews, it’s impossible to keep the information for thousands of products up-to-date on a daily basis.

However, we do revisit and update each article at least once every 18 months, or more frequently if we’re alerted by a reader or a company to a recipe change.

The United States Food and Drug Administration regulates all pet food labels. Taken directly from the FDA website…

“The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) requires that pet foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled.”

Any manufacturer breaching this rule would be in violation of U.S. Federal Law.

Because all food (even human food) contains various amounts of moisture, it would be unfair to compare the protein and fat figures of, for example, a kibble and a fresh food. 

So we use “dry matter basis” to report the nutrient content of every dog food we review. This method mathematically removes all water from each product.

To learn more, be sure to read our article, “Dry Matter Basis… the Only Fair Way to Compare Dog Foods“.

We’re focused on ingredients, nutrient profiles and recipes. 

We look at the ingredients used, their characteristics and value they bring to a food. We review the nutritional analysis and the macronutrient balance.

And finally we consider any controversial ingredients. 

Dog food recipes and sub-brands can have vastly different ratings.

So, to determine the overall rating of a particular brand, we use our own proprietary system to weight the scores of each review to favor the importance of certain factors over others.

These factors can include (but are not limited to) the popularity of each product, the relative superiority and safety practices of its manufacturer and the professional qualifications of its designers.

Some recipes within the same review earn higher or lower ratings based on the ingredients within each recipe, their fat-to-protein ratios, macronutrient analysis, and whether the food meets the requirements of an AAFCO nutritional profile.

Foods within the same range can vary in their protein, fat, fiber, ash and carbohydrate levels, as well as using different ingredients. This means that each recipe is judged on its own merits to provide an overall rating for the range.

A five-star dog food is a complete and balanced diet that meets AAFCO nutritional requirements. It’s likely it would be protein-rich, with a lean fat-to-protein ratio. It would be naturally preserved, with no anonymous ingredients or artificial colors.

The ingredients would be high-quality and palatable. The characteristics of the ingredients, such as their glycaemic index or the extent to which they cause a spike in blood sugar, are also considered, so carbohydrate sources that are low on the glycaemic index are often found in a five-star dog food.

Like you, we wish there was a reliable way to find out the source of each ingredient in a dog food.

But unfortunately, there isn’t.

Many dog food manufacturers use multiple sources of the same ingredient. This is to stabilize production, otherwise a shortage or delay in one ingredient would mean the food can’t be made. Using multiple sources of the same ingredient reduces the reliance on one supplier.

These sources can be from different farms or even different countries. However, this often means the source of each ingredient is not shared and brands are not required to provide updates for changes to their ingredient sourcing. 

For these reasons, without constant investigation of each ingredient source for every brand and food, this information cannot be fairly included in the rating system.

In an ideal world it would be incredible to take multiple batches of each dog food and perform full nutritional analysis on them — quality analysis, digestibility trials, palatability reviews, urine pH tests, and even full veterinary checks to assess the health of dogs being fed each food as a part of a long-term feeding trial.

Nutrition and health are such complex areas, and the detail we could go into in each sub-segment would be huge. 

In reality, however, cost and labor means this is not within the scope of most pet food brands and manufacturers, and certainly not an option for us. As a small, independent website, Dog Food Advisor does not have the resources required to test the thousands of recipes reviewed on our site. In fact, not even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the resources to tackle such a mammoth job.

So we must rely almost entirely on the integrity of the information posted by each company on its website, in the same way you have to when choosing a dog food.

Each dog food you buy is only as good as the last batch from which it was made.

Unfortunately, due to variations in raw materials, processing conditions and ingredient sources, finished dog foods can vary notably from batch to batch.

To be truly useful, tests should be scientifically conducted by high-quality commercial laboratories using samples collected from multiple batches.

As a result, relying on well-meaning websites and other third parties that publish single-batch test results based on statistically insignificant sample sizes can be extremely misleading to consumers.

Unfortunately, company information can be biased. And much of it is only minimally regulated by the government.

That’s why we’re reluctant to simply re-broadcast a manufacturer’s marketing message. We fear it could be misleading and provide a false sense of security to our readers.

So far, we haven’t found any scientific studies proving the predictive ability of any (human or pet) food recall to reliably forecast another. Most recall events appear to be completely random (and unpredictable).

Since 2008, our ratings have had nothing to do with recall histories, legal findings, rumors, lawsuits, customer service incidents, ingredient sources, processing temperatures, feeding-style biases (e.g. raw versus dry) or any other opinion-based variable.

Each dog food on Dog Food Advisor is rated based on comparison with other products in its own relevant category.

Dry foods are rated based on comparison with other dry foods. And that standard applies to wet, raw and other dog food categories, too.

Unlike recalls, lawsuits are based on complaints and accusations only.

And when they result in a settlement, the truth or falsehood of the allegations are usually not revealed to the public.

Each of our reviews is based on the factual information we retrieve from government-regulated and standardized pet food labels, and nothing else.

If you Google the name of almost any major brand, you’ll likely find hundreds of complaints, claims and lawsuits for many of its products.

Once any dog food has been confirmed to have a serious problem, the FDA expects the related company to voluntarily recall its product.

Until we know for certain whether a particular dog food has been tested and recalled, it would be unfair and irresponsible for us to consider unverified claims when writing our reviews.

Absolutely not. That would be like saying only a licensed medical doctor is qualified to read the side panel on a box of cereal.

Although some believe that to judge a dog food label one must possess a long list of educational accomplishments and veterinary credentials after their name, nothing could be further from the truth. 

Anyone with a little dedication, a realistic knowledge of product labeling and the willingness to do a reasonable amount of research can learn to read a pet food label.

Like humans, dogs are individuals. Their breed, lifestyle, life-stage and many other factors determine which food will best suit their needs. There is no one-size-fits-all dog food. 

The Dog Food Advisor ratings and reviews aim to provide more information about a dog food or range, the ingredients and the nutrition it provides. Unfortunately, it isn’t the case that each five-star dog food will provide the ideal nutritional solution for every dog.

Equally, many dog foods without a five-star rating can provide quality nutrition and may even be a preferential choice for your dog’s requirements. 

For instance, dogs with sensitive stomachs may do better on a food with a moderate protein level and more carbohydrates. The high fat-to-protein ratio of one food — which results in a below five-star rating — may be an ideal solution for a highly active dog. And a dog food with a carbohydrate source that breaks down quickly to spike blood sugar may be the quick-release energy you’re looking for for your sporting dog. 

It’s all a matter of perspective and choosing appropriate nutrition for your individual dog(s). Some dogs thrive on a food that isn’t suited to others. If your dog isn’t thriving on their food, trying something different can often be the best place to start.

Since there’s no way for us (or anyone) to know how every dog will respond to a particular product, is not intended to suggest feeding a particular product will deliver specific results.

Each review is based upon government-regulated label information, ingredient quality and meat content only. And nothing else.

Our reviews have nothing to do with results. That’s why we created a two-way blog, so that readers can share their real-life experiences and results with others.

So, for a better idea about what to expect from any dog food, be sure to read the “Comments” section at the end of each review.

In most cases, we rate dog foods by selecting a typical recipe to represent the full product line. We rate each individual recipe but only have a “deep dive” into one.

You can find a list of all the recipes included in a particular review near the beginning of each article.

Our reviews and ratings have nothing to do with other reviews and are based solely upon the label.

To see why we intentionally ignore everything else. Please be sure to read our article “The Problem with Dog Food Reviews“.

All dog foods are judged against their peers. Dry to dry. Wet to wet. And raw to raw. When assigning star ratings, we never compare one type with another.

Absolutely not.

We never accept money, gifts or free merchandise from any pet food manufacturer in exchange for special consideration in the preparation of our reviews or ratings. To learn more, please visit our Disclaimer and Disclosure page.