10 DOG FOOD INGREDIENTS TO AVOID

 What Dog Ingredient to Avoid for my Dog? 

 10 dog food ingredients to avoid is important when it comes to choosing the right food for your dog.

Knowing which dog food ingredients to avoid can be as important as knowing which ingredients to seek out.
Your heart might leap to see chicken or lamb at the top of an ingredients list, but if further reading reveals half a dozen useless fillers and a potentially carcinogenic preservative, you'll want to pass on that product.
This would not be the best quality dog food.
But which ingredients are potentially carcinogenic?
What food products are nutritionally void?
To aid your search for a quality dog food, I have attempted to answer these questions with a list of the top 10 dog food ingredients to avoid.

Soybean Meal and Soy Flour

Soy products have a bad reputation as dog food ingredients and are frequently blamed for allergic reactions and digestive disturbances.
This is not surprising given that the vast majority of soy products used in dog foods are low quality waste products.
For instance, to extract soybean oil, soybeans are cut into flakes and immersed in a solvent, most commonly the petroleum-derivative hexane. After the oil and many of the nutrients are removed using percolation extractors, the hexane-soaked flakes are ground into a powder to make the soybean meal that ends up in animal feeds.
Much like gluten products, soybean meal is a cheap way of adding protein to low quality dog foods. But it's a protein source with poor digestibility and a low biological value.
Soy flour is much the same, made from finely powdered soybeans after the bulk of the nutrients has been extracted for human food products.
However, not all soy is necessarily bad for dogs.
There are a small number of certified organic dog foods using high quality soy products that should not be lumped together with the low-grade soybean meals, soy flours, and soybean mill run found in the majority of soy-containing dog foods.

Grain Fractions and Flours

Brewers rice, wheat middlings, wheat shorts, corn germ meal, feeding oat meal, grain fermentation solubles, cereal food fines, mill by-product and mill run of all types are examples of grain fractions.

These ingredients are essentially waste products (including floor sweepings) of human food processing that have lost most of the nutrients contained in whole grains

The term "whole grain" refers to cereal grains with germ, endosperm, and bran layers; whole grains can be ground or in meal form.

Flours are typically highly refined grain fractions lacking in valuable nutrients. Most commonly, they consist of the starch and gluten content of the endosperm.
Don't confuse ground whole grains with flours.
For example, ground brown rice is generally a quality ingredient; rice flour is not.
Of course even whole grains should not comprise the bulk of your dog's food.
The best dog foods are meat-based, not grain-based.
Now to number 7 of 10 dog food ingredients to avoid.

Nut, Grain, and Bean Hulls

Peanut hulls, oat hulls, rice hulls, and soybean hulls are more waste products from the human food processing industry.

Consisting of the inedible outer shell of nuts, grains, or soybeans, these ingredients have no nutritional value. They are used as a cheap filler and harsh fiber source in low quality dog foods.
So a clear ingredient of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid list.

 Sugar And Sweeteners

I am sorry that this one is possible to add to the list of 10 dog food ingredients to avoid. Because sugar and other sweeteners have no place in dog food.

It should not be a ingredient in dog food at all.

But unfortunately these ingredients are commonly added to low-end dog foods as taste enhancers.
Sugars promote tooth decay, diminish immune function, and can aggravate illnesses such as diabetes. Some say they can also be addictive in humans.

Dogs used to eating sugar-laden foods may resist the switch to healthier fare, much like kids used to a junk food diet. It's wise to avoid any dog food that lists sugar, corn syrup, cane molasses, sucrose, fructose, sorbitol, or glucose among its ingredients.

Colors and Dyes

Food colors and dyes can be natural such as caramel coloring or titanium dioxide, or artificial such as Red 40, Blue 2, Yellow 5, and other numbered FD&C color additives.

Dogs couldn't care less whether their food is multi-colored. These dyes are used entirely for your benefit.
While natural color additives are generally harmless, some of the synthetic food dyes are known to trigger allergic reactions in addition to being suspected carcinogens.

In any event, the presence of color additives in a dog food is a virtual guarantee that you're looking at a low quality food.

Generic Meat Sources

What food products are nutritionally void?
To aid your search for a quality dog food, I have attempted to answer these questions with a list of the top 10 dog food ingredients to avoid.

By generic meat sources I mean any meat product that does not disclose the animal species from which it is derived.

Typical examples include meat meal, meat and bone meal, poultry meal, blood meal, animal fat, poultry fat, liver meal, animal digest, poultry digest, and glandular meal.

These are all highly processed meat products derived primarily from slaughterhouse discards and worse. Animals rejected for human consumption due to disease often end up as such unnamed dog food ingredients, but the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) definition of these ingredients is not limited to animals slaughtered for food.

Years ago, pet food industry insiders stated that companion animals euthanized in shelters were rendered into pet food. But during a recent FDA investigation, no traces of canine or feline DNA were found in dog food ingredients.

On the other hand, the investigation did find the common euthanasia drug pentobarbital in a number of generic meat ingredients (meat and bone meal and animal fat contained the heaviest concentrations), suggesting that euthanized animals other than dogs and cats may still end up in pet foods.

Digests, By-Product and Meat and Bone Meals

Not all low quality meat products are generics.
Chicken by-product meal, lamb digest, digest of beef, beef and bone meal, and pork and bone meal are examples of meat ingredients that state the animal species from which they were derived.

But they are nonetheless often poorly digested and of questionable quality, although they are generally a step up from the generic meat sources discussed above.

What exactly are by-products?
By-products are what's left after all the choice parts (that would include all the meat and many organs) have been removed. Chicken by-products, for instance, will typically contain bones, heads, feet, beaks, intestines, and undeveloped eggs.

Nutrient-rich organs such as livers and hearts are unlikely to end up in by-product meals, since they command high prices in grocery stores.

Similarly, beef and bone meal and pork and bone meal contain only animal parts for which there is absolutely no market other than pet food or fertilizer.

Quality and digestibility varies greatly from batch to batch, and that's part of the problem. There's no way to know exactly what you are getting with these ingredients.

Digests are obtained by subjecting animal by-products to chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis. They are typically used to add flavor to low-end dog foods.

All of these ingredients may be derived from so-called "4-D Meats" (meaning they come from animals that were dead, dying, disabled, or disease-ridden when they arrived at the slaughterhouse).
By-products, digests, and meat and bone meals, even with named animal sources such as chicken or beef, are never found in human-grade dog foods.

So this can be another of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid if trying to find good quality dog food.

Lard, Tallow, and Other Low Quality Fat Sources

In addition to the generic animal and poultry fats, low quality fats include beef tallow or beef fat and lard is also on the list of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid.

High in saturated fats and low in essential fatty acids, these fats offer little in the way of nutrition.

But they're highly palatable to dogs and are frequently sprayed on cheap, grain-based foods so dogs will eat them.

Gluten and Gluten Meals

Gluten products (wheat gluten, corn gluten meal, wheat gluten meal) are remnants from human food production and another one of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid in quality dog food.

For instance, corn gluten meal is made from the residue left over from the manufacture of corn starch and corn syrup. Most of the starch is removed, resulting in an end product that is about 70% protein.

Gluten and gluten meals are an inexpensive way to boost the protein content of low quality dog foods. That's why I have this on the list of one of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid.

Gluten is also used as a binder, especially in wet foods, and wheat gluten is a popular herbicide and fertilizer.
Unfortunately these ingredients have inferior amino acid profiles and are poorly digested, making them a poor substitute for meat.

Synthetic Preservatives

Butylate d hydroxysanisol (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, and ethoxyquin are the most common synthetic antioxidants used to preserve dog food.
These are obvious candidates on the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid list, as alternatives do exist.
All four are by some suspected carcinogens that require warnings or have been banned outright in a number of countries.

Even in the US, ethoxyquin is not allowed as a preservative in foods intended for human consumption, except in the very small amounts needed to preserve certain spices. Since spices are typically consumed only occasionally and then only in very small amounts, the risk is not comparable to a dog eating a food preserved with ethoxyquin every day for many years.

BHA is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the European Commission on Endocrine Disruption lists it as a Category 1 priority substance, based on clinical evidence that it interferes with hormone function.

Japan has banned BHA from use in all foods for human consumption, and the State of California requires warning labels, informing consumers that BHA may cause cancer.

BHT may not be used in baby food in the US, and several countries including Sweden, Japan, Romania, England, and Australia do not permit it to be added to any human food.

A somewhat less commonly used preservative that is sometimes combined with BHA or BHT is propyl gallate.

High levels of propyl gallate or use over a prolonged period of time may cause cancer and liver damage.
Propyl gallate can also trigger severe allergic reactions that constrict breathing and cause stomach irritations, skin sensitivity and itching. Humans with asthma, liver or kidney problems, or allergies to aspirin are typically advised to avoid foods preserved with propyl gallate.

While the occasional chemically-preserved treat is unlikely to harm your dog, I prefer to avoid these synthetic antioxidants in any food dogs eat every day.

There are a number of safe, natural antioxidants (e.g., vitamins E and C, rosemary and sage extracts) that are very effective preservatives.

Naturally preserved dog foods do have a shorter shelf life, and it's best to feed a bag of kibble within six months of the manufacture date. Remember that while synthetic preservatives may be detrimental to your dog's health, rancid fats are definitely harmful.

I must also point out that dog food manufacturers are generally required to list only the preservatives they have added themselves (with the exception of fat sources, where the preservatives are supposed to be listed regardless of who added them).

If a dog food manufacturer purchases a meat meal product that was preserved with, say, ethoxyquin by their supplier, you won't find ethoxyquin listed on the dog food's ingredient label.

This is a particular concern with fish meals, since the United States Coast Guard requires all fish meal to be heavily preserved with ethoxyquin (at several times the maximum level allowed in dog food).

A few companies making super premium dog foods (e.g., Champion/Orijen, WellPet/Wellness, Fromm/Four Star Nutritionals) use suppliers that have special permits allowing them to use an alternate preservative, most commonly the natural antioxidant blend Naturox.

Help! I Found Some In My Dog Food

What if your current dog food contains one or more of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid?
Should you switch foods?

Obviously the decision is yours, but not all of these dog food ingredients are equally problematic. But, if your dog food containing some of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid, this tells you that the quality from my perspective, might not be what you thought it where.

Grain fractions, for instance, are a poor choice from a nutritional perspective, but they generally aren't harmful (unless moldy grains are used).

Unfortunately many top-selling dog foods contain not just one but five or six of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid. There are even foods that contain all ten.

Human-grade dog foods, on the other hand, won't contain any of the 10 dog food ingredients to avoid, left to me I will recommend The Honest Kitchen Thrive: Chicken & Whole Grain Dog Food, 4 lb, and there are now a couple of moderately priced brands using human-grade ingredients that are actually less expensive than some so-called "premium" foods containing what you might call waste products.

 

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