How Dog food companies trick you

Dog food 101. A little trick that dogs companies do and can get away with. We all want to feed what we think is best for our dogs and dog companies know this. AAFCO which stands for Association of American Feed Control Officials sets the standard by what all dog food companies must abide by. AAFCO is a non-profit organization that sets standards for both animal feeds and pet foods in the United States. Basically they set the laws and regulations that all dog food companies must abide by. What every company knows is that the ingredients in dog food are weighed "PRE-COOKED". Which means they can list for example "chicken" as the first ingredient because it weighs the most before the cooking phase. But what they won't tell you is that up to 70% of the weight is water as is with most other meat based proteins. Once cooked all of the water weight is removed and what once was the #1 ingredient is actually moved way down the list, but they can still list it as the #1 ingredient because it was weighted pre cooked. The second and third ingredient in dog food then becomes the most important. If corn, soy, wheat or any other carb is listed it actually moves up to the front of the list. Quality dog foods will list proteins as the first, second, even third ingredient on the list. Anything with "meal" behinds its name such as "chicken meal" means that protein has already been cooked at least once which means it cannot evaporate again during the cook phase so it will remain on the list where it started. Your dog can't check the ingredients in their food but you can. Protein, Protein, Protein as the first ingredients makes a happy, healthy dog.

.......