Is Purina dog food good or bad for dogs

Is Purina Dog Food Safe for Dogs?

Explore the safety and nutritional quality of Purina Dog Food in our comprehensive article. We examine ingredient sourcing, manufacturing processes, and recall history, providing a balanced view of this well-known brand. Empower yourself with knowledge and make an informed choice for your furry friends diet.

Most of us go to the grocery store to purchase the food we eat. We can find food for our dogs there, too: Pedigree, Purina, Iams, and the like are found in nearly every store in the country. Its estimated that around 86 million US American families own dogs, so the market is strong for dog food, and foods like the brands listed above sell like hotcakes.

But are they healthy for our dogs? Weve established that foods like Pedigree generally are not. Filled with corn, meat by-product, and corn and wheat gluten, cheap dog food might do more harm than good. But is that always the case?

Theres a Purina factory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and Ive driven by it countless times on visits to my parents. I always plug my nose when I go by; when I was younger, I commented that the factory smelled like ground-up horses mixed with cereal. Its not far from the truth. In the past, some Purina foods were found to have horse meat in them usually under the category meat by-products. The foods were mainly those sold in Italy and Spain, where it might not be so unusual to eat horse.

Take this scenario for example: I was visiting a friend in Paris, France, and staying with her family, who live on the outskirts of the city. One day, she came upstairs and asked me if I would be eating the horse her mother was cooking for dinner, or if I wanted something else. I could barely keep my jaw off the floor. Horse! Suddenly the smell coming from downstairs made me feel nauseated. I tried not to show my disgust, but my dear friend picked up on it.

Its no big deal to eat horse in France, she said.

So it would follow that its no big deal for it to be in dog foods, either, but the problem was that it wasnt listed as such in the Purina food.

In fact, Purina, like Pedigree, uses blanket terms for many of its ingredients: meat by-products, for example, instead of the more specific (but still undesirable) chicken by-products.

Lets break down a few components of a label from a popular Purina dog food, the Purina ONE Chicken and Rice Smart Blend.

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A Purina food breakdown

Unlike Pedigrees comparable chicken and rice food, where actual chicken never once makes an appearance (a huge red flag!), the first ingredient of Purina ONE Chicken and Rice Smart Blend is chicken. This is a strong start! After chicken, theres rice flour a decent, but not excellent, source of energy. After that, theres corn gluten meal. Corn gluten meal isnt evil, per se, but it sure isnt helpful to your dog. Corn gluten is the very last protein thats left of corn once its processed, and the fact that its the third ingredient means that it makes up a lot of the protein in Purina dog food. (When really, a quality source of meat protein like chicken meal or broth would be more appropriate.)

After corn gluten meal, the fourth ingredient in the Purina ONE Chicken and Rice Smart Blend is whole grain corn, which again isnt terrible but isnt highly nutritious for your dog especially that high up in the ingredients list. But the real problem comes in ingredient number five: chicken by-product meal.

What, exactly, is chicken by-product meal? Its the parts of the chicken that the human food companies couldnt use, i.e. the chicken feet, necks, beaks, unhatched eggs, and organs, that are then rendered and ground into a dry meal that goes in your dogs food. Yes, this provides protein but not a quality protein! Good dog foods will stay away from chicken or other meat by-product meals.

The next two ingredients are whole grain wheat (which is better than not whole grain wheat but is another source of non-animal protein) and soybean meal. Some dogs can have allergies or intolerances to these ingredients, but their presence isnt whats bad; its that they are both so high on the ingredients list when, again, whole meats, vegetables, and fruits should be up there too.

And thats another red flag: they arent. The only two vegetables that appear on this ingredients list are carrots and peas. With such an animal protein-low, grain-high food, youd hope theyd at least add quality amounts of vegetables AND fruits. But no!

So, Purina isnt the healthiest dog food on the market. Its also not the unhealthiest.

Lets look at food safety recalls. Most pet foods encounter them at one point or another, so a recall alone isnt enough to raise alarm. But its worth paying attention to why a pet food was recalled and how the company responded to it.

Purina recalls

There have been about four recalls in the last ten years for Purina pet food, and the reasons have either been possible salmonella contamination or low mineral levels in their complete and balanced foods. Honestly, this isnt terrible. Its not like there was visible pig bristle in the kibble! (Im looking at you, Pedigree.) The company has been active in promoting the recall of affected foods and modifying the food to make it safe again, which is also a good thing. Again, Pedigree responded in a different (worse) way by announcing that pig bristle wasnt such a big deal because it was perfectly edible to dogs. Yuck!

All told, Purina dog food is safe enough. Its not the best dog food out there, but itll do if youre on a budget and if youre careful to read the labels to make sure you choose a Purina food that has higher quality ingredients.

The other day, I decided to check out some canned Purina dog food to give to Eira. After putting a couple choices back on the shelf the more expensive plastic tubs, strangely enough, had worse ingredients I settled on a can of Purina ONE Smart Blend True Instinct wet dog food.

Testing out Purina dog food.

The first six ingredients in this dog food are beef, beef broth, chicken, liver, pork lungs, and salmon. Thats a lot of protein, but its not necessarily a mix Id give Eira all the time. Also, theres nary a vegetable or fruit to be found in the entire can, which is a negative point. So I definitely got this food as a treat for Eira kind of like a candy bar would be for a human. Still, the fact that this can has salmon is impressive! Also, there are no meat by-products in it, which is another bonus.

Always read the ingredients list before you purchase Purina dog food or any dog food, for that matter!

Did Eira enjoy the food? She did. I was a little grossed out by the gelatinous glob of goo at the bottom of the can, which reminded me of that gelatin stuff in canned SPAM. Ew. But Eira loved it.

Eira chows down on her Purina dog food.

You cant see the gelatin stuff in this photo, but its there. After I got the food out, it was in a big clump at the bottom. But most wet dog food doesnt look that appealing anyway. And gelatin is found in many human foods, including popular marshmallow brands. So I really shouldnt be that grossed out I do love smores.

But its safe to say I wont be buying Eira Purina food often. Its not deadly or even harmful, but its far from the healthiest dog food on the market.

If you want to try the can Eira tried anyway, find it here.

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Laura Ojeda Melchor grew up with two beloved German shepherd dogsClancy and her daughter, Bella. From the time her family brought Clancy home, Laura took on the duty of pooper-scooper and potty trainer. As a teenager Laura helped her mother care for Clancy during her pregnancy. She still remembers fondly the exciting, frigid winter night when the seven special puppies were born. Laura kept the youngest puppyBellaand potty trained her, too. She taught Bella important commands, took her for long walks, and spent hours throwing tennis balls for her.

InNovember, Laura brought home a sweet new puppy, Eira Violet. Eira is halfAlaskan malamute and half German shepherd, and Laura loves her deeply. Shechose not touse a crate to potty train Eira and was pleasantly surprised atthe results. She now has a sweet, energetic dog who always uses the pottyoutside, plays well with Laurastoddler, and enjoys long family walks inbeautiful Alaska. If you were to meet Eira, shed bound up to you with awagging tail and get you running around the yard with herin no time.

Purina One Dog Food Review (Dry)

The Purina One product line includes the 11 dry dog foods listed below.

Each recipe includes its AAFCO nutrient profile: Growth (puppy), Maintenance (adult), All Life Stages, Supplemental or Unspecified.

Ingredients 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 includes rice flour. Rice flour is made from either white or brown rice and is considered a gluten-free substitute for wheat flour.

The next ingredient is corn gluten meal. Gluten is the rubbery residue remaining once corn has had most of its starchy carbohydrate washed out of it.

Although corn gluten meal contains 60% 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 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 next ingredient is chicken by-product meal, a dry rendered product of slaughterhouse waste. Its made from whats left of a slaughtered chicken after all the choice cuts have been removed.

In addition to organs, this item can also include feet, beaks, undeveloped eggs and almost anything other than prime skeletal muscle.

On the brighter side, by-product meals are meat concentrates and contain nearly 300% more protein than fresh chicken.

The quality of this ingredient can vary, depending on the caliber of the raw materials obtained by the manufacturer.

The sixth ingredient is wheat. Wheat is another cereal grain and subject to the same issues as corn (previously discussed).

The seventh ingredient lists soybean meal, a by-product of soybean oil production more commonly found in farm animal feeds.

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 cant be ignored when judging the actual meat content of this dog food.

The next item listed 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.

After the natural flavor, we find 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 Purina product.

With 6 notable exceptions

First, caramel is a natural coloring agent made by caramelizing carbohydrates. Its used by pet food manufacturers to impart a golden brown tint to the finished product.

However, the concentrated version of this ingredient commonly known as caramel coloring has been more recently considered controversial and found to cause cancer in laboratory animals.¹

In any case, even though caramel is considered safe by the FDA, were always disappointed to find any added coloring in a pet food.

Thats because coloring is used to make the product more appealing to humans not your dog. After all, do you really think your dog cares what color his food is?

Next, we find dried peas. Dried peas are a good source of carbohydrates. Plus theyre 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, chicory root is rich in inulin, a starch-like compound made up of repeating units of carbohydrates and found in certain roots and tubers.

Not only is inulin a natural source of soluble dietary fiber, its also a prebiotic used to promote the growth of healthy bacteria in a dogs digestive tract.

Next, the minerals listed here do not appear to be chelated. And that can make them more difficult to absorb. Chelated minerals are usually associated with higher quality dog foods.

This recipe also contains sodium selenite, a controversial form of the mineral selenium. Sodium selenite appears to be nutritionally inferior to the more natural source of selenium found in selenium yeast.

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

Since vitamin K isnt required by AAFCO in either of its dog food nutrient profiles, we question the use of this substance in any canine formulation.

Nutrient Analysis

Based on its ingredient panel alone, Purina One Dog Food looks like an average dry kibble.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 30%, a fat level of 18% and estimated carbohydrates of about 44%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 30% and a mean fat level of 16%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 45% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 54%.

Which means this Purina product line contains

Above-average protein. Near-average fat. And below-average carbs when compared to other dry dog foods.

However, when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the corn gluten and soybean meals and dried peas in this recipe and the inclusion of corn germ meal and soybean germ meal in other recipes, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing at least a moderate amount of meat.