Pet Food Labels - Wet v Dry foods
Many companies are claiming fresh meats or that their products are Biologically Appropriate and thus healthy and thus healthy for dogs. Nothing could be further from the truth as for the long term health of dogs. Also, some companies are actually now claiming that grains are dangerous. The evidence is stacking up against the use of high protein diets. These sort of claim is not only misleading but adds to the confusion faced by concerned pet owners wishing to do the best for their pets. ( You can read more about the problems of high protein diets by clicking here)
Foods which are wet include high levels of water ( moisture) which needs to be removed prior to getting an accurate reading of the analysis. Similarly pet food companies who used supposed 'fresh' ingredients include the water/moisture content when adding the product to the diet. This is misleading as in dried food most of the water is removed but it leaves the ingredient at the top of the list with the prospective purchaser thinking the diet includes a high level of that ingredient. The reality is deception!!
Wet Chicken Dog Food Analysis
Lets start with wet food - A typical analysis might read as follows
Tinned ( Wet) Chicken Dog food
Moisture: 72%;
Protein: 14%;
Total Fat: 11%;
Ash: 2%;
Crude Fibre: 1%
Since we can only truly evaluate the proper protein and fat in a dry matter basis we need to remove the moisture. Since moisture in the above analysis is 72%, we must deduct it from 100 = 28%.
Thus, we only have 22% of usable food in a dry form.
to work out the actual protein we need to divide the protein content (14%) by the dry matter content (22%)
14 ÷ 22 = 0.636 we then multiply it by 100 to get the percentage protein
0.636 x 100 = 63.6% protein. This simply means that the above dog food has an actual protein content of 63.6%
We do the same with the fat! In above example the fat is 11% therefore we divide it by 22
11 ÷ 22 = 0.5 x 100 = 50% fat.
Dried foods on the other hand usually have a moisture content of around 8%
A typical analysis is as follows
Dried Chicken Dog Food Analysis
Protein: 18%;
Moisture: 8%;
Total Fat: 8%;
Ash: 6%;
Crude Fibre: 3%
Doing the above calculation - remove the moisture - 100 - 8 = 92% We then divide the protein (18%) by the moisture free food (92) 18 ÷ 92 = 0.195 x 100 = 19.56% protein.
The same calculation applies to the fat thus 8% fat is divided by 92 x 100 = 8.69%