What is on the label?

The label is what every consumer relies on for information about such things as the palatability, nutritional information and brand name. By law, much more information can be found on that label. Current regulations require that all pet foods manufactured and sold in the US have the following information on the label:

• Product name
• Net weight
• Name and address of manufacturer
• Guaranteed analysis for crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber and moisture

The label will also contain a list of ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight, the words "dog food" or "cat food", and a statement of nutritional adequacy or purpose. It is also required that the manufacturer include a statement that explains the method used to substantiate the claim of nutritional adequacy. Oddly enough, an expiration or "best if used by" date is optional.

Guaranteed analysis panel:

The guaranteed analysis panel is where you find information regarding the amount of protein, fat, fiber, and moisture. The manufacturer is required to give minimum percentages for crude protein and crude fat, and maximum percentages for moisture and crude fiber. This is true for both dog and cat foods. Other information on this panel is optional and can include such things as magnesium (min %), taurine (min %), linoleic acid (min %) and ash (max %). It is important to note that guaranteed analysis only lists minimums and maximums. For exact amounts of nutrients, what is referred to as a proximate analysis would be needed. Since a guaranteed analysis lists only minimums and maximums, it would be possible that a food claiming 8% protein could actually contain 12%. With nutrients like protein, this could be a good thing; however, with fat this could drastically change the energy level (calories) and palatability of the food.

The terms crude protein, crude fat and crude fiber refer to specific analytical procedures used to estimate these nutrients. Since proteins are composed of amino acids, and amino acids contain Nitrogen (16%); crude protein is actually an estimate of the total protein in the food based on the analyzed levels of Nitrogen in the food. Crude fat is a measure of the total lipid (fat) content of the food, and crude fiber is a measure of the organic material which remains after treating the plant material with dilute acids and bases. Although crude fiber is used to report the fiber content of the food, it is sometimes thought to underestimate total fiber.

Most pet food labels present this information on an "as-fed" basis. This means that nutritional information is based on what is actually in the container. Ideally the nutrient content of different foods should not be compared unless they are both on a dry matter basis. This means that the moisture content is not included in the analysis. Since most dry foods contain a similar amount of moisture (within a few percent), they can be compared side by side with relative ease. Canned foods can vary dramatically in moisture content. This must be taken into consideration when comparing these types of foods (the more moisture the lower the nutrient content). A dry food should not be compared to a wet or canned food using this method. They should only be compared to each other on a dry matter basis.

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