Quick guide to dog food ingredients labels 

In this article I will pass on some of my tricks and tips for easily and quickly learning how to separate a good nutritiously rich food for your pooch, from a bag of low meat, bulker filled poor quality food for your dog. Separating the wheat from the chaff so to speak, pun intended. 

At a Glance

• Ingredient List Order Matters: Ingredients are listed by weight from highest to lowest percentage, making the top few items the main indicator of overall food quality.

• Percentage Transparency: Missing ingredient percentages is a major red flag that often hides low meat content or poor-quality, non-specific protein sources.

• Meat Specificity: Quality foods clearly name their protein sources (e.g., "Beef" vs. generic "Dehydrated Poultry Proteins") and combine both fresh and dried meat for proper kibble texture.

• Nutritional Fillers vs. Whole Foods: Superior foods use digestible, nutrient-dense whole ingredients like sweet potato and real produce, whereas lower-quality foods rely heavily on cheap grain flours as bulkers.

• Brand Name & Price Illusion: Well-known, heavily marketed brands are often significantly more expensive while offering inferior nutritional value compared to lesser-known or independent brands.

A quick guide to comparing dog foods & what to look for

There are a few simple tricks you can use to understand how to quickly compare and grade dog foods. The simplest is having a nosy at the back of the bag. Like human food the ingredients should be listed in the highest percentage ingredients first. A quick glance at this can easily give you an idea of the makeup of the food. Below I have put in a couple of examples to help explain better 

If your label is missing percentages that is a big red flag, why are they trying to cover up how much meat is in it? Normally this is because it's really low amounts or from questionable sources , I have seen foods that have as little as 4% meat in them once you work it out.

Time to compare and explain 

Comparing the two foods let's check out the first bag on the left first (Bag A). 

1. Beef - We can see that the first and highest percentage ingredient in the food on the left is beef at 45% of the total food, and it lists a percentage. 
   
   
2. Sweet Potato - The second is sweet potato, this is commonly found in dog food as they are high in complex carbohydrates which are great slow energy releasers.
   
   
3. Beef Fat - Thirdly, we have beef fat, this is a high energy variation of this brand's dog food so the fats help to give your hard working pup the energy it needs. 
   

Now for the bag on the right: 

Now time for Bag B on the right hand image (I have changed there name to protect their identity) 

1. Flour - We can see flour as its main ingredient, don't think I need to explain that this isn't great at all.
   
   
2. The second ingredient is listed as “dehydrated poultry proteins”. While this is meat it doesn't  shout yummy nutritious meal for your pup. It is also missing a percentage so it could be a low meat content, we just don’t know. (A hint here is if they aren't boasting about it, then it is  probably a bad thing.)
   
   
3. Flour - flour again, a cheap bulker. 
   
   

This also brings us nicely to our next comparison, ask yourself what meat is it? A good quality food will list the sources of meat as well as their percentages. Think of it like fair ground hotdogs, yes they are made of meat but we all know it isn't your prime cuts of steak. 

Typically in dog food you will get fresh and dried meat sources. A higher percentage of fresh meat is better but don't be put off by some dried.  If the food is a dry kibble, drying some of the meat is necessary to lower moisture content, this helps to prolong its shelf life and keep the form of the kibble shape. 

Following the main first few ingredients which have the largest percentages of the food, then just have a scan down the rest. My golden rule is to think of it as if you were going to make a meal of these ingredients. Don’t overthink it, skim over them, do they sound like real food you could cook with or just a bunch of bulkers, additives and preservatives.  

Looking at the bag on the left we can see ingredients such as pea, apple, nettle, cranberries, courgette, blueberries, mussels. Real vitamin rich wholesome foods, exactly what we are looking for. The bag on the right however is grain, grain and more grain. Great if you want a bowl of tasteless mush. 

After a quick comparison of these two labels we can easily see that the bag on the left is a much higher meat content and nutritionally rich food for your dog. I can also tell you the food on the right is considerably more expensive than the left bag, even though we have seen the cheaper food is better quality, more nutritionally rich and grain free. 

Now in the interest of fairness and transparency both foods chosen for the comparison are available from our store. We sell both of them in store as well. The bag on the left is a Dr Green High Energy Beef, this brand is exclusive to petplace. The second is a bag of Royal Canin Medium Breed, which can be purchases from most supermarkets and pet stores. I will link them both below. 

Dr Green Grain-Free High Energy Beef

Royal Canin Medium Breed Dog Food 

Using this simple comparison of the first few ingredients is an easy way to understand the quality of the food you are looking at. 

Where to buy matters

Where you are shopping for your dog's meals is also important to the range of foods you are likely to encounter. Your supermarkets tend to stock only the big known brands and best sellers but this can be an easy trap to fall into.

Check your maps for your local area and visit a smaller ideally independent pet store. They will stock a much wider range of food and tend to have the less known but higher quality products in stock. 

Again, don't be fooled by big brands' quality. In my experience it's the smaller brands that care more about what is going into your dog's food than the profit margins. Their quality is what makes them stand out. You can often see meat contents that range up to 85% in these lesser known brands. 

Ultimately it comes down to the quality of your dog's diet. Why would you pay more for a food that is full of cheap grain bulkers when for the same price you could have something much better and more nutritional for your pup. Chicken and rice or full sunday roast? 

Hopefully this short-ish article has helped you to understand dog foods a little better and what you are paying for. Whether or not you decide to go grain-free is ultimately your choice for what you think is best for your pooch, and how natural a diet you want them to have. 

Using this quick and easy way to check the back of the bags you will soon be surprised at the much higher quality food you can find for the same or less that you're paying now. 

Your pup will be eating better, more nutritional food and your wallet will be better off too. Who doesn’t love a win win. 

If you have enjoyed this article and want more detail on this and other pet related questions please check out the rest of our blogs  

Thanks for reading