Dog Food or kibble has come a long way since World War II ended. It was during this time that grain and other food products that were not deemed fit for human consumption were ground up and mixed with binders and sold as dog food. All the while, claiming that this product was healthier then table scraps. Interestingly enough, they way the dog food is made, plays a big role in how healthy the food actually is.

There are two main methods used in producing dog food. One is by extrusion where the ingredients are ground, mixed together and cooked on high heat to produce pellets. These pellets are then sprayed with vitamins and grease. Basically, ingredients that are not heat tolerant are sprayed on these pellets after they are cooked. The other method is by baking, where all ingredients such as grease and nutrients are mixed together and then baked. Alarmingly both these methods are full of preservatives like BHT and Ethoxyquin that are used to make the food last longer, but are also known to cause harmful side affects. The alternative to these dry dog food methods is organic dog food, which is prepared without the use of additives or preservatives. However, the down side is these foods do not last as long and are relatively expensive.

Years after the Dog Food boom and the end of the depression era, manufacturers were inclined to include scraps of meat products in their food products. The meat products included pig and chicken bones, chickens heads, pig snouts, and cow hooves. All were considered by-products otherwise know as, food that humans wouldn’t eat. Manufacturer’s claimed the food would help the health of your pet, but in reality this was far from the case. After several years, savvy pet owners were not seeing a major change in their dog's weight or health and started questioning the validity of these statements. Not surprisingly, dog food conglomerates were already ahead of this sticky situation and had started development of premium brands dog foods, again touting their healthy benefits as the top selling point. So, what are pet owners to do? Well luckily there are some government set guidelines to help clarify the situation.

Today, with the help of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) consumers have the means to know what really goes into our pet's food. The irony of it all is, by semantics the Dog Food manufacturers have one up on the consumers. The following are the meanings behind the words on a dog food label. Before reading on, be informed that all restrictions are limited to solid components of the food and not the mixture.

Keep this is mind when examining dog food labels:

• Labels that state the key ingredient: Chicken, Pork or Beef. If the key ingredient is not paired with the words "dinner, flavor, nuggets or formula" then you can expect that it is 95% of the weight. (These are the first words used to catch the consumer’s eye and are often use deceptively.)
• When paired with the words: "dinner, flavor, nuggets or formula" then expect that the key ingredient is only 25% of the total weight.
• If another ingredient is joined to the main ingredient (ex. Beef and Liver) then the combination must not be less than 95% of total weight and should be listed in descending order according to content by weight.

For consumers, the importance of knowing how to read labels enables us to learn what we are feeding our pets. All labels may appear the same, but there may be subtle differences in the way they are worded that may attribute to advertising and marketing strategy of the pet food industry. Dog food is big business and rest assured manufactures want to produce the most profitable dog food, not the healthiest. Be sure to read your dogs’ food labels and make sure you are keeping your pet happy and healthy.

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