Guaranteed analysis on dog food label

The guaranteed analysis is another component that is required to be on a dog food label. It serves as a reference as to what the percentages of the main ingredients and other items are in the total composition of the pet food. The least amount of information that the guaranteed analysis must consist of includes the following following:

* Minimum % of Protein * Minimum % of Fat * Maximum % of Fiber * Maximum % of Moisture

Look at your dog food label for a reference as to what I’ll be discussing. If you have a can of dog food and a package of dry dog food at your disposal, take a look at both dog food labels. After careful review you might want to ask, “Hey, I notice when looking at both dog labels that the dry dog food has way more nutrients. I thought canned food had way more protein…what’s the deal?”

Keep this in mind, that the amounts of protein and other nutrients shown on the label appears to be less for canned versus dry, but looks are deceiving. The reason? Differences in moisture content. Canned dog food, on average, consists of 75% water, while dry dog food contains about 10%. So to make a true comparison of the nutrient levels, we need to put both types on the same playing field. To do this, we will be converting both products to dry matter.

To convert the nutrients, we need to dust off our calculators in order to perform a little math. Here’s the formula we will be using: % Guarantee divided by % Dry Matter multiplied by 100

ExampleIn one corner, we have a canned adult dog food that has a guaranteed analysis consisting of 9% protein, 6% fat, 1.5% fiber and 78% moisture. In the other corner, we have a dry organic dog food that has a guaranteed analysis consisting of 24% protein, 14.5% fat, 4% fiber and 10% moisture.

* Dry matter of canned: 100 – 78 = 22 * Dry matter of dry: 100 – 10 = 90 * Now we can do our calculations

Canned Dog Food

* Protein: 9 / 22 x 100 = 40.9% * Fat: 6 / 22 x 100 = 27% * Fiber: 1.5 / 22 x 100 = 6.8%

Dry Dog Food

* Protein: 24 / 90 x 100 = 26.6% * Fat: 14.5 / 90 x 100 = 16.1% * Fiber: 4 / 90 x 100 = 4.4%

So after were done, do you notice the protein? The canned dog food actually has 14% more protein.

Hope this helps to better understand how to compare dog food types a little better.