13/05/2021
𝗣𝗲𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗜𝗣 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗦𝗔!💡
Understanding the ingredients label on your pets' food can be super frustrating and confusing! 🤦♀️ Most pet owners are not nutrition experts and there are many pet food myths out there! One thing you can look for on your pet food label is ɪɴɢʀᴇᴅɪᴇɴᴛ sᴘʟɪᴛᴛɪɴɢ.
𝑀𝑌𝑇𝐻: Despite what you may have been told by big brand food companies, the order of the ingredients is not necessarily the most important factor in selecting your pet’s food. This is one of the most widely believed pet food myths. Items on the ingredients list are ordered based on their weight - heaviest to lightest. What most people are unaware of, is a trick called ɪɴɢʀᴇᴅɪᴇɴᴛ sᴘʟɪᴛᴛɪɴɢ.
This is a trick most commonly used with carbohydrates. Different carbs like corn, rice, barley, wheat, and oatmeal, are listed separately in different forms of the same carbohydrate, such as 'ground wheat' and 'wheat flour', so these individual carbs appear lower in the ingredient list. Doing so makes it appear as if carbohydrates are not the first ingredient and that the food is less carb-heavy.
Carbs are commonly broken down like this ⤵️
Corn: corn gluten meal, cornflour, and whole ground corn 🌽
Rice: whole rice, white rice, brown rice, rice flour, and rice bran 🌾
Potatoes: dried potatoes, potato starch, potato protein, and potato flour 🥔
🚨 If listed together as just wheat instead of being broken up into parts, the wheat may appear higher than meat on the ingredient list.
Since the marketing ploy of 'meat first' has been an important one in the retail market, this is less than ideal. Below is an example from real retail pet food ingredient lists showing ingredient splitting.
