BARF World began operating in 2000 and claims to be the first company to produce a BARF diet with widespread availability. BARF is an acronym for biologically appropriate raw food. This is a concept pioneered by one of the company founders, veterinarian Dr Ian Billinghurst, who’s also known as the father of the BARF diet and raw feeding. The US company is based in Minnesota.
BARF World foods are AAFCO certified as complete and balanced with most nutrients coming from whole foods. BARF World produces 2 lines of food: freeze-dried and frozen.
For our BARF World dog food review, we’ll look at the food ingredient quality and safety of each line of food. Our dog food reviews are based on these criteria.
BARF World Freeze-dried Dog Food Review
Score: 8.5/10
Package Ingredients For BARF World Chicken Nuggets Freeze-dried Recipe: Chicken, finely ground chicken bone, chicken liver, egg, broccoli, celery, carrot, dehydrated alfalfa meal, ground flaxseed, apple, pear, grapefruit, orange, salt, dried kelp, fish oil, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, garlic, monocalcium dicalcium phosphate, mannon oligosaccharide, alpha tocopherol acetate (form of natural vitamin E), zinc oxide, manganous oxide
Using our evaluation criteria, BARF World Freeze-dried is considered a low risk dog food. Here are our concerns:
Ingredient Quality
There is one concern when it comes to ingredient quality.
Unnamed Animal Ingredients: Unnamed animal ingredients are a sign of low quality. These foods contain fish oil that can be made from any type of fish. Unnamed animal ingredients are often a less expensive, low quality ingredient that can be made from rendered waste of many proteins.
Ingredient Safety
Many pet food ingredients are unsafe or are grown using unsafe chemicals. Here are 2 issues with BARF World Freeze-dried line:
High Pesticide/Herbicide Foods: These recipes contain ingredients that are known to carry a large pesticide/herbicide residue if not organic. When crops are spray-dried with Roundup, it leaves them with more glyphosate/herbicide residue than other crops, even genetically modified ones. Glyphosate is an antibiotic that can kill beneficial gut bacteria and has been linked to cancer and other diseases.
GMO Foods: These recipes contain known GMO ingredients that include alfalfa. There are limited safety studies on genetically modified and Roundup Ready crops although they are lacking in nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. GMO crops also strip nutrients from soils, require increased pesticide risk and may be involved in bee die-off.
View The Entire Review on Dog Food Reviews
BARF World Frozen Raw Dog Food Review
Score: 8.4/10
Package Ingredients for BARF Beef Diet Recipe: Beef heart, beef kidney, beef liver, finely ground beef bone, egg, broccoli, celery, carrot, dehydrated alfalfa meal, ground flaxseed, apple, pear, grapefruit, orange, salt, dried kelp, fish oil, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, garlic, monocalcium dicalcium phosphate, mannon oligosaccharide, alpha tocopherol acetate (form of natural vitamin E) zinc oxide, manganous oxide
Using our evaluation criteria, BARF World Frozen Raw is considered a low risk dog food. Here are our concerns:
Ingredient Quality
Overall, there is one concerns when it comes to ingredient quality:
Added Minerals: When minerals come from whole food sources, they include the full spectrum of cofactors, which makes them safe and bioavailable. While a couple of added minerals are acceptable, five or more implies the food is of poor nutritional value.
Unnamed Animal Ingredients: Unnamed animal ingredients are a sign of low quality. These recipes contain fish oil that can be made from any type of fish. Unnamed animal ingredients are often a less expensive, low quality ingredient that can be made from rendered waste of many proteins.
Ingredient Safety
Many pet food ingredients are unsafe or are grown using unsafe chemicals. Here are 2 concerns with BARF World Frozen Raw line:
High Pesticide/Herbicide Foods: These recipes contain ingredients that are known to carry a large pesticide/herbicide residue if not organic. When crops are spray-dried with Roundup, it leaves them with more glyphosate/herbicide residue than other crops, even genetically modified ones. Glyphosate is an antibiotic that can kill beneficial gut bacteria and has been linked to cancer and other diseases.
GMO Foods: These recipes contain known GMO ingredients that include alfalfa. There are limited safety studies on genetically modified and Roundup Ready crops although they are lacking in nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. GMO crops also strip nutrients from soils, require increased pesticide risk and may be involved in bee die-off.
View The Entire Review on Dog Food Reviews
Is BARF World A Good Dog Food?
Barf World Dog Foods are considered low risk. All foods in the first 5 ingredients are meat and organs followed by fruits and vegetables. The average protein of these foods range from 42 to 45% for both lines, and carbs are under 6% as calculated on a dry matter basis. All recipes have a high score when it comes to ingredient quality.
The company doesn’t offer organic ingredients. Their lamb comes from Australia. Their US meats are both farm-raised and commercially-raised livestock, and follow USDA regulations of not using any hormones or antibiotics for at least 30 days before slaughter.
There are 2 things that don’t affect the score, but they’re worth mentioning:
Does Not Provide Omega-6:Omega-3 Ratio: It’s also worth noting that BARF World does not state the omega6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. While this is true of most foods, AAFCO allows a very inflammatory limit of 30:1. Diets high in omega-6 fats can cause chronic inflammation and disease.
Does Not State Farmed Vs Wild Caught Fish: These foods don’t specify whether the fish is farmed or wild caught. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish and does not contain the same healthy fatty acid balance.
BARF WORLD DOG FOOD RECALL
BARF World has been involved in one recall as follows:
April 2013: Voluntary recall as a precaution due to possible contamination with salmonella bacteria after an outbreak at the plant, and a positive test in a non-food item.
Evaluation Criteria
We evaluate and score dog foods based on two criteria:
Are the Ingredients High Quality?
Here are some common low-quality ingredients or markers we look for:
- Is there excessive carbohydrate content, which can cause gut imbalances?
- Does the food contain unnamed proteins, which are low quality?
- Does the food use cellulose (wood pulp) as a source of fiber instead of real food?
- Are there excessive vitamins and minerals added in place of real food nutrition?
- Are there excessive added amino acids or plant proteins instead of expensive meat protein?
- Does the food contain inflammatory processed seed oils?
How Safe Are the Ingredients?
Many ingredients come from unhealthy, inflammatory sources or are full of pesticides so we look for:
- How processed is the food?
- Does the food contain known genetically modified foods?
- Does the food contain ingredients known to be high in pesticides?
- Does the food contain natural flavor, which are often MSG or animal digest?
- Does the food contain rice, which is high in arsenic?
Each food is objectively evaluated by these criteria and a score is assigned using the average of ingredient quality and safety. This is NOT a paid list and there are no affiliate links. Dogs Naturally has partnered with DogFoodReviews.com to make sure dog owners have unbiased, objective criteria to help them choose the best dog food on the market. You can view the full Evaluation Criteria at DogFoodReviews.com.
