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Pedigree Dog Food Review

Pedigree Dog Food Reviews
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Pedigree began as Chappie, a canned pet food company in England in the 1930s until it was acquired by Mars Limited in 1934. When the product lines increased, the company name was changed to Pedigree Petfoods Ltd in 1972. 

Mars also owns Nutro, Pedigree, Royal Canin, Sheba, Cesar, Greenies, and Whiskas as well as Banfield Pet Hospital, VCA Animal Hospitals and BluePearl Specialty and Emergency Pet Hospital. Mars is in the process of acquiring Champion Pet Foods which includes the Orijen and Acana brands. Mars is a privately owned company owned by the Mars family with headquarters in McLean, Virginia. Mars’ annual revenue in 202  was US$45B.

For our Pedigree dog food review, we’ll look at the food ingredient quality and safety. Our dog food reviews are based on these criteria.

Pedigree Dry Dog Food

Score: 1.1/10

Package Ingredients For Pedigree Adult Roasted Chicken, Rice & Vegetable Flavor Recipe: Ground whole grain corn, meat and bone meal (source of calcium), corn gluten meal, animal fat (source of omega 6 fatty acids [preserved with BHA & citric acid]), soybean meal, natural flavor, chicken by-product meal, dried plain beet pulp, salt, potassium chloride, brewers rice, ground whole grain wheat, choline chloride, dried peas, dl-methionine, zinc sulfate, calcium carbonate, monocalcium phosphate, vitamin e supplement, l-tryptophan, yellow 5, yellow 6, dried carrots, blue 2, red 40, copper sulfate, d-calcium pantothenate [source of vitamin B5], sodium selenite, niacin [vitamin B3], potassium iodide, riboflavin supplement [vitamin B2], vitamin a supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride [vitamin B6], thiamine mononitrate [vitamin B1], vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid

With a score of 1.1/10, Pedigree Dry dog food is considered a very high risk dog food, according to our evaluation criteria.

Ingredient Quality

There is a list of concerns when it comes to ingredient quality:

High Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates in this line average 44% as calculated, which is extremely high. Excessive carbohydrate is an indicator of low quality foods as it’s often used to keep costs down. Large amounts of starch can increase insulin levels, cause obesity and negatively impact gut balance. High carbohydrate diets also lead to a lower protein diet which holds true here with 23% protein, which is about half the amount of carbohydrates. 

Excessive Added Vitamins And Minerals: This line loses ingredient quality points for excessive added vitamins and minerals. This usually reflects poor quality or overly processed ingredients. Ideally, these nutrients should come from whole food sources. Vitamin and mineral excesses, especially vitamin D and copper, can also result from vitamin premixes.

Added Amino Acids: Protein from animals is more complete in amino acids than protein from plants – plus it’s more expensive. Foods with lower amounts of animal protein often need to add amino acids to compensate, so 2 or more added amino acids can be a marker of cheap, lower quality ingredients.

Plant Protein: Plant proteins are also used as a less expensive substitute for quality animal protein. You want to see animal sources because they’re more digestible and contain a wider array of amino acids than plant based protein sources.

Unnamed Animal Protein: Unnamed animal ingredients are a sign of low quality. Several recipes contain animal fat that can be made from any type of animal. Unnamed animal ingredients are often less expensive, low quality ingredients that can be made from rendered waste of many proteins. 

Sugar: Sugar is often found in pet food to increase palatability or as a preservative or humectant. It is a low quality ingredient that can cause unwanted gut changes, obesity and insulin spikes. 

Ingredient Safety

All 12 of these recipes score 0/10 for ingredient safety, so there are quite a few concerns.

Ultra Processed: This line loses significant points for being an ultra-processed dog food. The individual ingredients in dry dog foods are heated several times during processing, which can cause a significant loss of enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species. 

High Pesticide/Herbicide Foods In The Top 5 Ingredients: These recipes contain foods in the top 5 ingredients that are known to carry large pesticide/herbicide residues. Unless organic, these crops are spray-dried with Roundup, leaving 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.  

GMOs In Top 5 Ingredients: These recipes contain known GMO ingredients in the top 5 ingredients,  including corn and soybeans. 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. 

Meat And Bone Meal: This ingredient (which is one ingredient, not “meat meal” and “bone meal”) is a very broad definition that allows for tissues from any mammal. This can consist of road kill and dead livestock and is one of the cheapest animal ingredients used in pet food. It may be labeled as “beef and bone meal” or “pork and bone meal,” which limits it to those species, but that doesn’t greatly improve the quality of the ingredient.  

Rice: Arsenic contamination is a significant concern with rice since it naturally absorbs arsenic that can contaminate the water it’s grown in. Arsenic is linked to chronic health issues.

Natural Flavor: Recipes in this line contain natural flavor, which is added to make processed food more palatable. But natural flavor is often either MSG or animal digest, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies.

Synthetic Preservatives: Antioxidants are used as preservatives for shelf-stable foods to prevent oxidation of fats and degradation of water soluble nutrients. Natural antioxidants like mixed tocopherols are preferred as artificial antioxidants have limited toxicity studies and may be linked to cancer.

Color/Dyes: Colors, iron oxide, caramel and titanium dioxide are dyes added to foods to make them look more appealing to consumers. They are often used to hide the grey color of rendered ingredients and are linked to health issues. 

Read more Pedigree Dog Food Reviews …

Pedigree Wet Dog Food

Score: 4.3/10

Package Ingredients For Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner Bacon Cheeseburger Flavors Recipe: Chicken by-products, sufficient water for processing, chicken, meat by-products, pork liver, brewers rice, beef, minerals (potassium chloride, magnesium proteinate, zinc sulfate, copper proteinate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide), sodium tripolyphosphate, carrageenan, added color, dried yam, guar gum, vitamins (choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, biotin, d-calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement), xanthan gum, natural bacon flavor, natural grilled cheeseburger flavor.

With a score of 4.3/10, Pedigree Wet dog food is considered a high risk dog food, according to our evaluation criteria.

Ingredient Quality

There are many concerns when it comes to ingredient quality:

High In Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates in this line average 20% as calculated on a dry matter basis. This is considered high for canned dog food. Excessive carbohydrate is an indicator of low quality foods as it’s often used to keep costs down. Large amounts of starch can increase insulin levels, cause obesity and negatively impact gut balance. 

Excessive Added Vitamins And Minerals: This line loses ingredient quality points for excessive added vitamins and minerals. This usually reflects poor quality or overly processed ingredients. Ideally, these nutrients should come from whole food sources. Vitamin and mineral excesses, especially vitamin D and copper, can also result from vitamin premixes.

Added Amino Acids: Protein from animals is more complete in amino acids than protein from plants – plus it’s more expensive. Foods with lower amounts of animal protein often need to add amino acids to compensate, so 2 or more added amino acids can be a marker of cheap, lower quality ingredients.

Plant Protein: Plant proteins are also used as a less expensive substitute for quality animal protein. You want to see animal sources because they’re more digestible and contain a wider array of amino acids than plant based protein sources.

Unnamed Animal Ingredients: Unnamed animal ingredients are a sign of low quality. Some recipes contain animal plasma, animal liver and meat by-products that can be made from any type of animal. Unnamed animal ingredients are often less expensive, low quality ingredients that can be made from rendered waste of many proteins. 

Sugar: Sugar is often found in pet food to increase palatability or as a preservative or humectant. Dextrose is an added sugar in several recipes. It is a low quality ingredient that can cause unwanted gut changes, obesity and insulin spikes. 

Ingredient Safety

There are many concerns when it comes to ingredient safety in these wet foods:

Highly Processed: Canned foods are heated before and during canning, which will cause significant losses in some active enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species. 

High Pesticide/Herbicide Foods In The Top 5 Ingredients: The recipes in this line contain foods in the top 5 ingredients that are known to carry large pesticide/herbicide residues. Wheat and peas (unless organic) are spray-dried with Roundup, leaving 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 Ingredients: Two recipes contain cornstarch, a known GMO ingredient. 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.

Synthetic Preservatives: Antioxidants are used as preservatives for shelf stable foods to prevent oxidation of fats and degradation of water soluble nutrients. Natural antioxidants like mixed tocopherols are preferred as artificial antioxidants have limited toxicity studies and may be linked to cancer.

Rice: Arsenic contamination is a significant concern with rice since it naturally absorbs arsenic that can contaminate the water it’s grown in. Arsenic is linked to chronic health issues.

Carrageenan: Carrageenan is a highly processed derivative of seaweed used as a thickener or texturizer. It may be linked to intestinal inflammation and other negative health effects.  

Natural Flavor: Recipes in this line contain natural flavor, which is added to make processed food more palatable. But natural flavor is often either MSG or animal digest, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies.

Colors/Dyes: Colors, iron oxide, caramel and titanium dioxide are dyes added to foods to make them look more appealing to consumers. They are often used to hide the grey color of rendered ingredients and are linked to health issues. 

Read more Pedigree Dog Food Reviews …  

Is Pedigree A Good Dog Food?

Overall, Pedigree’s dry dog foods are considered very high risk. They are ultra-processed dog foods with high levels of carbohydrates. 

The canned dog foods, with less processing and fewer carbohydrates, score a bit better and are considered high risk dog foods

The dry recipes lost points for having excessive added vitamins and minerals, plant protein, sugar, unnamed animal proteins and seed oils. Some recipes contain 2 or more added amino acids, which is a sign of foods with lower animal protein and often, more plant protein. On the safety side, the concerns were for using ingredients known to have high pesticide/herbicide residues, GMO ingredients, synthetic preservatives, rice, natural flavor and artificial colors or dyes.

The canned foods had similar concerns with excessive added vitamins and minerals, more than 2 amino acids in some recipes, plant protein, unnamed protein and sugar. Food safety concerns included high pesticide foods in the top 5 ingredients, GMO crops, synthetic preservatives, rice, carrageenan, natural flavor and artificial colors or dyes.

There are additional concerns with the dog food and marketing. These don’t affect the Pedigree dog food reviews score, but they’re worth mentioning:

Glam Ingredients: The dry recipes also include glam ingredients like fruit that are listed after salt, which means they’re included in minimal amounts that don’t provide any nutritional benefit. 

Ingredient Splitting: There is ingredient splitting in the dry and canned recipes. That’s the practice of splitting ingredients into subcategories to make them appear lower on the list. This can also move more desirable animal protein ingredients higher. 

Does Not State Farmed Vs Wild Caught Fish: The company doesn’t specify whether the fish products used are farmed or wild caught. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish and does not contain the same healthy fatty acid balance. 

Does Not Provide Omega-6:Omega-3 Ratio: This omission is true of most foods. However it is a concern because omega-6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory, and AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1. 

Pedigree Dog Food Recalls

Pedigree has had a number of recalls dating back to 2008.

08/2014: Voluntary recall due to possible presence of foreign material.

06/2012: Voluntary recall due to a potential choking risk.

2008: Voluntary recall due to potential salmonella contamination.

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. We’ve 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.

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