Purina Puppy Chow Classic Ground With Real Beef Review
Orange: controversial ingredients
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Review of Purina Puppy Chow Classic Ground
With Real Beef
This product is manufactured by Nestlé Purina Petcare.
According to our data, this Purina Puppy Chow recipe provides complete & balanced nutrition for adult dogs and growing puppies. In other words, this formula is AAFCO approved.
Unlike other AAFCO approved dog foods which rely in laboratory testing to substantiate nutritional adequacy, this recipe has undergone feeding trials. In the pet food industry, feeding trials are often considered to be the superior testing method.
Animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures substantiate that Purina Puppy Chow Classic Ground With Real Beef provides complete and balanced nutrition for adult dogs and growing puppies.
Ingredient Review
We'll begin this review of Purina Puppy Chow Classic Ground With Real Beef with a detailed discussion of the ingredients.
The first ingredient is meat by-products. By-products are defined by AAFCO as the "non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals." Thus, meat by-products contain nearly all parts of the animal which are typically not consumed by humans. These parts include the liver, lung, spleen, kidney, stomach, blood, intestine, bone, etc.
This ingredient is marked controversial because the meat source is not identified. Anonymous ingredients such as meat by-products are typically very low quality additions. The most unpleasing property of this ingredient is that the animal source can contain any mammal, even dogs & cats.
The second ingredient is water sufficient for processing, which increases the food's moisture content.
The third ingredient is chicken, which provides animal-based protein and important omega-6 fatty acids.
The fourth ingredient is liver. Liver is a controversial ingredient because the source animal is not specified. Anonymous animal ingredients are typically very low quality and may contain almost any animal, including dogs and cats!
The fifth ingredient is beef. Although beef is an excellent protein source, raw beef contains more than 60% moisture. After cooking, the relative meat contribution of beef is dramatically reduced. Therefore, it's important to ensure that other meat sources are included within the first few ingredients to ensure the product derives most of its protein from meat.
Because ingredients are listed in order of pre-cooked weight, the remaining ingredients in Purina Puppy Chow Classic Ground With Real Beef are not as important as the first five ingredients.
However, collectively they still have a significant impact on the overall quality of the product. Therefore, we'll continue discussing the remaining ingredients in this Purina Puppy Chow recipe.
Next we have soybean flour. Soybean flour contains more than 50% protein. Therefore, soybean can significantly boost the protein content of the product. The inclusion of non-meat protein typically degrades the overall quality of protein in the recipe. This degradation is due to the inferior amino acid profile of plant based proteins.
The next ingredient is salmon. Salmon is another excellent protein and omega-3 fatty acid source. As with other raw meats, salmon contains a substantial amount of moisture and therefore the relative meat contribution of salmon is dramatically reduced after cooking.
Then we have guar gum. Guar gum (or guaran) is obtained from guar beans which have been dehusked, milled and screened. It's commonly used in wet food products as a thickening agent and provides a notable amount of dietary fiber.
Moving on, we have potassium chloride, which is a potassium supplement.
The remaining ingredients in this Purina Puppy Chow Classic Ground recipe are unlikely to affect the overall rating of the product.
Our analysis of the ingredients show that this product derives most of its protein from animal based sources. This is an excellent property because meat based protein contains all of the necessary amino acids required by dogs. In our option, this is one of the most important properties to judge when reviewing pet food, therefore we believe this is an exceptional product in this regard.
Final Thoughts
In summary, we recognize that this product contains artificial colors and anonymous meat ingredients.
Although the FDA has approved the artificial colors used in this product, they are unnecessary and unhealthy additions. Long term exposure can have serious consequences. See our article on artificial food dyes for more information.
In regards to the anonymous meat ingredients, These are not necessarily always negative; however, they are typically low quality and inexpensive additions. If the particular anonymous meat ingredient is controversial or low quality, it should have been discussed earlier in this review. Otherwise, it is safe to assume the anonymous meat ingredient is an acceptable addition.
The official PawDiet rating for Purina Puppy Chow Classic Ground With Real Beef is 3.0 out of 5.
