Anyone who has ever changed dog food knows this: The first step is to understand the ingredients and composition of the food in question. Often, you already have a rough idea of what type of meat you want. But the devil is in the details: What are the carbohydrate sources, what is actually processed in the food and in what proportion, what additives are used, and what type of animal meat is included?
Most of these questions about the ingredients are answered in the so-called dog food declaration . In this blog post, we would like to first explain the different sections of the dog food declaration and then provide an overview of the three types of dog food declarations (open, closed, and semi-open).
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Contents
Understanding dog food composition
To understand the composition of a dog food, you have to read the dog food declaration .
What is a dog food declaration?
The dog food declaration explains and describes the composition and ingredients of the dog food. Thus, the dog food declaration is something like a list of ingredients for the food. It specifies what the food contains. According to legal requirements, the dog food declaration discloses the type of food, its composition , analytical components , and additives used in the respective food. We call these four components the four pillars of the dog food declaration. However, even the food declaration does not always provide direct answers to all questions, as the level of detail of the descriptions varies greatly depending on the type of declaration.
The four pillars of dog food declaration
In the following, we would like to explain the four pillars of the feed declaration in more detail.
Type of feed
A distinction is made between " complete feed " and " supplementary feed ." As the names suggest, the latter supplements the regular food. Complete feed, on the other hand, covers your four-legged friend's entire daily nutritional needs and is considered a complete dog food. Adding supplements or snacks is possible, but not required, as your four-legged friends already receive all their essential nutrients from the complete feed. Alpenwuff, for example, is a complete feed and can serve as your furry friend's sole source of nutrition.
composition
The composition of the feed provides information about which ingredients are used in the feed. Feed manufacturers are required to list the ingredients according to their proportions in the feed. The first ingredient listed represents the largest portion of the feed. The last ingredient listed represents the smallest portion.
But the ingredient list is often tricky. Each food manufacturer can decide for themselves whether all ingredients are listed individually or listed in defined, superficial categories .
If all ingredients are disclosed, this is referred to as an open declaration . If the individual ingredients are more obscured by categorization, this is referred to as a closed declaration . These two types of declaration are explained in more detail below in the section "Differences in Dog Food Declarations ."
Analytical components
Every complete food contains all the necessary nutrients for your dog. However, the list of analytical components shows you in even more detail the proportions of each nutrient group. It is thus a summary of the nutrients contained in all ingredients combined. This information makes different foods comparable, as there is a uniform analytical procedure. The following must be stated:
- Crude proteins, which describe the proportion of proteins in the feed
- Crude fat, which describes the proportion of crude oils and crude fats
- Crude fiber, which indicates the proportion of fiber
- Crude ash, which indicates the mineral content
- Calcium and phosphorus are the most important minerals and are therefore listed separately. If you divide calcium by phosphorus, the ratio should be between 1.1 and 1.9. Alpenwuff has a "CaP" value of 1.5.
You'll also occasionally see the term "residual moisture content ." This only needs to be stated if the value is above 14%, to indicate a risk of perishability. However, it can, of course, always be stated, as is the case with Alpenwuff.
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