Rachael Ray is known throughout America as a great chef and TV host. So when the dry dog food came out, Nurse’s expectations were high. While the packaging of the products is very appealing, the public hasn’t exactly jumped on the Nutrients train. I have already seen it at a discounted price at Wal-Mart at Eagle and Giant. So, I finally got to the Giant Eagle and saw the bag. On the front it shows a picture of Rachael cooking radishes in the oven and the beautiful dog Isaboo sitting patiently for her home cooked meal. It also lets customers know that it is made “with real beef and brown rice with real chicken and saladbrown rice” .
That sounds great to the uninitiated! But most customers don’t know much about AAFCO and the strict rules on labeling. One rule is more common than the 3% rule or the “with” rule. It states that when ingredients are placed in bags to present to the customer, the word “with” must be used when less than 25% of the total weight of the ingredient. At most it has to be 3%. So, when we look at the front of the bag again and again and see that it’s made with “real chicken and vegetables,” we now know that it’s less than 25% chicken and, most likely, a little more than 3% vegetables. . To make our argument a little more concrete, let’s look at drugs.
Rachael Radius Nurse, Chicken and Veggies- Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brewer’s Rice, Corn Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (Preserved Mixed Tocopherols), Corn Gluten Meal, Brown Rice, Oatmeal, Beet Pulp, Natural Flavor, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt. Calcium Carbonate, Dried Alfalfa, Dried Peas, Dried Tomatoes, Dried Carrots, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Olive Oil. , Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Sulfate, Iron Oxide, Dried Celery, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source of Vitamin C), Mixed Tocopherols, Niacin, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K activity), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Sulfate, Folic Acid.
So he used to say that the first two ingredients were good, and that when we have chicken, and then chicken meal (chicken taken with water and fat) we could have some confidence about the amount of meat in dog food. But since we know that the total chicken percentage is not higher than 24%, the confidence is out. On top of that, when we factor in that “chicken” is 70-80% water, our confidence goes down even further. If you do the math, the total percentage of chicken can be about 16%, and the vegetables are about 3 or 4% (salt was above each vegetable in the list of ingredients) Now lets look at the rest. to list
Brewed rice. This is the definition that AAFCO gives us: “Small pieces of crushed rice kernels that have been separated from larger milled rice kernels.” This grain has already been processed and lacks many of the nutrients that whole grain rice or brown rice have. Brown rice is also much cheaper than whole rice and is mainly used as a filler.
Corn, flour. Most people think that corn is a horrible grain that has no nutritional value and causes itchy skin, ear infections; and liver problems. Since all of this is due to corn, and it has been shown to be a major allergen for dogs, it is wrong for us to assume that corn for dogs will cause these problems for your dog. a>. But I usually stay away from grain products to be safe.
Soybean meal is defined as: “The product of grinding meat that remains after the removal of most of the oil from soybeans by a solvent or mechanical extraction process.” “This is a poor quality protein filler used to boost the protein content of low quality pet food
