How we rate dog food

The score in one line

score = how much meat (45) + how much starch (20) + how processed (20) + what kind of meat (15) − ingredients of concern (up to 60), never below 0, and at most 44 if a high-risk ingredient is present

• One scale for every food. A kibble and a raw food are measured against the same standard, so 70 means the same whatever the type. Beside every score we also show where the food ranks among foods of its own type, such as “Top 5% of dry foods”.
• From the label only. We read the ingredient list, the analysis (protein, fat, fibre, ash, moisture) and the additives. Only figures printed on the label count.
• The result is rounded down, so 74.7 is 74. A food has to genuinely reach a band to be in it.

How much meat? (45 points)

Meat percentages are weighed before cooking, as the ingredients go into the mix. “Fresh chicken 40%” in a kibble is mostly water that cooks off, so a dry food can declare a lot of meat and still be modest in protein. The protein check, from the label’s own analysis, balances that.

How much starch? (20 points)

UK labels don’t declare carbohydrate, so we estimate it from the analysis: 100 minus protein, fat, fibre, ash and moisture, as a share of the dry matter. A food with no carbohydrate earns the full 20; 60% or more earns nothing; in between it falls in a straight line, so 10% earns 16.7.

• Because it comes from the analysis, not from ingredient names, potato, peas, tapioca and lentils count exactly like wheat or maize. A grain-free kibble can be just as starchy as one with grain.
• Moisture only has to be printed when it’s above 14%. For a dry food that leaves it off, we assume 10%, which gives the food the benefit of the doubt, and label the figure an estimate.
• Across the foods we list, the middle dry food is about 45% carbohydrate by dry weight, wet food about 15% and raw food about 10%.

Dogs have no set minimum need for carbohydrate, and they digest cooked starch well. We score starch because it’s the part of the bowl that isn’t meat, not because it’s harmful.

How processed? (20 points)

A point comes off for each sign of heavy processing on the label, up to three: isolated plant parts (such as pea protein, potato starch, maize gluten or cellulose), digests or flavourings, and hydrolysed ingredients.

This part is our stated preference for less-processed food. Research hasn’t shown that processing itself harms dogs. The heat-damage compounds studies measure are highest in tinned food, not kibble, which is why wet food sits close to kibble here. Raw and gently cooked fresh food get the same points, so the score never nudges you from cooked food to raw.

What kind of meat? (15 points)

A label can’t tell us chicken breast from mechanically separated chicken: pet food law doesn’t require it, and “chicken” can mean any part of the bird. So we score what labels do show: how much the meat was processed before it went in, and whether the animal is named. Meal isn’t poor nutrition (it’s concentrated protein), but it has been cooked and dried once already, and you can’t see which parts went in. Organ meat counts in a food’s favour because liver, heart and kidney are rich in vitamins and minerals.

We don’t give points for extras added in tiny amounts (glucosamine, yucca or cranberry at under 0.1%), for words we can’t check such as “premium” or “natural”, or for sourcing. Free-range, organic, wild-caught and named fish oil are shown as labels on the food’s page instead.

Ingredients of concern

Each declared ingredient and additive is matched against our ingredient knowledge base, which records the evidence and its source. Each problem counts once, in the place it belongs, and only as much as the evidence supports.

• Ingredients of concern take off 60 points at most.
• Unnamed categories such as “meat and animal derivatives” cost points under “What kind of meat?”, and hydrolysed ingredients under “How processed?”, not here.
• Vitamins and minerals that complete foods must contain lose points only when the declared amount is too high. Iodine above the 4 mg/kg the European Food Safety Authority advises, but within the 10 mg/kg legal limit, is a −5 caution; above the legal limit it’s −15. If the amount isn’t declared, we say “dose not verified” and don’t deduct.
• Herbs and plant extras (chamomile, elderberry, grape seed extract) lose points only when the label declares 1% or more; below that they’re shown, not scored.
• Evidence only in people never costs a dog food points.

The high-risk cap

Some ingredients shouldn’t be in a dog’s bowl whatever else the recipe does well. If a food declares grapes or raisins, xylitol, onion or its relatives (leeks, chives, shallots), chocolate or macadamia, its score is held at 44 at most, in the Weak band. The same applies to an additive that is no longer authorised for animal feed (such as ethoxyquin), and to other documented dog hazards such as hops, unless the label declares only a trace (under 0.1%), when it’s a −5 caution instead. The food’s page names the ingredient and shows what the recipe would otherwise have scored.

We only call something a dog hazard when poison-control services or peer-reviewed veterinary reports document it. Where the evidence only shows harm at amounts far above what dog food contains, as with garlic and green tea, we flag a caution or note it instead, and say why on the food’s page.

When the label leaves things out

• If the analysis is missing, the protein check and the starch estimate earn half their points, shown as “not on label”. We never assume the best.
• If the analysis doesn’t add up (for example protein below 10% of the dry food, or figures that sum to well over 100%), we don’t use it, and say so. If a food lists minerals but gives almost no ash, the ash figure is a typo, so we don’t estimate the starch from it.
• When every ingredient is meat, fish, organ or bone (“Chicken wings”, “Beef, beef heart, beef liver”), we read the food as all meat.
• A label with no real ingredient list (or “see website”) isn’t scored at all. A score of 0 means a label was read and scored badly, never that it was missing.

Rankings and food types

• Leaderboards, best-of lists and “Top 5% of dry foods” include complete foods only. Complementary foods (chews, toppers, mixers, and raw foods that are a single ingredient) are scored and marked as complementary, but not ranked.
• Each food is ranked within its type: dry foods (kibble, baked and cold-pressed), freeze-dried and air-dried foods, wet foods, raw foods and fresh foods.
• Prescription diets aren’t scored. Foods such as Hill’s Prescription Diet or Royal Canin Veterinary are made to manage a health condition under a vet’s care, often deliberately low in protein or fat, so a recipe score would mislead. Follow your vet’s advice.

Score bands

A band describes the recipe on the label. “Weak” doesn’t mean a food is unsafe, and “Excellent” isn’t a promise of better health. Most dry food scores in the Weak band on this scale because much of it is starch; the rank among dry foods shows which dry foods are best.

What changed in v5 (September 2026)

• One scale for every food. Before v5, each type was marked against its own benchmark, so a kibble could score 100 alongside the best raw and wet food.
• Starch is measured. The old grain check only saw cereals, so grain-free kibble made with potato or peas scored as if it had no starch.
• The label’s analysis is used, for the protein check and the starch estimate.
• How the food is made and the form the meat goes in are scored.
• Ingredients of concern count once, with trace amounts and advised (not legal) limits treated as cautions.
• Label reading fixes: all-meat labels are read as 100% meat, “Total wild boar 40%” style totals are read, and a quantified dried meat after the same fresh meat is added to it when the two fit within 100%.
• Prescription diets are no longer scored, and chews and toppers filed as complete food are marked complementary.

What changed in v6 (October 2026)

Why. The v5 scales stopped short of the best a food can be. Full marks for meat came at 80% meat, for protein at 45% of the dry matter and for starch at 10%, so many raw recipes reached 100 together and there was nothing to tell a very good raw food from an excellent one.

• Meat: full marks now need 100% declared meat, not 80%. A food with 80% meat earns 28 of the 35 points.
• Protein: full marks now need 80% protein in the dry matter, not 45%. A food at 50% earns 5 of the 10 points.
• Starch: full marks now need no starch at all, not 10% or less. A food at 10% earns 16.7 of the 20 points.
• Bands: Excellent is now 75 and over, Good 60 to 74, Fair 45 to 59 and Weak under 45, so the bands moved down with the scores. The weights, the processing and meat-kind points, the ingredients of concern and the way we read labels are unchanged.

The effect. Almost every score is lower. Across the foods we list the average raw food falls from about 95 to 88, wet from about 66 to 55 and dry from about 36 to 31. Kibble is not marked on a gentler scale: every food faces the same ceilings. Raw foods that all scored 100 now spread out between about 85 and 99, so the order within raw food changes, and no complete food reaches 100. Old food-list links that filter on a score of 80, 65 or 50 still work and now use 75, 60 and 45.

Every change gets a new model version, and each food page shows the version its score was calculated with.

Cost per day

Add your dog and we estimate daily energy needs from the standard resting-energy formula (70 × body weight in kg^0.75), times 1.2 for a less active adult, 1.45 for a typical adult, 1.75 for a very active adult, or 2.1 for a puppy. We show a range of ±10% and turn it into grams a day using the food’s declared energy. The cost is the grams multiplied by the cheapest current price per kg we’ve found, excluding delivery.

It’s a starting point, not a prescription. Your dog’s weight and body shape are the best guide: see how much to feed. For illness, pregnancy, growth concerns or weight problems, ask your vet.

Your dog’s details stay in your browser. We don’t receive them.

Raw food safety

Raw meat can carry bacteria that make dogs and people ill. A 2026 Food Standards Agency survey found Salmonella, Campylobacter or harmful E. coli in about a third of UK raw pet food samples. The British Veterinary Association advises caution with raw feeding.

Raw food, including freeze-dried raw, is scored and ranked like any other food. We haven’t checked the makers’ approved premises, batch traceability, microbiological testing, cold chain or storage advice, so the score says nothing about them. The maker’s own pack and website carry the rest. No testing can make a single pack “pathogen-free”; follow the Food Standards Agency’s raw pet food advice.

What the score can’t tell you

• Ingredient quality, digestibility, and whether your dog will like it or do well on it.
• Whether starch or processing affects your dog’s health. The score describes the recipe; it doesn’t claim health effects either way.
• Contamination, batch problems or manufacturing faults. A label can’t show these.
• Recipe changes the maker hasn’t published yet, or that we haven’t seen.

Found a mistake? Report it and we’ll re-check the label. See also where our data comes from and how we’re funded.

Sources

• Carbohydrate need: FEDIAF, nutritional needs of cats and dogs.
• Label rules (moisture above 14%, percentages as weighed into the mix): Regulation (EC) 767/2009 and the FEDIAF Code of Good Labelling Practice.
• Starch in kibble: Corsato Alvarenga and Aldrich (2020), Translational Animal Science.
• Heat-damage compounds by food type: van Rooijen and others (2014), Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry; Bridglalsingh and others (2024), Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition.
• Raw food: Food Standards Agency survey (2026) and the British Veterinary Association’s position on diet choices.