Kibble
Backed by Dr. Danielle Conway
INTRODUCTION
Commercial dry dog food is the most widely fed diet type in the world. It is convenient, shelf-stable, affordable, and backed by decades of formulation refinement. For many households, it is the practical backbone of daily feeding. It is also surrounded by more marketing noise than almost any other product category in the pet industry.
Online discussions about kibble tend to swing between two extremes. Conventional guidance has historically treated any AAFCO-compliant kibble as the gold standard of nutrition. On the other hand, wellness communities have positioned kibble as incompatible with health, pointing to processing methods, ingredient sourcing, and the growing concept of ultra-processed foods as evidence that dry food is something to move away from.
Neither position tells the full story. Kibble can support long-term health when it is well-formulated by a manufacturer with strong quality and testing standards. However, this can vary enormously. Understanding what actually matters and what is mostly marketing is where the real value lies for pet parents trying to make good decisions.
GLOSSARY
Read labels more accurately, recognize meaningful differences between products, and cut through the claims that dominate pet food marketing:
| Term | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Food and Drug Administration (FDA) | Pet food is regulated at the federal level by the FDA in the United States |
| Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) | Pet food is regulated at the state level by feed control officials operating under guidelines from AAFCO |
| “Complete & Balanced” | A diet that provides all essential nutrients in appropriate amounts and ratios |
| Formulation Method | The recipe is analyzed and confirmed to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles on paper |
| Feeding Trial Method | The product is fed to dogs over a defined period, and health indicators are monitored against specified criteria |
| Nutritional Adequacy Statement | It tells you which life stage the food is formulated for, whether it meets AAFCO profiles or has been tested through a feeding trial, and the species it is intended for |
| All Life Stages | The food meets the requirements for growth and reproduction, the most nutrient-demanding profile |
| Adult Maintenance | Formulated for healthy adult dogs and is appropriate for most healthy adults without specific medical needs |
| Supplemental or Intermittent Feeding | The food is not complete and balanced and should not serve as a primary diet |
What Kibble Actually Is
Dry dog food is manufactured through a process called extrusion. Ingredients, proteins, grains or starches, fats, vitamins, and minerals, are combined, cooked under heat and pressure, and forced through a die to create the familiar uniform pellet shapes. The pellets are then dried and in most cases sprayed with fat and palatability enhancers after processing. Instead of thinking of kibble as “junk” food the way it is misconstrued, think of it like meal bars, granola bars, baby formula, or all-in-one meal shakes.
What It Does:
Extrusion is an efficient manufacturing method that produces a shelf-stable, complete and balanced product at scale. It has been refined over decades and, in competent hands, produces foods that meet established nutrient profiles reliably.
It does subject ingredients to significant heat, typically between 120-180° Celsius. This affects nutrient content in predictable ways:
- Some vitamins degrade during processing, which is why reputable manufacturers test finished products and add nutrients back after extrusion to meet nutritional targets.
- Heat processing also affects protein digestibility and contributes to the formation of compounds called advanced glycation end products, or AGEs.
The Bottom Line:
These are not automatically reasons to avoid kibble. They are reasons to understand what you are selecting and to pay attention to manufacturer quality practices, not just ingredient lists.
What It Means:
"Ultra-processed" has become a prominent term in both human and pet nutrition conversations in recent years. The concern is understandable. Research in human populations has associated diets high in ultra-processed foods with various health outcomes, and pet parents naturally wonder whether the same concerns apply to their dogs.
In human nutrition, the ultra-processed food framework was developed primarily to describe foods engineered for overconsumption. Products designed to be hyper-palatable and eaten in excess of energy needs. That specific context matters.
What We Know:
As of right now, the translation of that framework to companion animal nutrition is largely speculative. There is not yet strong, peer-reviewed evidence establishing that the ultra-processed label, as applied to kibble, predicts worse health outcomes in dogs compared to other feeding approaches.
The conversation is happening and it is worth following, but the current state of the science does not support the level of alarm you will often encounter online.
The Bottom Line:
The marketing around ultra-processing has outpaced the science, particularly as it applies to pet food. That does not mean processing is irrelevant. It means the conversation deserves more nuance than it typically receives.
What we do know is that not all kibbles are equal. Nutrient profile, ingredient quality, digestibility, and manufacturer testing practices all vary. Those differences matter more than the processing category label.
How Kibble Is Regulated
In the United States, pet food is regulated at the federal level by the FDA and at the state level by feed control officials operating under guidelines from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO).
AAFCO establishes nutrient profiles that define minimum, and in some cases maximum, levels for essential nutrients including protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals. A product claiming to be complete and balanced must meet one of two standards:
The recipe is analyzed and confirmed to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles on paper.
The product is fed to dogs over a defined period, and health indicators are monitored against specified criteria.
Both methods have limitations. Formulation analysis does not guarantee that nutrients are present in forms the body can absorb and use. Feeding trials are relatively short and use small sample sizes. Neither is perfect, but the AAFCO statement is still meaningful. A product without it has not been formulated or tested to meet basic nutritional requirements. Think of it as a floor, not a ceiling. The floor matters.
Reading the AAFCO Statement
The AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement appears somewhere on the label, usually near the guaranteed analysis. It tells you which life stage the food is formulated for, whether it meets AAFCO profiles or has been tested through a feeding trial, and the species it is intended for. Life stage designations are worth understanding carefully:
arrow_rightAll Life Stages
All life stages means the food meets the requirements for growth and reproduction, the most nutrient-demanding profile. This is not automatically better for every dog.
All life stages formulations deserve a second look for overweight dogs and senior dogs in particular. These formulations tend to be more calorie-dense and higher in phosphorus, a mineral that becomes increasingly relevant in aging dogs where kidney function may be a consideration.
A food formulated for the actual life stage of your dog is often a more appropriate choice than one designed to cover every stage at once.
arrow_rightAdult Maintenance
Adult maintenance is formulated for healthy adult dogs and is appropriate for most healthy adults without specific medical needs.
arrow_rightIntended for Supplemental or Intermittent Feeding
Intended for supplemental or intermittent feeding means the food is not complete and balanced and should not serve as a primary diet.
These three designations, all life stages, adult maintenance, and supplemental/intermittent, are the only life stage categories formally recognized by AAFCO. Labels like "senior," "performance," "active," or "weight management" carry no standardized regulatory definition.
A manufacturer can print "senior formula" on a bag without meeting any specific nutrient criteria for older dogs. What actually governs the food's nutritional content is still the AAFCO life stage statement elsewhere on the label, not the marketing language on the front of the bag.
EVALUATING PRODUCTS
When evaluating any product with a lifestyle or life-stage descriptor on the packaging, look past the label claim and go straight to the nutrient profile to understand what the food is actually formulated to do.
MYTHS
Myth #1: The First Ingredient Tells You Everything
One of the most persistent pieces of advice in dog food selection is to look for a named meat protein as the first ingredient. The logic seems sound: ingredients are listed by weight, so the first ingredient is the largest component. If chicken is first, the food is mostly chicken. In practice, this is not accurate.
Ingredients are listed by their pre-processing weight, which includes water content.
Fresh chicken is roughly 70% water.
When that moisture is removed during extrusion, chicken drops significantly in weight relative to other ingredients.
Meanwhile, chicken meal, which has already had moisture removed, may appear further down the list but contribute more actual protein by weight to the finished product than the fresh chicken listed above it. A product listing chicken, chicken meal, and brown rice likely delivers more usable protein than one listing chicken, corn, and soy even though both lead with chicken.
The ingredient list is useful for identifying what categories of ingredients are present:
- Protein sources
- Carbohydrate sources
- Fat sources
- Added vitamins and minerals
It is a reasonable starting point.
The ingredient list cannot tell you:
- How much of each ingredient is present in the finished product
- The quality or digestibility of those ingredients
- Whether the overall nutrient profile of the food is actually adequate for your dog
Two foods with nearly identical ingredient lists can have meaningfully different nutrient profiles depending on ingredient quality and manufacturing practices.
Pairing the ingredient list with the guaranteed analysis and understanding the manufacturer's quality practices gives you a much more complete picture.
Myth #2: By-Products and Meals Are Inferior Ingredients
By-product and meals are some of the most loaded terms in pet food marketing. It sounds like something leftover, discarded, or of lesser value. The reality is more nuanced.
AAFCO defines a meat by-product as the non-rendered, clean parts of slaughtered mammals other than skeletal muscle meat. This includes organs such as liver, kidney, lung, and spleen, as well as other tissues.
The word by-product on a label is not itself a red flag. What matters is the manufacturer behind the label: their sourcing standards, quality controls, and nutrient testing practices.
From a nutritional standpoint, organ meats are not inferior ingredients. Liver is one of the most nutrient-dense foods available: rich in vitamin A, B vitamins, iron, and copper. Kidney provides high-quality protein. These are ingredients many pet parents intentionally add to their dog's homemade diet. The legitimate concern about by-products is not their nutritional value. It is consistency and quality control.
The quality depends on the manufacturer's sourcing standards and what is actually being included under that label. A manufacturer with transparent sourcing and rigorous testing that includes organ meats in the by-product category can be producing a nutritionally sound food. A manufacturer with poor standards using the same term may be a different story.
Ingredients like chicken meal, salmon meal, and turkey meal are rendered protein concentrates.
Meals are simply whole protein sources that have been cooked and had their moisture removed before entering the formula.
Since meals are already dry, they contribute significantly more protein and other nutrients by weight to the finished food than an equal amount of fresh meat listed above them on the ingredient panel. A product that meets AAFCO nutritional adequacy standards using meal-based proteins is not nutritionally inferior to one that leads with fresh meat. In many cases, it contains more usable protein in the finished product. Meal is not a euphemism for poor-quality ingredients. It is a description of how the ingredient was processed before it entered the bag.
Myth #3: Human Grade Always Means Higher Quality
Human grade has become one of the most prominent marketing claims in premium pet food, including among newer fresh and lightly processed brands. It sounds straightforward: ingredients that meet the standards for human food must be better than those used in conventional pet food. The claim is more complicated than it appears.
Legally, for a pet food to use the term human grade, every ingredient and every step of manufacturing must meet standards for human food production.
Most pet food manufacturers, including many producing high-quality products, cannot legally make this claim even if their ingredient sourcing is excellent or the same as the human food market. Human grade is largely a facility and handling designation, not a direct measure of nutritional quality, digestibility, or formulation adequacy.
THE HUMAN-GRADE DESIGNATION
Food can be produced in a human-grade facility and still be poorly balanced or formulated. A food produced in a conventional pet food facility can be meticulously formulated, well-tested, and highly digestible.
The human-grade designation carries an often-overlooked environmental cost. Foods produced in human-grade facilities typically rely on a narrower range of ingredients, primarily muscle meat cuts that qualify under human food standards. This approach sidesteps a significant portion of the animal.
By contrast, conventional pet food manufacturing has long practiced whole-animal utilization similar to Native Peoples, incorporating organ meats, rendered meals, and other nutrient-dense tissues that would otherwise go to waste. From a sustainability standpoint, a diet that makes full use of the animal is often a more defensible choice than one optimized for the appearance of a human grocery aisle.
Many ingredients considered undesirable by Western consumers are nutritionally exceptional for dogs and are regarded as delicacies in cultures around the world. Green tripe, lung, spleen, kidney, and intestines would not meet most Western consumers' expectations for a human meal, and therefore struggle to earn a human-grade designation.
Yet these are among the most nutrient-dense, biologically appropriate ingredients available in canine nutrition, and they appear on the menus of high-end restaurants across Europe, Asia, and South America.
A dog offered green tripe is not getting a lesser product. It is getting something that a significant portion of the human world considers a luxury. The human palate is a poor standard for canine nutrition.
A more useful question is not whether a pet food meets human food standards, but whether it meets companion animal standards. Dogs and cats are not humans. They have distinct digestive anatomy, unique metabolic requirements, and nutritional needs shaped by millions of years of evolution that diverge significantly from our own.
Dr. Conway proposes the term companion grade as a more meaningful benchmark: ingredients and formulations that are appropriate, digestible, and nutritionally optimized for the species eating them.
Dogs and cats have unique nutritional needs. Their food should be utilizing the best ingredients for their biology, not ours.
EVALUATION
Guaranteed Analysis
The guaranteed analysis on a pet food label lists minimum and maximum levels for key nutrients: crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, and moisture. Additional nutrients may be listed as well. Understanding how to read this section is one of the most practical skills in pet food evaluation.
Nutrient percentages on a label are expressed on an as-fed basis, meaning they include the water content of the food. This makes a direct comparison between foods with different moisture levels misleading. A wet food with 78% moisture will always show lower protein percentages on an as-fed basis than a kibble with 10% moisture, even if their actual protein content is equivalent once water is removed.
To compare foods accurately, convert to a dry matter basis by removing moisture from the calculation:
(As-Fed% ÷ (100 - Moisture%)) x 100
For example, a food with 26% protein as-fed and 10% moisture:
(26% ÷ 90%) x 100 = 28.9% protein on a dry matter basis
This calculation levels the playing field and lets you compare the actual nutrient content of foods with different moisture levels on equal terms.
Crude protein is measured by nitrogen content.
It tells you how much protein is present, not how digestible or bioavailable it is.
Two foods with identical crude protein percentages can differ significantly in how efficiently a dog can use that protein. Digestibility data is rarely available on commercial labels. This is one area where published research on specific brands, or direct inquiry to manufacturers, provides more useful information than the label alone.
The guaranteed analysis does not report individual amino acids, specific fatty acids, or most micronutrients. It is a partial picture. For dogs with specific health considerations, working with a veterinarian to evaluate whether a food meets individual needs is more reliable than label reading alone.
Evaluating the Manufacturer
The ingredient list and guaranteed analysis only tell part of the story. Behind every pet food label is a manufacturer, and manufacturer practices vary significantly. These questions are worth researching for any brand in any category of dog food you are considering. A reputable manufacturer is generally willing to answer these questions.
MONITORING
Storing Kibble Safely
Kibble is shelf-stable, but it is not indestructible. The fats sprayed on after extrusion to improve palatability begin oxidizing as soon as the bag is opened, and oxidation accelerates with exposure to air, heat, light, and moisture.
Rancid fats are not just a flavor problem. They contribute to gastrointestinal upset, can contribute to inflammation over time, and degrade the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) that the food is supposed to deliver.
Storing kibble well is one of the simpler things a pet parent can do to make sure the food in the bowl is actually the food the manufacturer formulated.
Buy bag sizes you will finish within four to six weeks of opening.
The "savings" of buying a forty-pound bag that takes three months to feed are largely offset by the nutritional degradation happening in the bottom half of the bag.
- For multi-dog households or large breeds, a forty-pound bag may be appropriate.
- For small dogs or single-dog households, smaller bags are the better choice, even if the per-pound price is higher.
Pet food bags are not just packaging. They are part of the preservation system. The bag is engineered with a fat and oxygen barrier that household plastic containers do not provide.
If you want to use a container for convenience or aesthetics:
- Place the entire bag inside the container rather than pouring the kibble directly into it.
- Roll the bag tightly and clip or seal it after every meal.
Air exposure is the single largest driver of fat oxidation, and most of that exposure happens when the bag sits open between feedings rather than during long-term storage.
Dr. Conway does not recommend removing the kibble from its original bag, but if you must:
- Pour kibble directly into a food safe and air-tight storage container
- Wash and fully dry the container between bags.
Residual fat from previous bags coats the inside of the container, goes rancid, and contaminates the new kibble immediately. This is one of the more common and least recognized causes of "my dog suddenly stopped eating his food." The food has not changed. The container is the problem.
Store the bag in a cool, dry, dark location, such as a kitchen cabinet or pantry at room temperature.
Garages, hot mudrooms, sunny pantries, and humid basements all accelerate degradation.
Refrigeration is generally not necessary and can introduce moisture issues if the bag is opened repeatedly in a humid environment.
Save the lot number, manufacturing date, and best-by date until the bag is finished.
If a recall is announced, this information is what determines whether your specific bag is affected. A photo of the back of the bag on your phone takes ten seconds and saves a lot of stress later.
The temptation to "top off" the storage container with a fresh bag is understandable, but it means old, partially oxidized kibble sits at the bottom of the container indefinitely, and the new kibble is being contaminated by it.
Finish the bag, clean the container, then start fresh.
For pet parents who buy in bulk to save money, freezing portions of the bag in airtight, freezer-safe packaging is a reasonable strategy for the portions you will not feed within a month.
The fats are stable in the freezer for several months. Thaw a portion as needed and treat it as you would a fresh bag.
These are small habits, but they meaningfully affect what your dog is actually eating over the life of a bag. A well-formulated kibble stored poorly is not the same food after three months as it was on day one.
When Kibble Isn't the Right Choice
Kibble is a practical and nutritionally adequate choice for many dogs when the right product is selected and fed appropriately. For multi-dog households, busy schedules, or budget constraints, a well-chosen kibble can be an entirely reasonable primary diet. There are situations where a closer look is warranted:
Dogs with specific medical conditions may benefit from therapeutic diets or individually formulated feeding plans.
Overweight or sedentary dogs may not thrive on calorie-dense formulations designed for all life stages.
Senior dogs have changing needs, particularly around protein, phosphorus, and caloric density, that may not be well served by formulations designed for younger, active adults.
Dogs with food sensitivities or suspected allergies may need more targeted protein and carbohydrate selection.
Dogs that struggle on kibble and seem to do better on a fresh food diet, whether gently cooked, raw, or homemade.
When you, the pet parent, would feel more comfortable feeding a fresh food diet. Your preferences matter too.
In these situations, working with a veterinarian familiar with nutrition to evaluate specific products is worthwhile. Kibble is not the right answer for every dog in every situation. The best diet for your dog is one that meets their individual nutritional needs, fits your household's practical realities, and can be sustained consistently over time. That looks different for every dog and every family.
arrow_rightReferences
AAFCO. 2023. Official Publication of the Association of American Feed Control Officials.
Buff PR, Carter RA, Bauer JE, Kersey JH. 2014. Natural pet food: A review of natural diets and their impact on canine and feline physiology. Journal of Animal Science.
Freeman LM et al. 2013. Current knowledge about the risks and benefits of raw meat-based diets for dogs and cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Hand MS, Thatcher CD, Remillard RL, Roudebush P, Novotny BJ. 2010. Small Animal Clinical Nutrition, 5th Edition.
National Research Council (NRC). 2006. Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats. National Academies Press.
Poulsen MW et al. 2013. Advanced glycation end products in food and their effects on health. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.
Stockman J, Fascetti AJ, Kass PH, Larsen JA. 2013. Evaluation of recipes for home-prepared maintenance diets for dogs. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Tran QD, Hendriks WH, van der Poel AFB. 2008. Effects of extrusion processing on nutrients in dry pet food. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.