I AND LOVE AND YOU BAKED & SAUCY DOG FOOD Review

I and Love and You’s Baked & Saucy line is rated a high risk food, with an overall score of 4. It’s an oven-baked kibble with a “savory bone broth coating.” You can serve as-is, or add water to make a gravy.

The line loses ingredient quality points for its level of carbohydrates, calculated as an average 34.5%. Dogs have no nutritional need for carbohydrates, and excessive carbohydrate is an indicator of food quality as it can reduce manufacturing cost. Foods that are high in carbs can raise insulin and cause obesity, and may cause changes to gur bacteria.  

There are excessive added vitamins and minerals in the recipes, which reduces the ingredient quality score because it’s best that nutrients come from the whole food ingredients without the need for fortification.  It’s also worth noting that the line contains sodium selenite as a source of selenium. Dogs need selenium, and it’s usually added in very small amounts. However, some research suggests that sodium selenite may be associated with potential toxicity, so selenium yeast is the preferred form of this mineral. 

There are also 3 added amino acids. When there are 2 or more, this is usually a sign of lower quality foods that rely on less complete plant sources of protein instead of animal protein.

The recipes contain an unnamed animal protein in the form of fish oil. Unnamed animal proteins (like “fish” instead of salmon, herring, or sardine, for example) are usually lower quality. There’s also no mention of whether the fish oil is from wild caught or farmed fish. Wild caught fish are more nutritious and have a better fatty acid balance.

When it comes to ingredient safety, the score is reduced because of ultra processing of kibble products. While the food is described as oven baked, the process isn’t described and it’s likely that high heat applied during baking causes a significant loss of enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species. 

Baked & Saucy loses an ingredient safety point for ingredients known to be high in pesticides/herbicide residues, like peas and tomato pomace. Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers pose a significant health risk to plants, animals and soils. Foods known for high resides are penalized. 

The company does state their kibble is all non-GMO, but non-GMO doesn’t mean pesticide-free. They also claim the protein is GMO free and that’s a difficult claim to make if you don’t specify what the meat animals were fed.  

The line also loses ingredient safety points for natural flavor, which is often either animal digest or MSG, low quality ingredients with limited safety studies. 

Baked & Saucy uses some ingredient splitting on their label. Dog food ingredients must be listed by weight, from highest to lowest. In this case. dried peas and pea flour are listed individually. There is little difference between these ingredients but listing them separately moves them further down the label to make consumers believe there is more meat (and less peas) in the food than there probably is.  

The recipes also contain some glam ingredients, which are healthy sounding ingredients listed below the salt on the ingredient list, like fish oil and dried chicory root. Because they’re below the salt on the ingredient list, this foods are present in such small quantities that they don’t provide any health benefits.  

It’s good to note that the line contains added probiotics and the label guarantees the amount of CFU (colony forming units). 

Finally, the food does not provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio, which is a concern since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1.