Now Fresh Dry DOG FOOD Review

With a score of 2.5/10, Now Fresh Dry is considered a high risk dog food according to our criteria. There are 13 recipes that average 26% protein and 37% carbohydrate as calculated.

These recipes have high carbohydrates and include starches like peas, potatoes, sweet  potatoes and tapioca at the top of the ingredient list. Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrates but starch is required for extrusion in dry foods. Excessive carbohydrate is an indicator of lower food quality as it can be used to reduce manufacturing cost. Foods that are high in carbohydrates can increase insulin levels, increase the risk of obesity and cause unwanted changes to the gut microbiome. 

The recipes contain excessive vitamins and minerals and added amino acids to meet nutrient requirements. This usually indicates poor quality or overly processed ingredients. Vitamin and mineral excesses, especially vitamin D and copper, can also result from added vitamin premixes, so it’s preferable that most or all vitamins and minerals come from real foods. 

Canola oil is an inflammatory seed oil that is highly processed and may contain trans fats. Studies show that ultra processed foods are linked to a higher rate of all-cause mortality in humans.  

While it’s good to see that these recipes contain probiotics, they only have guaranteed colony forming units of 90 million, which is on the low side. 

On the ingredient safety side, many of these 13 recipes score 0/10 or 1/10, which is a concern. This is ultra processed dog food, which costs a loss in points across the line. The individual ingredients in dry dog foods are heated several times during processing, which can cause a significant loss of enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species.

These recipes also include peas in the top 5 ingredients, a crop known to contain higher pesticide/herbicide residues. Crops that are spray-dried with Roundup contain more glyphosate/herbicide residue than other crops, even genetically modified ones. Glyphosate is an antibiotic that can kill beneficial gut bacteria and has been linked to cancer and other diseases.  

Potatoes are a GMO ingredient included in the top 5 ingredients of these recipes. There are limited safety studies on genetically modified and Roundup Ready crops, although they are lacking in nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. GMO crops also strip nutrients from soils, require increased pesticide risk and may be involved in bee die-off. 

Recipes in this line contain natural flavor, which is added to make processed food more palatable. But natural flavor is often either MSG or animal digest, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies.  

The following concerns don’t cost points but should be noted. 

There is ingredient splitting in these recipes. That’s the practice of splitting ingredients into subcategories to make them appear lower on the list. This can also move more desirable protein ingredients higher. These recipes also include glam ingredients like fruit that are listed after salt, which means they’re included in minimal amounts that don’t provide any nutritional benefit. 

These recipes contain coconut oil, which has been shown to cause undesirable changes in the gut lining. 

These recipes don’t specify whether the fish ingredients are from farmed or wild caught fish. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish and does not contain the same healthy fatty acid balance.  

Now Fresh doesn’t provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio, which is a concern since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory ratio of 30:1.