Orijen Amazing Grains dog food review

With an average score of 6.9, Orijen’s Amazing Grains line is considered a moderate risk dry dog food. The line is high in protein and averages 21% carbohydrate, which is nicely low for a kibble. Excessive carbohydrate is used to keep costs down and can indicate a lower quality food. Large amounts of starch can increase insulin levels, cause obesity and negatively impact gut balance.

Unlike other foods in the Orijen lineup, Amazing Grains has more added vitamins and minerals, which reduces the ingredient quality score. Added vitamin and mineral premixes can indicate lower ingredient quality.  

When it comes to ingredient safety, the score is reduced because, like all kibbles, Orijen is ultra-processed. 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. 

Rounding out the food safety scores, Orijen Amazing Grains loses some points for multiple high pesticides/herbicide foods, although it is worth noting they do not make an appearance in the top 5 ingredients, mainly as oats, millet, collard greens and apple. These crops are typically sprayed with Roundup before harvesting and are higher in Roundup than most other foods. 

It’s worth noting that Orijen Amazing Grains uses ingredient splitting on their label. Dog food ingredients must be listed by weight, from most to least. For example, oats and oat groats 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 oats) in the food than there probably is.  

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.