PURINA ALPO DRY DOG FOOD REVIEW

With a score of 1.3/10, Purina Alpo dry dog food is considered a very high risk dog food by our criteria. There are 2 recipes that average 18% protein and 50% carbohydrate as calculated. 

These recipes are exceptionally high in carbohydrates and include corn, corn germ meal and soybean within the first 5 ingredients. Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrates but starch is required for extrusion in dry foods. Excessive carbohydrates are an indicator of lower food quality as they 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 carbohydrate level is more than twice the level of protein. The website states these recipes have “high-quality protein sources” and yet the protein level is especially concerning at only 18%. This is the minimum level AAFCO requires to achieve balanced nutrition. The only sources of protein appear to be beef and bone meal and pork and bone meal. The fact there are added amino acids reflects lower quality protein that doesn’t provide these nutrients naturally.

These recipes also have plant proteins, which are a less expensive substitute for quality animal protein. You want to see animal sources because they’re more digestible and contain a wider array of amino acids than plant based protein sources. As mentioned earlier, this is reflected by the addition of 2 or more amino acids in the recipes. 

An excessive amount of vitamins and minerals have been added to meet nutrient requirements in these recipes. This usually reflects poor quality or overly processed ingredients and a lack of whole foods like fruits and vegetables. 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. 

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. 

On the ingredient safety side, the recipes score 0/10 and 2/10 respectively. The concerns begin with kibble being an ultra processed dog food, which causes 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 use known GMO crops like corn and soybean in the top 5 ingredients. 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, cause 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. Animal digest is also an ingredient in one recipe. Food coloring has been added to these foods. It’s often added to make them look more appealing to consumers, and to hide the grey color of rendered ingredients. Food dyes are linked to health issues. 

There’s also unspecified animal ingredients in one recipe, animal digest and animal fat. These are  less expensive sources of animal products. The animal source should be named, such as chicken or beef, not “animal.”  Unnamed animal sources are of much lower quality, and may be from rendered waste. 

Lastly, these recipes contain menadione, a synthetic form of vitamin K that is not required in dog food. It may be linked to immune system dysfunction, oxidative damage to cells, liver toxicity, and allergic reactions. 

These concerns don’t cost points but are worth noting. 

It’s worth noting that when dog food labels say “with Real Chicken” or “with Cheddar Cheese” AAFCO requires those “with” ingredients to be only 3% of the product’s weight. 

There’s another AAFCO rule stating “a product does not need to have a huge amount of an ingredient which only provides flavor. A flavor designation in a product name (or elsewhere on a label) may be used as long as a listed ingredient provides the flavor …”  This flavor rule would apply to the Alpo recipe labeled “With The Grill-Time Flavors of Beef, Pork & Chicken.” In other words, it’s only flavor and doesn’t necessarily mean there’s beef, pork and chicken in the food. 

There is ingredient splitting in these recipes. That’s the practice of splitting ingredients into subcategories to make them appear lower on the list, in this case corn, corn germ meal and corn gluten meal. This can also move more desirable protein ingredients higher. 

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