Food scores are based on ingredient quality and safety. For more information, view our evaluation criteria.
With a score of 4.8/10, Purina Beneful Prepared Meals is considered a high risk dog food based on our criteria. Contributing to that is the ingredient safety score of 0/10 for the 2 recipes in this line. There are 7 recipes that average 45% protein and 32% carbohydrate as calculated on a dry matter basis, which is higher than we expect in a cooked dog food.
Most of the 7 recipes list broth or water as the first ingredient, before any protein. Then starches like wheat gluten, peas and rice fill in the top 5 ingredients that result in a high carb content. 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.
Wheat gluten is a plant protein included in these recipes. Plant proteins 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.
The website states 23 vitamins and minerals have been added to meet nutrient requirements in these recipes. This usually reflects 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.
Liver and meat by-products are unnamed animal proteins, which are a sign of low quality and can be from any type of animal, fish or poultry. Unnamed animal ingredients are often less expensive, low quality ingredients that can be made from rendered waste of many proteins.
On the ingredient safety side, these wet foods are moderately processed dog food which costs a loss in points across the line. The recipes are heated, which can cause a loss of enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species.
These recipes also use ingredients known to contain higher pesticide/herbicide residues, like wheat, in the top 5 ingredients. 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.
Corn starch and soy flour are GMO foods used in 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 use of rice in several recipes costs ingredient safety points because of potential arsenic contamination. This is a significant concern since rice naturally absorbs arsenic that can contaminate the water it’s grown in. Arsenic is linked to chronic health issues.
There is ingredient splitting in several 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.
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.
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