Nutrish Grain-Free Dry DOG FOOD Review

With a score of 3.4, Nutrish Grain-Free Dry is considered a high risk dog food. There are 8 recipes that average 26% protein and 38% carbohydrate as calculated.

This line loses ingredient quality points for high carbohydrate levels. These are grain-free recipes but they do include other high starch ingredients like potatoes, peas, chickpeas, tapioca, sweet potato, canola and sunflower meal and rice, so they aren’t starch- or carb-free. Several of these ingredients are found in the top 5 ingredients of these recipes to contribute to the excessively high carbohydrate content. Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrates, but starch is required for extrusion in dry foods. Excessive carbohydrate is an indicator of food quality as it can be used to reduce manufacturing cost. Foods that are rich in carbohydrates can increase insulin levels, increase the risk of obesity and cause unwanted changes to the gut microbiome. 

This line is lower in protein than a premium kibble, averaging 26%. Recipes also contain plant proteins like soybean and corn which are a cheaper, lower quality protein.

The Lamb recipe is also a limited ingredient recipe. It has the highest level of carbs at 46% as calculated, more than double the protein level of 20%. The first 5 ingredients of lamb, rice (both brown and ground), beet pulp and chicken fat are followed by a list of 21 synthetic vitamins and minerals needed to balance this food to AAFCO standards.

The other recipes in this line also lose ingredient quality points due to excessive added vitamins and minerals. This can indicate lower quality or incomplete 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.  

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.  

Other quality concerns are the use of seed oils, plant proteins and sugars like glycerin. Sunflower seed oil is a highly processed and highly inflammatory oil. It’s an inexpensive alternative to higher quality animal fats and oils. Pea protein and canola meal are less  expensive substitutes 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. Glycerin is a sugar found in pet food to increase the palatability or as a preservative or humectant. There’s also brown sugar in some recipes. Sugars are low quality ingredients that can cause unwanted gut changes, obesity and insulin spikes. 

The ingredient safety score for this line is also low. Dry kibble dog foods are ultra processed so that costs points. Extruded foods are heated several times during production, which will cause major losses in some active enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients.  

Additional safety concerns are for ingredients in the top 5 that are known to contain higher pesticide/herbicide residues when spray-dried with Roundup, including beet pulp, peas and sunflower meal. Roundup/glyphosate is an antibiotic that can kill beneficial gut bacteria and has been linked to cancer and other diseases. 

Potato is a GMO crop that appears in the top 5 ingredients in several 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.

Natural flavor is also used. This is often animal digest or MSG, both low quality ingredients with limited safety studies. Rice is also a concern as it can contain arsenic, which is linked to chronic health issues. 

Finally, there is ingredient splitting in these recipes. That’s the practice of splitting ingredients like rice and peas into subcategories to make them appear lower on the list. This can also move more desirable protein ingredients higher. 

One recipe uses salmon but it doesn’t specify whether the fish is farmed or wild caught. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild caught fish and does not contain the same healthy fatty acid balance. It’s also worth noting that Rachael Ray’s Nutrish Grain-Free Dry doesn’t state the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in these recipes. While this is true of most foods, it’s unfortunate since AAFCO allows a very inflammatory limit of 30:1.