Review: Whole Foods 365 Brand Dog Food – Poor Choice, Horrible Ingredients!

In my opinion, Whole Foods 365 Brand Performance Formula Dry Dog Food is just as poor as Purina, Science Diet, Iams, Eukanuba, and maybe even Alpo and Ole Roy! Ha!

But it’s probably flying off the shelves because consumers trust Whole Foods and the 365 brand name. Problem is, most wouldn’t think of flipping the package around to read the label! And if they did, would they even care about the ingredients or understand how poor they are?

I am sure some would be just as appalled as I am that Whole Foods could actually offer this horrible kibble to their customers!

ingredients (thanks to the dogfoodchat forum):
Chicken by-product meal, rice, corn meal, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and rosemary extract), corn gluten meal, ground wheat, beet pulp, natural flavors, flax seed, dried egg product, canola oil, brewers dried yeast, salt potassium chloride, taurine, l-lysine, rosemary extract, l-carnitine. Vitamins: choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, vitamin A supplement, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), vitamin D3 supplement, niacin, calcium pantothenate, thiamin mononitrate (vitamin B1), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement. Minerals: zinc, polysaccharide complex, iron, polysaccharide complex, manganese polysaccharide complex and polysaccharide complex, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, manganese sulfate, calcium, iodate, cobalt carbonate, sodium selenite.

chicken by-product meal…yuck. Defined: dry, ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines — exclusive of feathers except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.

It’s not as digestible or nutritious as more expensive, higher-quality muscle meat. Avoid it! Avoid it! Avoid it!

On the Whole Story Blog, they try to justify their choice to use animal by-products because it is supposedly from “human grade” meat. Come on! The use of the words “human grade” for dog food sounds soo comforting to the consumer, but truthfully there is absolutely no regulation or official definition for that term. PLUS, pet food companies use that term very liberally in their marketing but do not and cannot actually include it anywhere on the package label. I suggest reading Honest Kitchen’s article concerning what Human Grade Petfood really means.

corn meal and corn gluten meal – cheap fillers! Plus a lot of dogs have corn allergies – a problem that makes them smelly and itchy. Corn is one of the top Genetically Modified (GMO) crops in the US – and highly treated with pesticides. It’s also government subsidized which makes is super cheap to use as pet food filler.

ground wheat – more filler. Why add so many cheap carbs. Dogs don’t need it, but it’s a cheap additive for petfood companies.

natural flavors – uh huh. What is exactly does the term natural flavor mean? No one really knows, and they don’t have to provide any further info on it. Another sneaky way to load poor quality ingredients into pet food, to enhance the flavor of corn and chicken by-products!

beet pulp – a by-product from sugar beet processing. And did you know sugar beets are also a gentically modified (GMO) crop? Grown using Monsanto’s Round-up pesticide resistant seeds? Do you want to feed your dog pesticide-laden GMO food products? No, not me!

canola oil – another GMO product, highly refined and processed. It’s something I try to avoid in human and pet foods.

brewers dried yeast – a by-product of the beer industry. Gee, what a surprise! another way big food companies can use their off-products to make more money! It also can cause allergy problems in some dogs.

salt potassium chloride – salt? Sorry, but dogs don’t need added salt in their pet food. It’s just a way to make the crappy ingredients taste better, and more importantly, a sneaky way to get the dog addicted to their brand of dogfood, sort of like human addiction to potato chips.

How Bad is Bad? Whole Foods Rated By the Whole Dog Journal

So you don’t believe me? How about believing the Whole Dog Journal? They listed Whole Foods 365 brand dog food as the 2nd worst choice on their list of dogfoods.

I think what pisses me off the most is not that they are using sub-par ingredients, that’s nothing new in the petfood industry. But they are sullying their good name and providing such a poor product to the consumer. I am not naive, I know that I have to read labels EVERYWHERE, including at Whole Foods grocery, but because this product is so bad, it makes me question what else they are hiding in the human food world.

All to make a hefty profit!