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!

Study Finds Hidden Ingredients in Dog Food Not on Label

Recently, we read a blog article questioning the accuracy of pet food labeling. The piece referenced a study in the Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition first published October 29, 2010. The study analyzed four unidentified brands of dry venison dog food to determine if pet owners and veterinarians could safely use them in an elimination diet to test for food allergies in dogs. Venison or venison meal had to be listed as the first or second ingredient and the list could not contain a soy or beef ingredient. Three of the four venison canine dry foods with no soy products named in the ingredient list tested positive for soy, as well as other ingredients not listed on the package. ¹

Possible Reasons Soy Found

The soy found in three of the four dog foods tested may have come from the formula’s flavoring. The main ingredient in most “Natural Liver Flavors” is
not liver, but soy flour. A typical ingredient list for one of the most widely used natural liver canine flavorings is:  Soy Flour, Hydrolyzed Poultry Liver, Brewer’s Yeast, Lecithin, Natural Tocopherols, and Rosemary.

Pet guardians never see this ingredient list…only the pet food companies that use it in their foods see it. The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) allows pet food ingredient panels to say, “Natural Flavoring” or similar wording. Pet food companies are not required to state the ingredients of the “Natural Flavoring” they use.

In addition, man-made vitamins and minerals are routinely added to pet foods, even those marketed as “natural.”  The synthetic mineral supplements are called proteinates and contain hydrolyzed protein. The protein used in most mineral proteinates, such as iron proteinate and copper proteinate, is hydrolyzed soy protein. The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) only requires that when adding synthetic vitamins and minerals, the manufacturer must include a disclaimer such as, “Natural with Added Vitamins and Minerals.” They do not require that pet food manufacturers list the source or hidden ingredients in those man-made nutrients.

No Hidden Ingredients in Nature’s Logic  

You won’t find these hidden ingredients in Nature’s Logic foods. We never use hydrolyzed proteins to flavor our foods. Instead, the flavor comes from naturally-dried meats, so there is no hidden soy in any Nature’s Logic ingredient.

Further, Nature’s Logic has created the first and only, full-line of commercial pet food in the world with no chemically-synthesized vitamins, minerals, or other ingredients. All nutrients in Nature’s Logic foods come from whole foods and 100% natural ingredients, making them the safest and most natural foods for your pet. For more information, please visit www.natureslogic.com.

1 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1439-0396.2010.01016.x/full