Time for some label language decoding—and this one’s sneaky but important:
If a bag says “Dog Food with Chicken”, that means it only needs to contain…
3% chicken.
Yep. Three. Percent.
Not the main protein. Not even the second. Just enough to legally use the word “with.”
Compare that to:
- “Chicken Dog Food” = needs to be 95% chicken
- “Chicken Recipe” = at least 25% chicken
- “With Chicken” = minimum 3%
That’s why wording matters so much on pet food packaging. Brands know how to dance around the rules—and still get you to buy.
Pet food companies use these rules to market products in a way that can make minor ingredients appear more prominent. For example, “with beef” or “with chicken” may sound appealing, but the actual meat content is minimal compared to foods labeled as “Chicken Dog Food” or “Chicken Recipe”
Next time you see “with beef,” flip that bag and ask: is this food… beefin’? Or bluffin’?
BorkBites 
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