Blue Buffalo Basics Limited Ingredient Grain-Free Formula Adult Dry Dog Food

The average dog food we reviewed has 39 total ingredients, with 1 controversial ingredient. Despite having a relatively high number of ingredients, none of them are considered controversial - well done!

Top 5 Ingredients

Dog food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. So when looking at dog food label, take a close look at the first 5 ingredients. They make up about 80% of the total weight.

• Deboned Turkey
  Turkey is generally a healthy dog food ingredient that provides nutrients like protein, fat and B vitamins. Raw meat contains about 75% water which is cooked off during the making of dog food. This leaves only a fraction of the protein content in the final product weight. We recommend looking for dog foods that also include meat meals in the first five ingredients (pre-cooked meat powder that contains four times the amount of protein). De-boned simply means that the bones have been removed.

• Potatoes
  Potatoes provide carbohydrates (mostly starch) and are a rich source of vitamin B6 and vitamin C. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that there is a potential link between potatoes and canine heart disease. It is still too early to draw conclusions so we cannot yet say if potatoes are a generally high-quality dog food ingredient or should be avoided.

• Turkey Meal (Source of Glucosamine)
  Meat meals are the result of cooking. Water is removed from meats to create a protein-rich meal powder. Meat meals contain about four times the protein meats do, so generally, they're a good source of nutrients. Glucosamine is a combination of glutamine (an amino acid) and glucose (a sugar) that's present in chicken.
  
  
• Pea Starch
  Pea starch is an extract made from peas that is used as a binding and thickening agent during food manufacturing. We consider this a healthy dog food ingredient.
  
  
• Peas
  Peas are a good source of carbs, fiber and protein. Peas are starchy but high in vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin K, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc. We consider this a healthy dog food ingredient. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that there is a potential link between peas and canine heart disease. It is still too early to draw conclusions so we cannot yet say if peas are a generally high-quality dog food ingredient or should be avoided.

‍Controversial Ingredients

This Blue Buffalo product does not contain any ingredients that are controversial, excellent.

Country of Origin

This product is made in the United States.

Meat & Fat Quality

As pointed out above, this food has a far below-average amount of protein. From looking at the ingredients we can assume that quite a bit of the protein is made from plant-based sources. Although we can’t tell exactly how much of this food is meat-based, we can at least see the meat is coming from the named quality sources: Deboned Turkey, and Turkey Meal. While the meats are providing a lot of the fat source, we do see Fish Oil listed. With any meat or fat we want to see exactly where it's coming from, and unfortunately “fish oil” is not specific at all about which animal(s) it’s made of. This makes it a questionable and possibly lower-quality source of fat.

Artificial Preservatives

Blue Buffalo does not have any controversial preservatives in this food. Sidenote: It’s good to know that ‍not all artificial preservatives are bad. That’s because they serve an important purpose, which is to prevent food from spoiling. However, we consider 11 artificial preservatives as controversial because of their potential link to cancer and other serious health conditions.

Artificial Colors

This product doesn’t have artificial colors.

Artificial Flavors

No artificial flavors, either.