Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe

The average dog food we reviewed has 39 total ingredients, with 1 controversial ingredient. This product has 1 controversial ingredient, called Caramel Color. We will go over why this ingredient is considered lower-quality below.

Top 5 Ingredients

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

• Deboned Chicken
  Chicken 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.

• Chicken Meal
  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. Chicken meal is generally a healthy dog food ingredient.

• Brown Rice
  Brown rice is whole-grain rice with the inedible outer hull removed. It provides calories, complex carbohydrates, and a few other nutrients to dogs. We generally consider it a quality dog food ingredient.
  
  
• Barley
  Barley is a type of grass and is known as a cereal grain. It is a source of calories and several nutrients, including protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins, niacin, and various minerals. Barley provides carbs, energy, fiber and other healthy nutrients for dogs. Barley is generally a healthy dog food ingredient.
  
  
• Oatmeal
  Oats are a cereal grain and a source of carbs, protein, dietary fiber, several B vitamins and dietary minerals like manganese. They are a high-quality dog food ingredient that can potentially help with colon health. Oatmeal is oats that have been ground or cut.
  
  

‍Controversial Ingredients

1. Caramel Color
2. A more concentrated form of caramel used in pet food to change the color of the food. It contains 4-methylimidazole (4-MIE), which has been shown to potentially produce lung cancer in animals.

‍Country of Origin

This Blue Buffalo product is made in the United States.

Meat & Fat Quality

Being a lower protein diet than average and having high carbs, we can assume that quite a bit of the protein in this food comes 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 Chicken, and Chicken Meal. Seeing named meat sources like chicken is great, and it applies to fat as well. So the Chicken Fat they include is also considered to be high-quality.

Artificial Preservatives

Blue Buffalo does not use any of these artificial preservatives in this recipe which is great.

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 food does include Caramel Color which we are considering an artificial color. There are 4 types of Caramel Color, 2 of which would be easier to consider natural since they are basically a melted sugar, and 2 of which would definitely be considered artificial since ammonia or sulfite is used in its formulation. Since they are all named “Caramel Color” we cannot tell which one this is, so we will err on the side of caution.

Artificial Flavors

This product does not use artificial flavors.