Purina ONE SmartBlend Chicken & Rice Adult Formula Dry Dog Food

The average dog food we reviewed has 39 total ingredients, with 1 controversial ingredient. This product has 5 total controversial ingredients and 2 of them are found in the first five ingredients. This is concerning because the first 5 ingredients make up most of the product.

Top 5 Ingredients

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

• Chicken (Source of Glucosamine)
  Chicken is a nutritious meat that provides protein, fat and other nutrients to dogs. 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's 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). However, chicken is generally a healthy dog food ingredient.

• Rice Flour
  Rice flour provides calories, complex carbohydrates and a few other nutrients to dogs. We generally consider it a quality dog food ingredient.

• Corn Gluten Meal
  Corn gluten meal is a waste product from corn manufacturing that is used as an inexpensive protein source in dog food. While it provides protein, corn gluten meal is less nutritious than meat (its ability to provide amino acids to your dog's body is lower). Therefore, we do not consider it a high-quality dog food ingredient.

• Whole Grain Corn
  Corn (also known as maize) is a cereal grain that provides carbs, protein, fat, vitamin B and other nutrients. Corn in dog food is an inexpensive (and often feed-grade quality) ingredient that we do not consider a high-quality dog food ingredient. However, whole grain corn is a higher-quality ingredient as it often contains more protein and nutrients.

• Chicken By-Product Meal (Source of Glucosamine)
  Meat by-products are animal parts other than meat that are left over at the slaughterhouse. This can include the lung, spleen, brain, liver, blood, bone, beaks, kidneys, fatty tissue, and intestines. Because there is a wide variety of animal parts companies can use, and because details don't need to be disclosed, it's tough to compare the quality of different by-products. Generally speaking, by-products can provide important nutrients for dogs but can be of lower quality than meats and meat meals. For these reasons, we do not consider this a high-quality ingredient. Glucosamine is a combination of glutamine (an amino acid) and glucose (a sugar) that's present in chicken.

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‍Controversial Ingredients

1. Corn Gluten Meal
2. Corn gluten meal is a low cost protein ingredient that is used to add protein and bind food together. This protein is far less complete in nutrient content than meat based proteins, but because of its low cost it is often used to bump up the protein percentage. It is controversial if it is used in the top five ingredients (which make up about 80% of the food's weight) where a named meat or lean protein would be more nutritious.

1. Whole Grain Corn
2. Whole grain corn is a low-cost dog food ingredient that provides energy (calories), but some dogs can be sensitive to it. Corn is not generally considered a controversial ingredient, but is controversial if it is used in the top five ingredients (which make up about 80% of the food's weight) where a named meat or lean protein would be more nutritious.

1. Liver Flavor
2. Artificial flavors are added to increase the chance your dog will want to eat the food. The generic term artificial flavor is used to represent a large number of possible additives, some which could be harmful. These flavors may include but not list controversial ingredients such as propylene glycol, BHA and more.

1. Caramel Color
2. A 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 cancer in animals.

1. Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Vitamin K)
2. A synthetic version of Vitamin K (known as Menadione) which is added due to the lack or loss of Vitamin K in the food processing. Menadione supplements are banned by the FDA because of their potential toxicity in human use and can be found as 10+ different names on a label. While low amounts have been found to be safe, the consistent repetitive nature of a dogs diet results in the long-term exposure that should be considered.

‍Country of Origin

Purina is made in the United States.That’s a very good thing, because it means the company has to follow strict dog food safety standards when making the food. We generally recommend buying dog foods made in the USA, Canada, Europe, New Zealand or Australia for that reason.

Meat & Fat Quality

This food has no added oil, so the fat here comes from the meats and plants that are included. For the meats, we find Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal and Beef Fat. All three are very transparently showing which animals they are made from, this is how it should be done.

Artificial Preservatives

This product has no  controversial artificial preservatives. If you’d like to know more about this topic: 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 controversial because of their potential link to cancer and other serious health conditions.

Artificial Colors

This dog food contains Caramel Color, a controversial artificial color. We describe more details above.

Artificial Flavors

As mentioned above, this food has added artificial Liver Flavor. It’s a controversial and unnecessary ingredient and the product would be better without it.