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Please be aware that Hill’s is voluntarily recalling some canned dog food due to potentially elevated levels of Vitamin D. More information here.
Purina ONE SmartBlend True Instinct Classic is a low-priced dog food with below-average quality. This product has 2 controversial ingredients. It doesn’t include artificial preservatives, colors and flavors though. The food has well-balanced amounts of protein, fat and carbs with overall good meat and fat quality. Purina has an above-average number of recalls. The company was relatively transparent when answering our questions.
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Learn what makes a great dog food and get expert advice on how to choose the best food for your dog.
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This dog food review was created by experts who love dogs. Find out more about our team and mission.
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This food has well-balanced amounts of protein, fat, and carbs. Diets that are high in protein and fat, with moderate to low carbs, are ideal for most dogs.
To evaluate dog foods, we first calculate out the moisture. This is called the “dry matter basis” and shows you only the solid ingredients in the food. These estimated “dry matter” numbers are different from the food label, but a better way to understand the real nutritional value of the food. We also calculate the carbs. Find out more
Min. Protein 34.09%
Min. Fat 19.32%
Min. Carbs 38.64%
Max. Fiber 3.41%
Max. Ash 7.95%
Max. Moisture 0.00%
Min. Protein: 9.0%
Min Fat: 8.0%
Min Carbs: N/A
Max Fiber: 1.5%
Max Ash: N/A
Max. Moisture: 78.0%
483 Calories per Can
This product has an above average amount of calories for wet food. It’s important to understand how many calories you are feeding to prevent under or overfeeding. Based on your dog's current weight and activity level you may want to feed more or less than the recommended amount.
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Grain-Free Dog Foods
This is a grain-free dog food. The FDA is investigating a potential connection between grain-free diets and canine heart disease. There is not enough evidence yet to affect our ratings but we've created an article for you explaining the topic.
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Turkey, Turkey Broth, Chicken, Pork Lungs, Liver, Venison, Minerals (Potassium Chloride, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite), Carrageenan, Guar Gum, Vitamins (Choline, Vitamin E, Vitamin B-3, Vitamin B-1, Vitamin B-5, Vitamin B-6, Vitamin B-12, Vitamin B-2, Vitamin A, Folic Acid, Vitamin D-3, Vitamin B-7), Locust Bean Gum.
The average dog food we reviewed has 39 total ingredients, with 1 controversial ingredient. This product has 2 total controversial ingredients and 1 of them is in the first five ingredients on the food label. 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.
Controversial Ingredients
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
All but one meat ingredients in this dog food are clearly naming the animal they come from. Turkey, Turkey Broth, Chicken, Pork Lungs, and Venison all do a very good job of explaining their origin. However, Liver stands out as a more mysterious ingredient. Which animal it comes from is not made clear on the ingredients list. There is no added oil, so the fat comes from the different plant and animal ingredients in this food.
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
There are no artificial colors in this food, excellent.
Artificial Flavors
No artificial flavors can be found on the ingredients list, fantastic.
Purina has an above-average number of dog food recalls compared to other dog food brands we reviewed.
We love dog food brands that are committed to transparent business practices. If you make quality dog food you should be willing to openly talk about how it’s sourced and produced. That’s why we reached out to pet food companies, asking questions about all their brands and products. Each company had three weeks to reply to our messages.
How Easy Was it to Reach the Company?
Purina Pro is owned by the multinational company Nestlé Purina. It required two emails over two weeks to get the answers below. Like most large companies, many of the customer service answers will read like well-crafted marketing messages.
Does Purina ONE (Nestlé Purina) have a veterinary nutritionist on staff? If so, who are they?
At Nestlé Purina, we have over 500 nutritionists, veterinarians and scientists who work daily to formulate and make quality changes to our products. We also staff quality control specialists at all of our manufacturing plants that run over 100 quality and safety checks during the manufacturing of our formulas.
This lengthy answer did not answer the specific question that was asked. In addition, the names of the professionals could not be provided.
Who formulates your recipes, and what are their credentials?
(see the previous answers)
Do you test your products using AAFCO feeding trials? Why, or why not?
All of our products are manufactured following stringent guidelines approved by the USDA and AAFCO, and our Purina® Pro Plan® brand Pet Food products have undergone the AAFCO feeding studies for quality, safety, digestibility and palatability.
Since this representative is responding on behalf of a family of brands, they have referenced a few of the other brands that do the feeding trials, but they were not clear if the Purina ONE line does the feeding trials.
What country are your products manufactured?
The vast majority of our products are manufactured in the US, at Nestlé Purina owned facilities, with ingredients sourced from the US as well.
The vast majority does not mean “all” which is less clear than it could have been.
Can your manufacturing facilities be visited?
Unfortunately, we do not offer public access to our manufacturing plants at this time, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
What quality measures do you use to assure consistency and quality?
We also staff quality control specialists at all of our manufacturing plants that run over 100 quality and safety checks during the manufacturing of our formulas.
This is good, but not as not as clear as it could be.
Does Purina ONE (Nestlé Purina) own its manufacturing facility? If it is another company, what company is it?
Yes.
Do any parts of your product come from China?
A very small number of ingredients are sourced from China, however, these are mainly vitamins and minerals, such as taurine and Vitamin B12, that are not readily available in the US in the quantities we need.
Sourcing quality ingredients at scale is a significant challenge that many large companies will cite. This means that companies like Nestlé who are supplying massive distribution channels will often use a variety of sourcing options, including China.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1242073/
https://oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65/proposition-65-list
https://petfood.aafco.org/Nutritional-Labeling
https://petfood.aafco.org/Labeling-Labeling-Requirements
https://petfood.aafco.org/Calorie-Content
https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/ucm047120.htm
http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/banr/miscellaneous/dog_nutrition_final_fix.pdf
http://www.acvn.org/nutrition-resources/
https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/Products/AnimalFoodFeeds/PetFood/ucm2006475.htm
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2011-N-0922-0489
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/ires/
https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/safety-loophole-for-chemicals-in-food-report.pdf
https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/pubhealth/roc/index-1.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8493816
Linda P Case, MS; Daniel P Carey, DVM; and Diane A Hirakawa, PhD, Canine and Feline Nutrition A Resource for Companion Animal Professionals, Mosby-Year Book, Inc.
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