The truth about organic dog food

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Before recommending and encouraging readers to feed organic dog food to their pets, it’s important to understand what exactly IS organic dog food. While it should be held to strict manufacturing guidelines, dog food is highly under-regulated. Anyone can basically put anything into a bag, label it “Healthy Dog Food” and rake in the profits with no regulation by the USDA.

Scary, isn’t it?

As a pet owner, it’s important to know what your dog is eating, to give him the healthiest foods available, to do your homework! Since dog food is generally not regulated, manufacturers can label their food with terms like “healthy,” “holistic,” “complete nutrition,” with no substance to back it up – with one exception: Organic food.

Video: Tender and True USDA Certified Organic Pet Food for Dogs

In fact, the ONLY dog foods regulated by the USDA are those manufactured in certified organic facilities.

Just because a brand has the word “organic” or “holistic” in their name or on the label doesn’t always mean what it seems. Very few are truly organic, from certified organic facilities. As you can imagine, the misuse of the term “organic” is very common in the pet food industry. Many manufacturers make claims regarding the organic nature of their foods, but without the USDA Certified Organic seal, these companies are not subject to the same regulation, verification, and legal enforcement as certified manufacturers.

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The USDA explains,

If a manufacturer wants to claim a product is “100% Organic”, it must contain 100 percent organically produced ingredients, not counting added water and salt. As far as dry dog food is concerned, this is currently not possible, since as per AAFCO regulations vitamin and mineral supplements must be added, which can not be organically produced.

If a manufacturer wants to claim a product is “Organic”, it must contain at least 95% organic ingredients, not counting added water or salt, and must identify the organic ingredients as “organic” in the ingredient list when other organic labeling is shown. To identify an ingredient as organically produced in the ingredient list, the word, “organic” in conjunction with the name of the ingredient may be used, or an asterisk or other reference mark which is defined below the ingredient statement.

Only products that fall into these two groups may display the “USDA Organic” seal, either in color or black and white.

If a manufacturer wants to claim a product is “Made With Organic Ingredients” or a similar statement, it must contain at least 70% organic ingredients, not counting added water or salt, and must identify the organic ingredients as “organic” in the ingredient list when other organic labeling is shown. To identify an ingredient as organically produced in the ingredient list, the word, “organic” in conjunction with the name of the ingredient may be used, or an asterisk or other reference mark which is defined below the ingredient statement. The product may display the seal(s) of the agent(s) certifying the included organic ingredients, but not the “USDA Organic” seal.

If a manufacturer wants to advertise the fact that product has some organic ingredients, it can include less than 70% total and they must be identified as “organic” in the ingredient list. The product may not display the seal(s) of the agent(s) certifying the included organic ingredients nor the “USDA Organic” seal.

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