Nutrish (by Rachael Ray)

Rachael Ray is known throughout America to be a great chef and TV host. So when she came out with her dry dog food, Nutrish, expectations were high. And while the products packaging is very appealing, the public has not totally jumped on board the Nutrish train. I have already seen it at a discounted price at Wal-Mart and Giant Eagle. So, interested in the product I finally went to Giant Eagle and looked at a bag. On the front, it displayed a picture of Rachael ray cooking at the stove and her handsome dog isaboo sitting patiently for her home cooked meal. It also lets customers know that it is made “with real beef and brown rice" or "with real chicken and vegetables".

To the untrained customer this sounds great! But most customers don't know much about AAFCO and their strict rules on labeling. One rule is more commonly known as the 3% rule, or the "with" rule. It states that when ingredients are put on the bag to be shown off to the customer, they must use the word "with" when the ingredient is less than 25% of the total weight. The most it has to be is 3%. So, when we look at the front of the bag again and we see that it is made "with real chicken and vegetables" we now know that there is less than 25% chicken and, most probably, a little more than 3% of vegetables. To make our argument a little more concrete, lets take a look at the ingredients.

Rachael Rays Nutrish Chicken and Veggies- Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Corn Gluten Meal, Brown Rice, Oatmeal, Dried Beet Pulp, Natural Flavor, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Dehydrated Alfalfa, Dried Peas, Dried Tomatoes, Dried Carrots, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Olive Oil, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Oxide, Dried Parsley, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source of Vitamin C), Mixed Tocopherols, Niacin, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K activity), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Sulfate, Folic Acid.


So normally I would say that the first two ingredients were good and that since we have Chicken and then Chicken Meal (chicken with the water and fat taken out) we could have some confidence about the amount of meat in the dog food. But since we know that the total chicken percentage isn't higher than 24%, that confidence is gone. On top of that when we factor in that "chicken" is 70-80% water, our confidence goes down even further. If you do the math, the highest the percentage of chicken could be is about 16%, and the vegetables are around 3 or 4%(Salt was above the individual vegetables on the ingredient list) Now lets take a look at the other ingredients in the list.

Brewers rice. Here is the definition that AAFCO gives us: "The small milled fragments of rice kernels that have been separated from the larger kernels of milled rice." This grain is already processed and is missing a lot of the nutrients that whole grain rice or brown rice have. Brewers rice is also much cheaper than whole rice and is used primarily as a filler.

Corn Meal. The majority of people believe that corn is a horrible grain that has no nutritional value and causes itchy skin, ear infections, and liver problems. While all these things have happened because of corn, and it has been shown to be one of the major allergens to dogs, it is wrong for us to assume that corn WILL cause these problems for your dog. But just to be safe, i usually stay away from products with corn.

Soybean meal is defined as,” The product obtained by grinding the flakes which remain after removal of most of the oil from soybeans by a solvent or mechanical extraction process." "This is a poor quality protein filler used to boost the protein content of low quality pet foods [and] has a biologic value of less than 50% of chicken meal." (Sabine Contreras, nutritionist)

Animal fat is listed next. This makes me worry. When the fat is not specified it could be that it is from road kill, euthanized dogs and cats, or it could be as simple as a combination of beef fat and chicken fat. But since we have no control over the quality of the fat, i stay away from it.

Corn gluten meal is another cheap protein booster which also serves as a binding agent. Lower quality proteins cause stress to your dogs kidneys and liver and in the long run can cause kidney and liver problems. The next three ingredients are good. (brown rice, oatmeal, and dried beet pulp) After those we start getting into the smaller quantity ingredients like natural flavoring(which shouldn’t be needed if you are using good ingredients), salt, and finally the "veggies" which were mentioned on the front of the bag.

The last ingredient i will go into is the Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex. This ingredient has been added to increase the amount of vitamin k in your dog. This however is not necessarily a good thing. Since this ingredient has not been approved for long term use in dog food, i stay away from it. Some negative effects from large doses of this ingredient include: cytotoxicity in the liver cells, considerably weakens the immune system, damages the natural vitamin K cycle, causes hemolytic anemia and hyperbilirubinemia (not just linked to large doses), is directly toxic in high doses (vomiting, albuminuria)(unlike natural vitamin K), causes irritation of skin and mucous membranes, and causes allergic reactions and eczema.

When looking at a dog food i find it is important to look at three things.
1.) The guaranteed analysis-This will show you the crude percentages of four main things: Protein, fat, fiber, and moisture. Personally, i like to see the protein over 23%, the fat between 10% and 22%, the fiber will almost always be 4%, and the moisture can be whatever you want it to be. When it’s higher the kibble is softer and when it’s lower the kibble is crunchier. But I will say that i have not found a good semi-soft kibble in my research.

2.) The second thing i look at is the ME, or metabolizable energy. These are shown in kcals per cup, pound, or kg. The higher this number is the better. This formula has 341 kcals per cup which is a little on the low side. Some weight management formulas could get away with this amount but that’s just because it is used to slim your dog down. Metabolizable Energy alone will not tell you if it is a good dog food. Kcals can come from bad ingredients and good ingredients alike. Some dog foods have upwards of 500 kcals per cup!

3.) The last of the three main things i look at are the ingredients. Usually i look at them first. If the ingredients are bad then i don’t need to look at the other two areas. If the ingredients are good then you can get a better picture of the amounts of those good ingredients from guaranteed analysis and the ME.


YEARLY COST ANALYSIS
If you feed a 75lb dog this food for 1 year, it will cost about $548.00 and they will have eaten about 325lbs of food. One reason its costs are so high is because their biggest bag is only 14lbs. No bulk size savings here.

In conclusion, my opinion of Nutrish should be pretty obvious. I see it as a marketing plan to use a chefs name to sell a dog food. I do feel bad for Rachael Ray IF she was unaware of the quality of the product she was endorsing. On the other hand, if she did know the quality of the product then i would have to change my loving opinion of her.(for her dogs sake)