This is what dogfoodanalysis says about kibble and bits beefy.
The primary ingredient in this food is corn. Corn is a difficult to digest grain of limited value in dog food, and which is also commonly associated with food allergies. Even if this had been a good quality grain, we would still note that grains are an unnatural foodstuff for canines, and that dog food products should be based on meat rather than grain.
Soybean meal is the second ingredient, and the main protein source in the food. Soy is a product we prefer not to see used in dog foods, especially this high on the ingredient list. Soy is a very common cause of food allergy problems, and although boosting the (otherwise minimal) protein content of this food, it is very low quality protein compared to that sourced from meat.
The third ingredient is wheat flour. In dog food products, this is commonly a byproduct (think floorsweepings) of human food production and is a grain fragment we consider primarily filler. Wheat is believed by many to be the leading cause of food allergy problems in dog foods.
Beef and bone meal is an extremely low quality ingredient. It is the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. Animal fat is an ingredient of unidentified origin for which it is impossible to determine species, source or quality. Unidentified ingredients are usually very low quality. AAFCO define this asobtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial processes of rendering or extracting. It consists predominantly of glyceride esters of fatty acids and contains no additions of free fatty acids. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the words "used as a preservative".
This product uses chemical preservatives. BHA is allowed in dog food products but is banned or heavily regulated in human food production due to the belief that it is carcinogenic.
Corn syrup is an unneccessary source of sugar (dog foods should not contain sugar). Wheat middlings are a further waste product, being the remnants of wheat after milling for human food products. Soy flour is an equally low quality product. Wheat gluten is that part of the commercial shelled wheat that remains after the extraction of the larger portion of the starch, gluten, and term by the processes employed in the milling manufacture of wheat starch or syrup. In plain English, the remains of wheat after most of the nutritious bits have been removed.
There is no excuse for adding artificial colorings to dog food products.
Overall, this is one of the lowest quality products reviewed on this site. It receives a 1* rating due to the unavailability of anything lower.
