Grains in pet food: grain-free kibble or not?
Food composition · · Farm Fresh
Grain-free or with grains? It’s one of the first questions when you’re choosing kibble. Farm Fresh has both: 13 grain-free recipes and 8 with grains. So we won’t tell you there’s only one right way. We’ll show you what each way means and how to tell them apart from the composition.
What grains bring to pet food
Grains are above all a source of starch, and so of energy. Along with it they bring fibre, vitamins and minerals. In our kibble you’ll find rice, maize and barley.
Starch matters for production too: dry food is usually made by cooking under pressure, a process called extrusion, during which starch helps the kibble hold its shape.
What “grain-free” means
Only that the recipe contains no grain. It doesn’t mean the food contains no starch. Instead of rice or maize, other ingredients supply it: in our kibble, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tapioca or peas.
So “grain-free” describes the composition; it isn’t a mark of quality. On its own it doesn’t say the food is better or worse. What matters more is whether the food is complete and balanced.
How to tell what kibble is mostly made of
In the composition, ingredients are listed by weight: the first is the one there’s most of in the food. The law requires this. Look for grains in the whole list; the start of it shows what the food is mostly made of:
- Adult Turkey: rice comes first, followed by dried turkey.
- Adult Beef: dehydrated beef comes first, followed by rice 15% and maize.
- Adult Pork Grain Free: it starts with fresh pork 24% and dried pork 22%, and the starch comes from tapioca and potatoes.
- Adult Active Grain Free: sweet potatoes come first, followed by chicken.
Even in a grain-free recipe, meat doesn’t always come first. So read the composition, not just the words on the front of the pack.
Which Farm Fresh kibble contains grains and which doesn’t
Each recipe’s page says exactly who it’s for. All 15 Farm Fresh cans are grain-free.
How to choose
All our kibble is complete pet food, so you can choose to suit your pet: by age, size, activity and what they like to eat. If your vet has recommended a specific diet, stick to their advice.
You’ll find the full composition of each recipe on its own page: dry food for dogs and dry food for cats.