The natural and premium pet food market keeps growing—up more than 40% since 2010—and with that growth has come more awareness of allergies, sensitivities, and the importance of reading labels carefully. But even educated shoppers can get misled by a common manufacturing trick: ingredient splitting.
Below is a simplified breakdown to help you understand what ingredient splitting is, why it matters, and how to spot it.
How Ingredients Must Be Listed
By law, pet food labels must list ingredients in order of precooked weight:
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The heaviest ingredient appears first.
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Raw meat is heavy because it contains up to 75% water, meaning once cooked, it represents far less of the formula by weight.
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Plant proteins are cheaper and harder for dogs to digest, yet they can appear as the “main” component once cooked.
What Is Ingredient Splitting?
Ingredient splitting is the practice of breaking one lower-quality ingredient into multiple sub-ingredients to make each appear smaller.
This allows manufacturers to:
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Push inexpensive fillers lower on the ingredient list
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Move meat—often not the true main ingredient—into the No. 1 position on the label
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Create the illusion of a “meat-first” diet without actually formulating one
Ingredient splitting is legal, but many consider it misleading and unethical.
Why Splitting Works
Vegetable-based protein sources (corn, rice, potatoes) weigh more than meat before cooking. By dividing them into smaller parts, each line item weighs less—so manufacturers can legally list meat first.
Common split ingredients include:
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Corn: corn gluten meal, corn flour, whole ground corn
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Rice: white rice, brown rice, rice flour, rice bran
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Potatoes: potato protein, potato starch, potato flour
Even if meat appears first, these split ingredients often make up more of the food once cooked.
Why It Matters for Your Dog
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Dogs digest meat-based protein far more efficiently than plant proteins.
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Plant proteins contribute to misleadingly high protein percentages on labels.
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A “meat-first” food may still be carb-heavy and nutritionally inferior.
Many mainstream brands use this technique to push lower-quality ingredients down the list, including Purina & Purina ONE, Beneful, Rachael Ray Nutrish, and more.
The Takeaway
When choosing a food, don’t fixate only on the first ingredient. Ingredients 2 through 6 matter just as much—especially in formulas likely using ingredient splitting.
A truly high-quality food will:
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Use whole, recognizable ingredients
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Prioritize meat-based protein
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Avoid excessive carb fillers and unnecessary plant proteins (rice, potatoes, peas)
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Be transparent about formulation and processing
Frank's Fresh always starts with a 65% animal protein base in our formulas, and focus on a variety of high-quality vegetables as the bulk of our ingredient list instead of the rice/potato/peas base used in many fresh-frozen dog foods. We're committed to providing dogs with a variety of healthy proteins, fruits and vegetables, and to giving pet parents peace of mind when it comes to feeding high quality nutrition to their furry family members.