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Nutro Adult Lamb & Sweet Potato Recipe package official product image via Amazon

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Nutro Adult Lamb & Sweet Potato Recipe

Dry food · adult dogs

A deboned-first dry food that's cheaper per calorie than 25% of the dry foods we've priced and denser than 83% (you feed fewer cups) — $2.51 a day for your 40-lb adult dog.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-10-18

$92.98 · 22 lb $2.51/day as of 2026-10-18 Check price →
Tell us about your dogevery number on this page updates live ↓
40 lb
For a 40-lb adult: 2¼ cupsper day $2.51per day 37 daysbag lasts passes 1 fit checks ↓

Joint, kidney, dental or heart concerns? Labels can't honestly answer those — that's vet territory. Why we don't checkmark them →

The evidence

The Verified Label

Every food on this site gets this exact panel — same fields, same order, sourced from the official label — so brands finally become comparable. Dots show where this food sits among all 494 dry foods we've verified.

Verified LabelThe standardized pet-food panel
VPFD № NUTRO-
verified 2026-10-18

Composition — dry-matter basis

why dry matter
Kibble is ~10% water, canned food ~78%, so as-fed numbers are on two different scales. As-fed values shown small. How the conversion works →
Protein 22.2%label: 20% min lower than 96% of dry foods
Fat 15.6%label: 14% min typical — the median dry food is 16.7%
Fiber 3.9%label: 3.5% max lower than 85% of dry foods
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈49.4%computed anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: Ca 0.5% · P 0.4% · Ω-3 0.42% 1.25 : 1ratio, as fed within the AAFCO adult range (1:1 – 2:1)

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 432 kcal/cup3655 kcal/kg denser than 83% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed fewer cups
Daily serving2¼ cups
Cost per day$2.51
22-lb bag lasts37 days

Cost per 1,000 kcal: $2.55 — cheaper than 25% of the 360 dry foods we've priced (median $1.93). Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.

Standards & ingredients

AAFCO statement
what this means
Two claims exist: formulated to meet a profile, or fed to real dogs in an AAFCO trial. Which is stronger, and how rare it is →
Not yet verified from label
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Deboned Lamb · Lamb Meal · Chickpeas · Dried Potatoes · Dried Sweet Potatoes
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)2 (chickpeas, lentils)
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)None
Ethoxyquin
why unknown
A preservative added by a fish-meal supplier need not appear on the finished label, so no label can prove its absence. Why we show gaps →
None — no fish meal in this recipe

Safety

FDA recalls — Nutro, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 11 of 15 standard fields
Green = verified favorable · amber = gap in the record · red = verified unfavorable · gray = not disclosed / neutral fact.
Source: official label source (official)· price: Amazon, 2026-10-18 · anchors: 494 verified dry dog foods (360 priced) · how to read this label

The fit

For your dog, specifically

Checked for a 40-lb adult with a sensitive stomach — the same published criteria our finder uses. Change your dog above and these update.

·
Life-stage coverage not disclosedNo AAFCO nutrient-adequacy statement was found on the label for this SKU, so we cannot confirm adult-maintenance coverage.
✓
Passes our sensitive-stomach checksNamed animal protein first, and no unnamed by-products in the ingredient list.
·
Chicken-free recipeNot selected for your dog — but relevant if chicken sensitivity ever comes up.

The source material

The full ingredient list

Every flag above is computed from this list. Why order is by pre-cooking weight, and how splitting bends it →

Deboned Lamb, Lamb Meal, Chickpeas, Dried Potatoes, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Lentils, Potato Starch, Sunflower Oil (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Canola Oil (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Potato Protein, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Potassium Chloride, Natural Flavors, Salt, Choline Chloride, Whole Flaxseed, DL-Methionine, Citric Acid (preservative), Mixed Tocopherols (preservative), Taurine, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin E Supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B2), Potassium Iodide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Folic Acid, Rosemary Extract

11 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and 3 of them are genuinely contested rather than merely unpopular online.

  • Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) · ingredient 3ContestedA pulse (legume), also called garbanzo bean, used in grain-free foods for plant protein and carbohydrate. Chickpeas are among the pulses (with peas and lentils) cited in the FDA's open 2018 investigation into diet-associated canine DCM.
  • Potato · ingredient 4ContestedA starchy tuber used as the carbohydrate base in many grain-free foods (it is a vegetable, not a cereal grain). The FDA's open 2018 investigation into diet-associated canine DCM listed potatoes 'in various forms' as main ingredients of interest alongside pulses such as peas and lentils.
  • Lentils · ingredient 6ContestedA pulse (legume) common in grain-free formulas as a protein and carbohydrate source. Lentils are named alongside peas in the FDA's open 2018 investigation into diet-associated canine DCM; the agency grouped 'peas and/or lentils,' which appeared in 93% of reported products.
  • Named Muscle Meat (e.g., Deboned Chicken, Beef, Salmon) · ingredient 1Well supportedA named fresh muscle meat identifies both the species and that it is clean flesh (AAFCO defines 'meat' as the clean flesh of a specified slaughtered mammal, and 'poultry' as clean flesh and skin). Naming the species is what lets an owner verify a protein for allergy avoidance.
  • Named Meat/Poultry Meal (e.g., Chicken Meal, Lamb Meal) · ingredient 2Well supportedA rendered, water- and fat-reduced concentrate from a named species (AAFCO, e.g., 'chicken meal'). Because most moisture is removed it is a dense protein source (poultry meals commonly around 57-69% crude protein) and it names the species for allergy avoidance.
  • Mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) · ingredient 8Well supportedA blend of vitamin E forms (alpha-, beta-, gamma-, delta-tocopherol) used as a natural-source antioxidant to slow fat rancidity, commonly chosen as an alternative to synthetic preservatives. EFSA concluded that tocopherol-rich extracts are safe for all animal species and the consumer and are efficacious antioxidants in feed.

Nutritional twins

Cheaper close matches

Verified foods with a closely matching label at a meaningfully lower cost per 1,000 kcal.

23.3% protein (DM)$1.16 / 1,000 kcal54% less per 1,000 kcal
22.2% protein (DM)$1.83 / 1,000 kcal28% less per 1,000 kcal
22.2% protein (DM)$2.00 / 1,000 kcal22% less per 1,000 kcal

Label-composition matches only: same species, form, and growth stage; same primary protein where both are known; grain-free preserved; protein within 4 points and fat within 4 points, and estimated carbs within 8 points, on a dry-matter basis. Not a medical or quality recommendation.

The maker

Who makes this — and how they back it up

The five questions the WSAVA nutrition guidelines tell you to ask a pet-food company. Every answer is sourced or marked as an undisclosed gap — never guessed. This is the "is it made competently?" axis that star-rating sites skip.

Owns its manufacturing Owns its plants

Nutro FAQ (nutro.com/faqs) adds: 'We have two dry pet food manufacturing facilities for NUTRO products located in Henderson, North Carolina, and Victorville, California.' Some products are co-packed abroad (SO SIMPLE trays made in Thailand per the FAQ), so it is not exclusively self-owned, but dry food is made in Mars-owned US plants — primary answer 'owns' with minor co-pack exception.

source →
Employs a qualified nutritionist Undisclosed

We could not confirm this from a public source.

source →
AAFCO feeding trials Undisclosed

No feeding-trial AAFCO statement found on the 84 labels we’ve verified for this brand, and no company-wide claim was found either. Most pet foods are only "formulated to meet" AAFCO profiles (a paper calculation) rather than fed to real animals in trials — this is common, not necessarily a red flag.

Publishes quality-control testing Yes — sourced

covers: testing of the food (general; no detail on what is tested). Nutro FAQ.

source →
Peer-reviewed research Yes — sourced

666 PubMed papers (animal/pet filtered) list Waltham Petcare Science Institute (Mars Petcare) in an author address; we checked 200 and 200 really name the company. A floor, not a total.

source →
Parent company Mars, Incorporated (Mars Petcare) ↗ Founded 1926 ↗ Headquarters / plant Franklin, Tennessee, U.S. ↗ FDA recalls on record 2 on record

Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Nutro brand page →