PEDIGREE® Small Dog Dry Food – Grilled Steak & Veg

6 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and 2 of them are genuinely contested rather than merely unpopular online.

• BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) · ingredient 4ContestedA synthetic antioxidant that slows fat oxidation (rancidity) in dry and fatty pet foods. Regulators permit it: EFSA judged BHA safe for most animal species up to 150 mg/kg complete feed, though it could not set a safe level for cats due to insufficient data.
• Peas · ingredient 15ContestedA pulse (legume) used in many grain-free foods as a plant protein and carbohydrate source. Peas are central to an open FDA investigation, begun in July 2018, into a possible link between diets high in peas, other pulses, and potatoes and canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM); 93% of reported products contained peas and/or lentils.
• By-Product Meal (Meat / Poultry By-Product Meal) · ingredient 2NeutralA rendered concentrate made from clean, non-muscle parts of the carcass (organs, necks, feet, and similar), defined by AAFCO. It is more variable and lower-transparency than a named muscle meal, but it is not inherently unsafe or low-nutrition: controlled feeding trials in dogs report high protein digestibility (roughly 92-95%) for poultry by-product-based diets, and some by-product organs are nutrient-dense.
• Corn Gluten Meal · ingredient 3NeutralThe dried protein fraction of corn, used as a concentrated plant protein (roughly 60% protein) rather than a filler. Its amino acids are highly digestible in dogs (reported up to about 95%), though lysine is the first-limiting amino acid, so complete diets balance it with other protein sources.
• Meat and Bone Meal · ingredient 5NeutralA rendered concentrate of mammal tissue that also includes bone, giving it high mineral/ash content and lower crude protein (roughly 39-46%) than clean meat meals. Amino-acid availability varies substantially with rendering temperature and pressure — studies show good digestibility is achievable but not guaranteed across processing methods.
• Brewers Rice · ingredient 9NeutralAn AAFCO-defined ingredient consisting of the small, broken fragments of rice kernels separated during milling. It is a digestible carbohydrate and energy source nutritionally similar to other rice; the 'brewers' name reflects how the fragments are sourced, not lower nutritional quality.