Home / Dog food / Purina Pro Plan / Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Shredded Blend Chicken & Rice Formula with Probiotics Adult Dry Dog Food
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Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Shredded Blend Chicken & Rice Formula with Probiotics Adult Dry Dog Food
A feeding-trial-validated, chicken-first dry food that's cheaper per calorie than 73% of the dry foods we've priced and denser than 45% (you feed fewer cups) — $1.50 a day for your 40-lb adult dog.
THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-10-18
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 2026-10-18
Composition — dry-matter basis
why dry matter
Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog
Cost per 1,000 kcal: $1.52 — cheaper than 73% of the 360 dry foods we've priced (median $1.93). Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.
Standards & ingredients
what this means
why unknown
Safety
Source: official label source (secondary)· 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.
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 →
Chicken, rice, whole grain wheat, poultry by-product meal (source of glucosamine), soybean meal, beef fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, dried egg product, fish meal (source of glucosamine), natural flavor, glycerin, wheat bran, calcium carbonate, mono and dicalcium phosphate, salt, soybean oil, potassium chloride, fish oil, MINERALS [zinc proteinate, manganese proteinate, ferrous sulfate, copper proteinate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], VITAMINS [Vitamin E supplement, niacin (Vitamin B-3), Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate (Vitamin B-5), thiamine mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Vitamin B-12 supplement, riboflavin supplement (Vitamin B-2), pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), folic acid (Vitamin B-9), Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (Vitamin K), biotin (Vitamin B-7)], choline chloride, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (Vitamin C), dried Bacillus coagulans fermentation product, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, garlic oil
6 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and none of them is contested in the veterinary literature.
- Mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) · ingredient 6Well 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.
- Fish oil (EPA + DHA omega-3) · ingredient 19Well supportedMarine-source omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) from fish oil. A randomized, double-blinded controlled trial (Roush 2010) found improved weight-bearing in dogs with osteoarthritis, and a 2022 meta-analysis identified clear clinical analgesic efficacy for omega-3-enriched diets and supplements.
- By-Product Meal (Meat / Poultry By-Product Meal) · ingredient 4NeutralA 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 7NeutralThe 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.
- Glucosamine · ingredient 10NeutralA popular joint supplement, usually paired with chondroitin. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis (Barbeau-Grégoire et al.) found a marked non-effect of glucosamine-chondroitin products for osteoarthritis pain and recommended they no longer be relied upon for joint pain management in dogs and cats.
- Probiotics (live microbials) · ingredient 24NeutralLive microbial supplements (e.g., Enterococcus faecium SF68, dried fermentation products) intended to support gut health. A 2019 JVIM systematic review found the effect on acute gastrointestinal disease in dogs limited and possibly clinically unimportant, and benefits appear strain- and context-specific: in one shelter trial SF68 significantly reduced diarrhea in cats but not in dogs.
Wet ingredients like fresh chicken shrink once cooked — which is why named meals appearing high on the list matter: they keep meaningful animal protein after moisture is removed.
Nutritional twins
Cheaper close matches
Verified foods with a closely matching label at a meaningfully lower cost 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.
Nestlé Purina owns and operates its own U.S. factories (21+ as of 2019).
source →Arleigh Reynolds, DVM, Purina Senior Research Scientist, described as board-certified in veterinary nutrition. Source is Nestlé Purina PetCare (maker of Pro Plan).
source →40 of 59 labels we checked carry an AAFCO feeding-trial substantiation statement.
source →The company website blocked our automated check, so we could not read its quality-control page. This is not a "no".
144 PubMed papers (animal/pet filtered) list Nestlé Purina in an author address; we checked 144 and 143 really name the company. A floor, not a total.
source →Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Purina Pro Plan brand page →