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Taste of the Wild Ancient Stream Canine Recipe with Smoke-Flavored Salmon package official product image via Amazon

Taste of the Wild · brand facts & recall history →

Taste of the Wild Ancient Stream Canine Recipe with Smoke-Flavored Salmon

Dry food · all dogs

A formulated-to-meet, salmon-first dry food that's cheaper per calorie than 84% of the dry foods we've priced and denser than 73% (you feed fewer cups) — $1.26 a day for your 40-lb adult dog.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-10-19

$58.99 · 28 lb $1.26/day as of 2026-10-19 Check price →
Tell us about your dogevery number on this page updates live ↓
40 lb
For a 40-lb adult: 2½ cupsper day $1.26per day 46 daysbag lasts passes 2 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 № TASTE-
verified 2026-10-19

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 33.3%label: 30% min higher than 75% of dry foods
Fat 16.7%label: 15% min typical — the median dry food is 16.7%
Fiber 3.3%label: 3% max lower than 98% of dry foods
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate ≈37.8%computed anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: DHA 0.05% · Ω-3 0.6% Not yet verifiedcalcium/phosphorus no ratio to anchor

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 413 kcal/cup3640 kcal/kg denser than 73% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed fewer cups
Daily serving2½ cups
Cost per day$1.26
28-lb bag lasts46 days

Cost per 1,000 kcal: $1.28 — cheaper than 84% 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 →
Formulated to meet · all_life_stages
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Salmon · Salmon Meal · Fish Meal · Grain Sorghum · Millet
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)None
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 →
Can't be determined from label

Safety

FDA recalls — Taste of the Wild, since 2023None on record
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 10 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, 2026-10-19 · 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.

✓
Validated for adult dogsAAFCO statement covers adult maintenance.
✓
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 →

Salmon, Salmon Meal, Fish Meal, Grain Sorghum, Millet, Cracked Pearled Barley, Dried Yeast, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Whole Grain Brown Rice, Smoke-Flavored Salmon, Natural Flavor, Dried Tomato Pomace, Salmon Oil (a source of DHA), Quinoa, Chia Seed, Salt, Potassium Chloride, DL-Methionine, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Dried Chicory Root, Tomatoes, Blueberries, Raspberries, Yucca Schidigera Extract, L-Carnitine, Dried Lactobacillus Plantarum Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Animalis Fermentation Product, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Manganese Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid

7 ingredients in this list are ones we hold sourced evidence on , and none of them is contested in the veterinary literature.

  • 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.
  • Fish oil (EPA + DHA omega-3) · ingredient 13Well 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.
  • Taurine (supplemental) · ingredient 20NeutralA sulfur amino acid that dogs can normally synthesize from methionine and cysteine, so it is not classically essential for them. However, some breeds (e.g., golden retrievers) and some diets are linked to low taurine status and dilated cardiomyopathy: an observational study (Ontiveros 2020) associated non-traditional, largely grain-free diets with taurine deficiency and DCM-consistent echocardiographic changes in golden retrievers, though causation and mechanism remain under investigation.
  • Prebiotics (chicory root / inulin, FOS) · ingredient 21NeutralFermentable fibers (chicory-derived inulin and fructooligosaccharides) that feed colonic bacteria and are readily fermented to short-chain fatty acids in dogs. Feeding studies show they shift fecal microbiota composition and are well tolerated at typical inclusion levels, but clear health benefits beyond compositional change are not yet established.
  • Yucca schidigera extract · ingredient 25NeutralA saponin-containing plant extract added at low levels, mainly marketed to reduce fecal odor and ammonia. A canine feeding study (Dos Reis 2016) found ~500 mg/kg reduced fecal ammonia and odor on higher-protein diets, while a higher dose produced adverse effects.

Wet ingredients like fresh salmon 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.

29.5% protein (DM)$0.86 / 1,000 kcal32% less per 1,000 kcal
35.6% protein (DM)$0.90 / 1,000 kcal29% 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

Made in Diamond-owned plants (two in California, plus Missouri, Arkansas, South Carolina, Kansas).

source →
Employs a qualified nutritionist Undisclosed

Same Diamond Pet Foods formulation program; no named ACVN/ECVCN Diplomate or PhD nutritionist disclosed.

source →
AAFCO feeding trials Claims trials, no label shows one

says 'when necessary'; does not say AAFCO protocol or which foods. The labels we hold: 0 feeding-trial statements. None of the 32 AAFCO statements we read on its labels says "animal feeding tests".

source →
Publishes quality-control testing Yes — sourced

covers: process testing (general); maker Diamond Pet Foods publishes detail (mycotoxin, microbiological, test-and-hold) at diamondpet.com/about/quality-assurance/.

source →
Peer-reviewed research None found

PubMed lists no animal or pet paper with Diamond Pet Foods in an author address. Not proof no research exists — only that none is indexed under that company name.

source →
Parent company Diamond Pet Foods (Schell & Kampeter, Inc.) ↗ Founded 2007 ↗ Headquarters / plant Meta, Missouri, USA ↗ FDA recalls on record 1 on record

Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Taste of the Wild brand page →