Potato
Potato appears on 623 of the 2,354 pet food labels we have verified against the official product label — 26.5% of the corpus. That is 361 dog foods (32.5% of the dog corpus) and 262 cat foods (21.1% of the cat corpus). Nobody publishes that split because computing it means reading every label.
What it is, and why it is in the food
A 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. The association is unproven, no causal relationship has been established, and no recall has been issued. Potato is otherwise a common, digestible carbohydrate source.
The evidence is mixed. Studies disagree, and the honest summary is that the answer depends on context that a label cannot tell you.
How common it is, and where it sits on the label
Ingredients are listed by pre-cooking weight, so position carries information: something in the first five is present in bulk, something near the end is a trace addition. Potato is in the first five ingredients on 257 of the 623 foods that contain it — 41% — so on those it is a structural part of the recipe rather than an additive.
| Cut | Foods | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dog foods | 361 | 32.5% of the dog corpus |
| Cat foods | 262 | 21.1% of the cat corpus |
| Wet food | 347 | 56% of foods containing it |
| Dry food | 269 | 43% of foods containing it |
| Fresh food | 5 | 1% of foods containing it |
| Fresh (gently cooked) food | 2 | 0% of foods containing it |
| In the first five ingredients | 257 | 41% of foods containing it |
Every food that contains it, cheapest calories first
Ranked by cost per 1,000 kcal, which is the only price basis that survives different bag sizes and moisture levels. 352 of the 623 foods containing potato have a matched price; the rest are verified but unpriced.
| Item | Value (%) |
|---|---|
| Dog foods | 32.5% (361) |
| Cat foods | 21.1% (262) |
| Wet (of those with it) | 56% (347) |
| Dry (of those with it) | 43% (269) |
| Fresh (of those with it) | 1% (5) |
| In the first 5 ingredients | 41% (257) |
What actually differs about the foods that use it
Held to one species and one form — wet dog food — so the comparison is not just measuring moisture. 175 verified wet dog foods list potato; 254 do not. These are medians across those two groups.
| Measure | Contains it (175) | Does not (254) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protein, dry matter | 44.4% | 40.9% | 3.5 points higher |
| Estimated carbohydrate, dry matter | 15.9% | 14.7% | 1.2 points higher |
| Cost per 1,000 kcal | $11.86 | $10.35 | $1.51 higher |
Across every food that lists it, potato sits at position 6 in the ingredient list on a median food. The brands using it most in our corpus are Blue Buffalo (221), Fromm (77), Wellness (75), Weruva (75), Merrick (67). A difference in this table is an association, not a cause: brands that reach for one ingredient tend to make similar formulation choices across the whole recipe.
Comparable foods that do not list it
Most people searching an ingredient name want the other half of the answer: what to buy instead. These are verified wet dog foods — the same species and form as most of the foods above, so the comparison is like for like — that do not list potato anywhere in their ingredients, cheapest per 1,000 kcal first.
Avoiding one ingredient is rarely a good reason to switch on its own. Use this table the way you would use any other single filter — alongside the AAFCO statement, the protein figure and the recall record, all of which are on each food's page.
What we don’t know
Our figure counts what manufacturers print. An ingredient that arrives inside another component — a preservative already in the fish meal, say — does not have to be declared separately by the pet-food maker, so a count from labels is a floor, not a ceiling. We also cannot see inclusion rate: a label tells you potato is present and roughly where it sits by weight, never how much.
The gap here is inclusion rate. A label tells you the ingredient is present and roughly where it falls by weight; it never tells you what percentage of the recipe it is, so "contains it" and "is built on it" look identical on a bag. We do not translate any of this into a score. There is no honest way to weigh one ingredient against a food’s AAFCO substantiation, its recall history and its cost, and sites that do it anyway are making the weighting up.
Sources
- FDA/CVM — Investigation into Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy (2022)
- Freeman LM, Stern JA, Fries R, Adin DB, Rush JE. Diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs: what do we know? JAVMA 253(11):1390-1394 (2018)
- Prevalence figures: Verified Pet Food Data corpus, 2,354 labels verified against official product labels. Machine-readable, CC BY 4.0.
Related ingredients
-
Sweet potato
On 384 labels (16.3%). Neutral.
-
Tapioca
On 312 labels (13.3%). Neutral.
-
Brewers Rice
On 290 labels (12.3%). Neutral.
Frequently asked
How common is potato in pet food?
It appears on 623 of the 2,354 pet food labels we have verified — 26.5% of the corpus. That breaks down as 361 dog foods (32.5%) and 262 cat foods (21.1%).
Is potato a main ingredient or a minor one?
On 257 of those 623 foods it appears within the first five ingredients, which means it is present by weight rather than as a trace addition. On the remaining 366 it sits further down the list.
Is potato bad for dogs or cats?
A 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. The association is unproven, no causal relationship has been established, and no recall has been issued. Potato is otherwise a common, digestible carbohydrate source.
Which foods do not contain potato?
Among verified wet dog foods with a matched price, PEDIGREE® Pouch Chopped Ground Dinner Variety Pack, PEDIGREE® Wet Dog Food Chopped Ground Dinner 8ct Variety, PEDIGREE® Chopped Ground Dinner Wet Dog Food Variety Pack are the cheapest per 1,000 kcal that do not list it. The full table is on this page.
All 35 ingredients we found on a real label are indexed on the ingredient hub. To see how these fields are read off a label in the first place, start with how to read a pet food label.