Label transparency

Median disclosure 47% of tracked fields, across 2,354 labels

The hardest thing to convey about pet food labels is how much of the interesting information is simply optional. Across the 2,354 labels we have verified, the median food discloses about 47% of the fields we track. That single number explains most of what looks like inconsistency in pet-food comparisons — including ours.

What is mandatory, and what is not

Mandatory: crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre, moisture, the AAFCO statement, the ingredient list, a calorie statement, and a manufacturer or distributor address.

Optional, and therefore patchy: ash (15.9%), calcium (25.7%), magnesium (on 9.5% of cat labels), omega-3 and DHA, taurine, glucosamine, and whether the company made the food itself (10.5%).

Every check on this site that depends on an optional field can only run on the subset that discloses it. That is why some of our qualifying lists are short, and why we say so on the page rather than quietly padding them.

Why we show gaps instead of filling them

The alternative is to substitute a typical value and present the result as a fact. It makes a site look more complete and makes its numbers less true, and it is unrecoverable for a reader who has no way to tell which figures were measured and which were guessed.

So a missing field renders as "not disclosed" here, computed values are labelled as computed, and where a computation rests on an assumption — the ash term in a carbohydrate estimate, most often — the page says so.

The one place this costs us

Disclosure is not evenly distributed. Companies with large nutrition teams tend to publish more, so a transparency-weighted view flatters big manufacturers and penalises small ones that may make excellent food and simply print less. Read a low disclosure score as "we cannot check this", never as "this is bad".

Frequently asked

What has to be on a pet food label?

Crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre and moisture guarantees, the AAFCO statement, the full ingredient list, a calorie statement, and a manufacturer or distributor address. Almost everything else is voluntary.

Why do so few labels list ash or calcium?

Because neither is required. Ash appears on 15.9% of the labels we have verified and calcium on 25.7%, which limits any check that depends on them.

Does low disclosure mean a food is bad?

No. It means the label does not let anyone verify those fields. Publishing less correlates with company size more than with food quality.

Related

See it applied

Every figure discussed here is computed on each product page from that food’s own verified label, with gaps marked rather than filled. Start with every priced dog food ranked by cost per 1,000 kcal, browse every verified cat food, or read what is actually in pet food — ingredient prevalence counted across all 2,354 labels. The full extraction method is in the methodology.