Pet
Food
Review

Pedigree re-define 'Natural'

I must confess that when I saw the advertising for the new Pedigree® Better By Nature™ range my immediate thought was 'At last! One of the major pet food companies has finally come round to thinking that pet owners want to feed something a little more natural and with less 'nasties' in the recipe.'

So, encouraged by the expensive Better By Nature™ website with its images of tasty meat, vegetables, healthy cereals and seeds I searched around for the ingredient list... nothing, only general promises of goodness!

I emailed Pedigree asking if they could tell me what was in this wonderful new food of theirs... no response (Thanks for ignoring me, Pedigree Customer Care!)

At this point, my suspicions were aroused! Surely if Pedigree were so proud of their new natural product surely they wouldn't want to hide what was in it??

In the end I had to go down to my local Pets at Home and find out the information for myself

The 'Better By Nature™' marketing promise!

This still sounds like a radical departure for Pedigree. No artificial colours and flavours - I like that, well done!

Garden vegetables and fruit, wholegrain cereals and flaxseed - sounds good to me!

The bag is a real triumph of the graphic department of some advertising agency somewhere - they've really let their imagination run riot!

If your eyesight is not too good let me pick out a few highlights from the Better By Nature™ packaging:

• '...added sunflower oil and flaxseeds, rich in Omega 3 and 6...'

• '...including wholegrain cereal and sugar beet pulp, rich in prebiotic fibre...'

• ...ingredients which are rich in antioxidants, including apple, carrots and corn...'

So let me know, Pedigree - what's in this fantastic new food?

Let me preface my comments by saying that this is a perfectly OK complete pet food, and I'm sure that it will be a great success for Pedigree, particularly as they've invested millions in the new range...

BUT... come on Pedigree, surely you could have done better than this for all those potential customers out there who like feeding something other than derivatives and artificial antioxidants and preservatives?

Ingredients: cereals (min 4% rice in the yellow kibble, min 4% maize), meat and animal derivatives (min 4% beef in the beef kibble), oils and fats (min 0.1% sunflower oil), derivatives of vegetable origin, vegetable protein extracts, minerals, seeds (min 4% flaxseed in the yellow kibble), vegetables (min 4% carrots in the yellow kibble, 4% beans in the brown kibble), fruit (min 2% apple in the yellow kibble).

..... with EC permitted antioxidants BHA, BHT./ With preservatives (permitted EC additives): Potassium Sorbate

Let's look again at the marketing blurb on the back of the bag, alongside the ingredients as stated

• '...added sunflower oil and flaxseeds, rich in Omega 3 and 6...' (0.1% sunflower oil, yellow coloured kibble only contains 4% flaxseed)

• '...including wholegrain cereal and sugar beet pulp, rich in prebiotic fibre...' (Yellow kibble only contains 4% rice and 4% corn. Sugar beet pulp is a bulking agent and can contain residual sugar)

• ...ingredients which are rich in antioxidants, including apple, carrots and corn...' (The yellow kibble only contains 4% carrot, 4% corn and 2% apple)

The 4% figures are important as these are the minimum amounts you have to put in to include them in your product description. Looks like the yellow kibble is the one to go for!

I would repeat that there is nothing wrong with this as a complete food for adult dogs, it has a good balance of nutrients and will no doubt suit many dogs - I merely question Pedigree's marketing of this as a more natural product, and whether the majority of pet owners who want to change to a more natural food would consider this recipe (which includes such natural ingredients as BHA, BHT and Potassium Sorbate) as fitting the bill when there are other brands that manage without artificial preservatives and antioxidants.

I've also noticed the this on the back panel of the bag ' Guaranteeed to taste significantly better than slippers, socks, pot plants and the postman.'

Mmmmm...................!

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