Pet food retailer, Paws.com has launched a dog food checker set to revolutionise the UK pet food industry.
The dog food checker is designed to demystify the complex world of dog food ingredients, and for the first time, make it easy for dog owners to make the best nutrition decisions for their pets at a glance.
The simple tool, said to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date of its kind, allows users to search for any dry dog food sold in UK supermarkets and Amazon’s bestseller list, and provides a ‘traffic light’ rating for each nutritional component of the food.
It is the world’s first traffic light grading system for dog food, giving green, amber and red ratings – similar to on human food labels. 
The tool also allows users to compare different foods, making it easy to understand the nutritional values and trade-offs between price and quality.
Alongside the checker, Paws.com has released the UK Dog Food Transparency Report – the most extensive research of UK dog food labels ever don.
The results of the report show that dog food brands rely on misleading labelling to avoid revealing the exact ingredients in their dog food products, with 95% of dog food owned by bog brands containing at least one undisclosed ingredient.
This means that brands are opting to use generic terms in their ingredients list – such as ‘meat and animal derivatives’, which could include breaks, hoovers, feathers and wool.
Paws.com’s research shows that 42% of dogs owners felt misled after finding out that food labelled as ‘with chicken’ could contain as little as 4% chicken (which is true for all meat varieties – such as lamb, beef and salmon).
As such, dog owners across the UK are calling for clearer labelling, with 89% of dog owners saying its important hat dog food labels list exact ingredients.
Currently almost half (47%) of dog owners say they find it hard to understand a dog food label, and over a third (39%) can’t tell if a food will be good for their dog or not.
To tackle this, Paws.com only sells food that disclose their exact ingredients and meet a standard of quality and nutrition, devised by a team of veterinary and pet nutrition experts.
Neil Hutchinson, Founder and CEO of Paws.com, said: “We want to radically transform the way pet parents think about the dog food they buy. Currently, most dog food labels aren’t helpful and its easy for well-meaning pet parents to buy something they believe is great for their dog, but actually doesn’t even come close to giving them the nutrition they need to thrive.
“Our Dog Food Checker, which has the world’s first traffic light system for dog food, aims to empower pet parents to understand the nutritional value of any food at a glance. Your pet is family, so why wouldn’t you want to know what you’re feeding them?”
For more information you can visit www.paws.com/dog-food-checker.
