Kroger, Whole Foods PL Pet Food Rank High for Clean Ingredients

Whole Foods Market’s and The Kroger Co.’s private label pet food brands performed at the top of the list of top 10 brands for product purity among 79 brands ranked by The Clean Label Project — a national nonprofit focused on health and transparency in labeling — which tested nearly 80 brands for environmental and industrial contaminants and ingredient quality.

The study further confirmed that as demand for private label continues to rise, consumers are starting to become brand-loyal to their favorite retailers’ name-brand products, including food for their furry best friends.

The results of the Clean Label Project’s pet food study found that only two private label brands — Whole Foods’ “Whole Paws” and Kroger’s “Pet Pride” — broke into the top 10 brands for product purity of the 79 brands ranked. In contrast, Chewy.com’s “American Journey” was in the bottom 10 — signifying that this brand contained higher levels of harmful toxins and/or lower ingredient quality.

“You shouldn’t need a degree in analytical chemistry to be able to tell which products are higher quality and contain less toxins,” says Jackie Brown, Clean Label Project executive director. “The pet food industry knows consumers are looking at labels — because owners want to buy the best products for their pets — but instead of reformulating their recipes or cleaning up supply chains, brands simply slap a few unregulated buzz words on their packaging to instill confidence in customers. Consumers and pets deserve better.” 

Within each category — wet dog food, dry dog food, wet cat food and dry cat food — as a whole, dollar for dollar, private label pet foods tested higher for toxic contaminants than national brands. Dry cat food fared the worst, with private labels averaging over 700 percent more BPA, over 200 percent more lead, and over 100 percent more pesticides and acrylamides than national brands. Dog food categories have a smaller gap, but levels are still elevated in private label brands.

The retailer rankings for the study includes:

1.      Whole Foods – Whole Paws (Overall Brand Rank: #9 – out of a total of 80 brands)

2.      Kroger – Pet Pride (Overall Brand Rank: #10)

3.      PetSmart – Simply Nourish (Overall Brand Rank: #12)

4.      Walmart – Ol’ Roy (Overall Brand Rank: #13)

5.      PetSmart – Authority (Overall Brand Rank: #23)

6.      Trader Joe’s – Trader Joe’s (Overall Brand Rank: #38)

7.      Walmart – Special Kitty (Overall Brand Rank: #55)

8.      Only Natural Pet – Only Natural Pet (Overall Brand Rank: #66)

9.      Costco – Kirkland (Overall Brand Rank: #68)

10.  Chewy.com – American Journey (Overall Brand Rank: #74– out of a total of 79 brands)

The release of the private label results is part of a second round of toxicity testing for Clean Label Project’s Pet Food Study, originally released in April 2017. A total of 148 products have been added to cleanlabelproject.org, from an additional 21 brands. In addition to the new individual product rating, each brand received a report card broken down by categories: presence of heavy metals, pesticide residues, acrylamides & plasticizers, antibiotic residues and ingredient quality.

Every product tested is displayed on cleanlabelproject.org with a rating of one, three or five stars so consumers can look up the products they buy — and make informed purchasing decisions based on science rather than marketing terms and manufacturer supplied data.

All the products Clean Label Project evaluates are blind tested by Ellipse Analytics, an accredited independent chemistry lab, and screened for over 130 environmental and industrial toxins and now ingredient quality. The test results are verified by two additional labs through random testing. Blind data is then analyzed by Clean Label Project’s Medical Advisory Board of veterinarians, statisticians, epidemiologists and food safety scientists before being published.