All dog food companies boast about having good-for-your-dog ingredients or they offer foods for certain types of dogs or breeds. However, what most companies don’t usually discuss is how their dry dog food is crafted. Dog parents see the finished product, but the process of transforming the ingredients into dry dog food can have a major impact on how nutritious the food will be for your dog.
Every dry dog food formula is different, so each company has a different recipe they follow to create their product. However, most dog food brands follow a similar process to create their food.
The Dry Dog Food Process
When you look at all the dog food available at your local pet store or online, odds are they all took a different process to get there. Ultimately, there are a handful of important factors you want to focus on when selecting your dry dog food.
- Pet food regulations
- What goes into your dog food
- Who makes the dog food
- How it’s cooked
Pet Food Regulations: Who Oversees What?
Fortunately, companies can’t just use any ingredients in their food. Pet food is highly regulated with an extensive list of requirements that need to be met by pet food manufacturers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates pet food products and their ingredients and is instrumental is establishing rules regarding pet food labels, ingredient definitions, and ingredient approvals.
In addition, there are state regulations which are often more strict than federal rules. States typically follow the guidelines set by the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) and are responsible for overseeing the nutritional guarantees of each product as well as the information included on the packaging itself. These regulations are in place to define the requirements for pet food production.
What Goes into Dry Dog Food?
To craft high quality food, you must use high quality ingredients. Every dog food starts with a recipe of ingredients and every brand has its own proprietary blend of ingredients. These typically include:
- Protein
- Fat
- Carbohydrates
- Vitamins and minerals
Each of these ingredients are included to provide the necessary nutrition and taste to support your dog.
Tailored Nutrition for Different Dogs
Ingredients do vary among the array of dry dog food brands. For example, recipes vary to accommodate different sized dogs such as a large breed formula vs a small breed formula. Other dry dog foods are made to address special needs such as reduced fat dog foods or food for sensitive dogs.
Numerous brands adapt their formula to provide the proper support for furry friends at various life stages. For example, ingredients with naturally occurring glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate help support senior dogs. These compounds help maintain joint health by supporting cartilage structure, reducing inflammation, and improving mobility – key benefits for aging dogs who may experience stiffness or arthritis.
Who Makes the Food?
It’s also important to note that there are pet food companies who do not create their own product. Instead, they contract with an outside manufacturer who produces and packages the product for them. Meanwhile, other companies make their own dry dog food in their own plant.
How Dry Dog Food is Cooked
There are several ways dog food companies cook their products, one of the most common methods being extrusion. The process begins with raw ingredients being ground and mixed into a dough or paste. This mixture is then pushed through an extruder – a machine that uses extreme heat and pressure to cook and shape the food into uniform pieces.
Extrusion enables fast, large-scale production, but it comes at a cost. The intense temperatures and pressure can damage key nutrients in the raw ingredients. As a result, your dog may not get the full nutritional value you are expecting.
Not only does extrusion impact the food’s nutrients, it also reduces flavor. To compensate for this lost flavor and aroma, most extruded kibbles require additional flavoring. This process, called enrobing, involves spraying the finished kibble with rendered fat, liquid, or powdered flavors. While it makes the food more appealing to dogs, it only masks the loss of true nutrition and taste.
Why Bil-Jac Doesn’t Use Extrusion
Unlike many dog food companies, Bil-Jac avoids extrusion entirely. Instead, we use our own gentle, small-batch slow cooking method, designed to better protect nutrition and taste. Here’s how it works:
- We start with 25 lbs. of fresh, high-protein chicken to make each 30 lb. bag of our Adult Select Dry Dog Food.
- The recipe is then slow cooked in small batches at lower temperatures to help preserve essential amino acids, omega fatty acids, and other key nutrients your dog needs for healthy skin, coat, and overall wellness.
- Once cooked, the food is gently air-dried to lock in nutrition and enhance natural flavor – no need for artificial flavoring.
The Bil-Jac Difference
By skipping extrusion, we create a dry dog food that’s better in three key ways:
- More fresh chicken: Extrusion limits how much fresh chicken can be used during production. Our method allows us to use more fresh chicken instead of rendered meals, giving your dog more high-quality protein in every bite.
- Enhanced nutrition through slow cooking: Slow-cooking ingredients like corn improves digestibility and helps retain antioxidants and other beneficial nutrients that rapid cooking can destroy.
- Better nutrient retention: Lower cooking temperatures help preserve essential nutrients, so your dog gets more of the goodness that high-quality ingredients are meant to provide.
Our process takes longer and produces smaller batches, but the result is a dry dog food that’s both highly nutritious and naturally delicious.
Which Dry Dog Food is Right for Your Furry Friend?
The dog food market is filled with options, but the right product comes down to a couple of questions:
- Which dog food will help my dog live a happy, healthy life?
- Which dog food does he enjoy?
The right dry dog food should meet both criteria. At Bil-Jac, we have been making dog food for more than 78 years. We want to ensure we deliver the right amount of quality proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals it takes for a complete, balanced diet.
Nutrition Only Matters if They’ll Eat It
Of course, those benefits won’t mean much if your dog just isn’t a fan of the taste. One of the most exciting things about the way we make Bil-Jac Dry is the amazing taste it has – a taste that dogs love thanks to all the fresh chicken!
Don’t believe us when we say how much your dog will love the taste of Bil-Jac Dry Dog Food? Take the two-bowl challenge and see for yourself. All you have to do is place a bowl of your dog’s regular food next to a bowl with Bil-Jac and see which bowl your dog prefers.
Great Dog Food Starts with Ingredients – and the Process
Well-made, high-quality dog food provides the daily nutrition a dog needs for a lifetime of activity and health. It’s more than just ingredients; it’s the result of both high-quality ingredients and how the food is prepared.
Want to learn more about how you can help your favorite, four-legged friend live a long, happy life? Join our Best Friends Club today to receive informative articles, special tips, and members-only discounts on Bil-Jac products.
