Complete and Balanced Dog Food Explained

A term with little meaning in the world of fresh food for dogs

In the world of commercial dog food, you will hear much mention of the term complete and balanced. It is a term that has no relevance outside of the world of commercial dog food manufacture.

During the cooking process of most commercial dog foods, especially kibble, most if not all the food’s original nutrients are destroyed in the high-heat process. In order to alleviate this, commercial dog food manufacturers add back synthetic, laboratory-made nutrients after the cooking process is over. It has even been said by many experts that the only goodness in kibble is that which is sprayed on after the manufacturing process is over!

It is this formula of man-made, synthetic nutrients that allows manufacturers to use the term “complete and balanced” on their packaging, a term than has no relevance in the world of fresh food.

Since freshly cooked food retains most if not all of its original natural nutrients, there is no need to add back synthetic nutrients. Nutritional completeness comes about, as it does with our own diet, through the wide variety of natural ingredients we use over a period of time. We don’t need to make every meal complete and balanced, which is in fact something completely alien in nature, because we make our diet nutritionally complete “over time” — over the course of a week or two.

The following might help explain how we got to where we are now, and why you should not be afraid of the term complete and balanced when making homemade food for your dog.

What is complete and balanced dog food?

In terms of dog food, the term “complete and balanced” was officially defined and established by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) in the United States in 1969.

While the concept of marketing commercial food as a total source of nutrition for dogs began rising in the 1950s — driven by early pet food giants like General Mills and Purina — it was the regulatory body AAFCO that codified the exact legal phrase to protect consumers and set a mandatory nutritional baseline for the pet food industry to follow.

The inexorable rise of kibble

The introduction of this phrase marked a major shift in how pets were fed. Following the invention of the food extrusion process, commercial companies began mass-marketing dry kibble.

They actively promoted the idea that canine nutrition was a science best left to experts and that their processed foods contained everything a dog needed.

But, in order to prevent misleading claims and address quality concerns, AAFCO stepped in to define “complete and balanced”.

They split the requirements into two distinct pillars:

• Complete: the food must contain every single nutrient a dog requires for survival.
• Balanced: vital nutrients (protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals) are present in the exact correct ratios to one another.

It is important to note that these “vital nutrients” are added to processed food after the manufacturing process, and that they are provided by synthetic nutrients, not the kind of natural nutrients provided by fresh food.