With - What Does It Mean to Your Pet?

How important is the word "with"?? It's very important in conveying what is really in that pet food you're purchasing. An unsuspecting consumer purchasing a food named "Brand X with Lamb and Rice" will likely assume that "lamb and rice" are the primary ingredients of this food. It's clearly stated on the bag, right? Wrong. In actuality, the addition of the word "with" to the label means the manufacturers are only required to include lamb and rice as 3% of the total food ingredients. If this food was labeled "Brand X Lamb and Rice Dog Food", AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) would require the lamb and rice combined to comprise 95% of the total ingredients (excluding water used for processing) - a very HUGE difference for such a small word!