Our Methodology
Every food in our rankings gets a technical score calculated by the same algorithm, from what the manufacturer publishes on the label. No brand pays to be ranked, and no one on our team adjusts a score by hand.
IDNM
Nutrient density
Protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals, calories and fiber on a dry-matter basis, against targets for your pet's profile.
IPFI
Ingredient quality
Named meat sources, preservatives, artificial colors, ingredient splitting and functional extras, read from the ingredient list.
How the two indexes combine
The score combines two indexes:
The raw score is then placed on a fixed public scale (see "The final score" below).
Step 1 — Everything on a dry-matter basis
Labels report nutrients "as fed," water included. A canned food that is 78% water looks low in protein next to a kibble, even when it isn't. So we remove the water first and compare every food on a dry-matter basis.
Step 2 — The AAFCO floor
In the U.S. we use the AAFCO Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles as the regulatory minimum. A food whose protein falls below the floor is not ranked and shows a score of 0, whatever else is in it.
None of the 104 foods in our U.S. catalog falls below this floor.
Our "ideal" targets go further than the AAFCO minimum. They draw on the FEDIAF nutritional guidelines, the NRC and veterinary references, and they are the same targets we use in every market — so a score means the same thing everywhere.
Step 3 — Nutrient density (IDNM), up to 100 points
Six criteria, each scored against a target range for your pet's profile — species, life stage, spayed/neutered, size and indoor/outdoor lifestyle. Inside the ideal range a criterion earns full points; outside it, points fall off gradually.
| Criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Protein | 0–34 |
| Fat | 0–22 |
| Carbohydrates | 0–16 |
| Ash (minerals) | 0–12 |
| Calorie density (kcal/kg) | 0–10 |
| Fiber | 0–6 |
When the label doesn't list ash.AAFCO doesn't require ash (mineral content) on the guaranteed analysis, and most U.S. labels leave it out — only 8 of the 104 foods in our catalog list it. Carbohydrates are calculated by difference, so without ash we can't separate the two. Instead of guessing, we score them together: carbohydrates + ash, a number we can calculate exactly, against the combined target, for up to 28 points.
When the label doesn't list calories. The calorie criterion gets half credit (5 of 10 points). The missing information is charged once, in the value score (Step 6), not twice.
Step 4 — Ingredient quality (IPFI), starting at 60
Ingredient quality starts at 60 points and moves with penalties and bonuses. An ingredient can count as a penalty or a bonus, never both.
| Penalties | Bonuses | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| BHA and BHT together | −12 | Fresh meat as the first ingredient | +15 |
| BHA or BHT alone | −6 | Natural preservatives | +8 |
| Artificial colors | −10 | Non-GMO declared | +5 |
| Ingredient splitting (e.g., the same grain listed several ways) | −9 | Taurine declared | +4 cats / +2 dogs |
| Unnamed protein source (e.g., "poultry" with no species) | −8 | EPA/DHA declared | +4 |
| Mixed preservatives (partly artificial) | −6 | Prebiotics | +3 |
| GMO ingredients declared | −5 | Probiotics | +2 |
| Glucosamine and chondroitin | +2 |
- Taurine for cats.Taurine is essential for cats. A cat food that doesn't declare taurine is capped at 50 ingredient-quality points.
- Profile bonus.Your pet's profile unlocks up to +9 points (3 per ingredient, 3 at most) for functional ingredients that fit its life stage — for example, L-carnitine for spayed/neutered adults or glucosamine for seniors. Ingredients that already earned a fixed bonus above don't count again.
- Feeding trials. A brand that states its food passed an AAFCO feeding trial earns a small bonus — cats +6 / +3 / +1, dogs +5 / +3 / +1 by level — but only when the brand points to a source for the trial. We keep this weight deliberately small: it is self-reported and tracks company size more than recipe quality.
Step 5 — Safety caps by profile
Some problems are serious enough that a food shouldn't rank near the top for that pet, however well it scores elsewhere. In these cases the final score is capped.
| Situation | Cap |
|---|---|
| Puppy or kitten food with protein below the growth minimum | 70 |
| Large- or giant-breed puppy food with calcium above 1.8% (dry matter) | 65 |
| Senior food with phosphorus above 1.2% (dry matter) | 75 |
Calcium and phosphorus are only checked when the label publishes them; a food isn't penalized here for leaving them out.
Step 6 — The final score
The raw score is mapped onto a fixed public scale. The anchors were set so that, for an adult spayed/neutered pet of medium size, the weakest commercial food that still meets the AAFCO minimum lands around 52 and the best formulas around 93. Because the anchors are fixed, adding or removing a food from our catalog never changes anyone else's score.
In our U.S. catalog, for that same reference profile, scores currently run from 55 to 88 for cat foods and from 69 to 92 for dog foods. Puppy, kitten and senior profiles have stricter targets, so their scores can fall outside that range.
| Score | Rating |
|---|---|
| 85 and up | Superior Quality |
| 75–84 | High Standard |
| 60–74 | Solid |
| Below 60 | Below Standard |
Value score. Next to the technical score we show a value score: technical score × 0.60 + calories per dollar × 0.40. Calories per dollar uses the calorie content, the bag size and the Amazon.com price, on a fixed scale. If the label hides the information needed to calculate it, the missing data costs points instead of getting a free pass: −50 for no calorie content, −25 for no bag weight, and −25 for a cat food with no taurine declared, from a starting point of 100.
Price tiers: what "Premium" means here
In the U.S., "premium," "super premium" and "ultra premium" have no nutritional definition — FDA says the terms don't require different ingredients or standards, and AAFCO doesn't define them. So we don't copy the brand's marketing. Our tiers describe price per kilogram, nothing more:
| Tier | Price per kg | Price per lb |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | under $4.65 | under $2.11 |
| Premium | $4.65 – $6.58 | $2.11 – $2.98 |
| Super Premium | $6.59 – $9.10 | $2.99 – $4.12 |
| Ultra Premium | $9.11 and up | $4.13 and up |
The cut-offs are the quartiles of price per kg across the 47 product lines in our U.S. catalog on September 1, 2026, and they are fixed: if a cheaper food joins the catalog, nobody else changes tier. The tier never enters the score — a Standard food can outscore an Ultra Premium one.
Price is the Amazon.com price recorded when we collected the data, divided by the bag weight.
How our approach differs
We use the ingredient list as a proxy for quality. That's different from approaches such as WSAVA's, which focus on the manufacturer's research staff and quality control. Few manufacturers publish that kind of information in a way readers can check; the label is the one source every brand must publish.
Sources
- AAFCO — Association of American Feed Control Officials, Dog and Cat Food Nutrient Profiles
- FEDIAF — Nutritional Guidelines for Complete and Complementary Pet Food
- NRC (2006) — Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats