Every dog food bag sounds convincing. "High protein." "Natural." "Real meat first." PetLabelIQ shows you two things side by side: how much the label actually tells you, and how much the brand has actually proven. Plus what the food really costs per 1,000 calories.
Built to be read in the aisle. Every line on the card tells you how we know it: stated by the brand, calculated from the label, estimated from published research, or not known at all. When something can't be known from a label, we say so, and give you the question to ask.
Search Your Dog's FoodDog owners are asked to make real nutrition decisions from front-of-bag claims. But "high protein" does not tell you protein quality. "Real meat first" does not tell you what dominates the formula after processing. "Premium" may not tell you anything specific.
PetLabelIQ was built to translate the label behind the marketing. It does not tell you what to feed. It helps you understand what you are looking at.
Some claims are meaningful. Some are mostly shelf language. PetLabelIQ helps you tell the difference.
"Curious what your dog's food looks like when the marketing is stripped away?"PetLabelIQ — Core Purpose
Questions worth asking of any bag. PetLabelIQ answers the ones a label can answer, and tells you plainly which ones it can't.
PetLabelIQ does not just read the claim. It asks what the claim depends on.
Every brand scored by the same framework. Including ours.
Search Your Dog's FoodTwo scores, never added together. A food can describe itself in great detail and have proven very little, or say little and have measured a lot. Blending those into one grade would hide exactly what you need to know. Cost is shown alongside, so you can weigh it yourself.
How much the label tells you about the food, and how precisely. It measures information, not quality.
How many of seven key measurements the brand has actually published. A label is a claim. A published measurement is evidence.
Each one is listed below. Where we have not yet checked a brand's materials, the app says "not checked yet" rather than counting it against them.
Enter the shelf price and bag size. We divide by the calories on the label, so a small bag of dense food and a large bag of lighter food compare fairly.
Calculated from your numbers and the label. It is a property of the food, not of any one dog.
Most brands do not publish the data that would settle these questions. So every line in the app is tagged with how we know it, and a range is shown wherever the answer is not exact.
Printed on the label or published by the brand: the guaranteed analysis, calories, a published amino acid panel.
Dry-matter protein, carbohydrate by difference, protein per 1,000 calories. Never shown as more precise than the numbers it comes from.
Used when the brand has not published a measurement, such as protein digestibility estimated from how the food is made. Always a range, never a single number.
Some things cannot be established from a label at all. We say so, and give you the question to ask the brand.
Read them together. Here is what the combinations usually mean.
The label is specific, and the brand has published measurements to back it up. You have the most to go on.
The label tells you a lot, but little has been measured and published. Good questions to ask the brand.
The label is vague, but the brand has measured and published key results. Look at what was measured.
There is not much to go on either way. That is not proof of a problem, but it leaves you relying on trust.
Some brands publish the data behind their claims. Some do not. A company can have a decent formula and release almost nothing to substantiate it. Another may publish digestibility results and full amino acid panels.
That is why Proven is its own score, kept apart from Label detail, so you can see what the label describes and how much the brand has put behind it.
"We built this tool because we believe every dog owner deserves to see past the marketing on every bag — including ours. The same criteria, the same methodology. No exceptions."
NOBL Foods — Transparency DisclosureA lab measurement of what the food actually contains, not just the legal minimums and maximums on the bag.
Moves protein quality from estimate to measurement. As of October 2026, 65 of the 239 products in our catalog (27%) have published one.
Whether the figures are as fed or dry matter. The two readings can differ a lot.
A measured result for this specific food, rather than our estimate from how it is made.
Protein, fat, energy or total. "90% digestible" means little until you know which one.
A guaranteed amount of these omega-3s, not just "contains omega-3."
An AAFCO feeding trial, rather than formulation to a nutrient profile alone. More rigorous, and more expensive.
We are still working through brands' published materials. Until a brand has been checked, the app shows "not checked yet," never a zero.
PetLabelIQ was created by Jim Galovski, founder of NOBL Foods, after three decades in the pet food industry, including Nestlé Purina, Royal Canin and Blue Buffalo.
NOBL Foods makes dog food, so we have an obvious interest. That is why every brand, ours included, is scored by the same published rules, and why the app shows its sources and its gaps on every result.
PetLabelIQ is a free label reader for dog food. Search a product or type in the label, see how much it tells you and how much has been proven, and check what it really costs per 1,000 calories.
Search Your Dog's Food
Developed by NOBL Foods · All brands scored identically · Not veterinary advice
Each result shows its data source and date · Educational use only
Scores are based on label data, the guaranteed analysis, the ingredient list, and data brands have published.