Judging the Biological Value of a Dog Food Protein

Feathers. Beaks. Hooves. What do these three animal body parts all have in common?

Give up? All three contain an unusually high percentage of protein.
But unfortunately, it’s basically worthless protein, protein that’s nearly impossible for any dog to digest.

High Content May Not Mean High Quality

Just because a particular dog food boasts a high protein content doesn’t necessarily mean the protein is beneficial.

You see… a product’s stated protein percentage ignores a very important factor… its quality… its nutritional value to the dog.

In other words… a protein’s “usability”.

Biological value… or “BV” as it is known… is a scientific way to compare the usability… and digestibility… of different protein ingredients.

BV uses a number value to indicate how easily a protein is taken up by a dog’s tissues.  So, the higher a protein’s biological value… the better its usability.

For those readers who tend to be mathematically inclined… the formula for biological value looks like this…


The Incredible (Edible) Egg

Due to their nearly perfect usability, chicken eggs are used as the official benchmark by which all other proteins are judged.  So, eggs are assigned a reference biological value of 100.

Take a look at the following table1.  Notice the substantial difference in protein usability of these typical ingredients…


Animal protein can be expected to demonstrate a significantly higher biological value than vegetable protein
In other words… animal proteins are simply more nutritionally usable.
That’s why it’s so important to make it a habit to check every dog food label’s list of ingredients.  And rate the product’s main source of protein.  Otherwise… you may be depriving your dog of quality nutrition.
Be sure to read my article… Why You Must Never Trust Stated Protein Percentages to Compare Dog Foods.

1. Palika, Liz, The Consumers Guide to Dog Food, New York, Howell Book House, 1996