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What “organic” really means on a dog food label

What "organic" really means on a dog food label

“Natural”, “wholesome”, “made with real chicken”: none of these words mean anything in particular on a pet food bag. “Organic” is different, because it is a legal term with an inspector attached to it. Here is what it does and does not promise.

What the leaf logo guarantees

Under EU regulation 2018/848, a product carrying the green leaf must be at least 95 % organic ingredients by weight. Organic meat comes from animals raised on organic feed, with access to the outdoors and without routine antibiotics. Organic vegetables are grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers. Every operator in the chain, from the farm to our drying room, is inspected at least once a year, and the certificate number must appear on the label. Ours is FR-BIO-01-24-1177.

What it does not guarantee

Organic says nothing about how the food was cooked, how much of the protein comes from meat rather than pulses, or whether the bag has been sitting in a warehouse for a year. An organic kibble can still be extruded at 130 °C from organic corn. That is why we publish the sourcing table and the cooking process on the ingredients page rather than leaning on the logo.

“Made with organic ingredients”

Watch this one. It is allowed when only some ingredients are organic, and the leaf logo may not be used. If a bag says “made with” rather than showing the leaf, the rest of the recipe is conventional.

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