Is high-end dog chow worth the cost?

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As the debate rages on over what you should feed yourself – what exactly does organic mean, anyway? – a similar battle persists over what to feed your pets.

Is chicken by-product as nutritious as chicken meal? What's the difference between beef dog food and beef dog dinner? Does "gourmet" pet food really exist, or is it an excuse to charge more money?

"I try to give my pets as good quality food as I would want to have myself," said Mary Beth Poulimenos, 35, a Kennedy Heights resident with two pets: 15-year-old Siamese cat Lyla and 8-year-old Everett, an English springer spaniel.

The food Poulimenos buys, a Texas brand called Merrick, costs a bit more, but she feels it's worth it – especially in the wake of a lawsuit filed last month in California that alleges that thousands of dogs have become ill or died after eating a popular brand of dry food.

The class-action lawsuit that made headlines last week is against the makers of Nestle Purina dog food Beneful, which, despite being one of the nation's best-selling dog foods, has 718, one-star ratings on ConsumerAffairs.com.

To be clear: Allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven, and the FDA hasn't flagged the food as being potentially dangerous to dogs. Bill Salzman, spokesman for Nestle Purina PetCare, issued a statement calling the lawsuit "baseless" and said that the brand has been the occasional subject of "social media-driven misinformation."

"Class-action suits are common in business these days," Salzman said. "They are not indicative of a product issue."

All of the ingredients used in Beneful are safe for animals to eat, said Dan Cook, chairman of the pet food committee for the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), a voluntary membership comprised mostly of state feed control officials. The organization makes recommendations for states to adopt regarding feed laws, but it has no legal authority.

"There's a lengthy process to get an ingredient approved as safe in pet use," said Cook, whose full-time job is as administrator of the feed and treated timber program in Missouri.

Whether that's good enough is up to individual pet owners. Poulimenos likens bargain brand dog food to fast food offerings: What's served might be legally OK, but she doesn't think that automatically means it's best.

The Enquirer talked with several pet owners and dog food experts, including a local manufacturer, and perused related blogs such as PetMed to compile a list of tips for choosing high-end dog chow.

• Know what the labels mean. This can be easier said than done, several experts agreed, but it starts with knowing what the AAFCO requires. For example, if a food begins with the meat ingredient in the name, the product must have at least 95 percent of that meat. A food labeled "chicken dog food," for example, would have to be 95 percent chicken.

However, if the product name has the words "dinner," "platter," "formula" or "entree" in it, the ingredient named has to be just 25 percent of the product. So if you grab "chicken dog food formula," you could be serving anywhere from 25 to 95 percent chicken.

Asked to define "gourmet dog food," Cook replied, "That's a good question." It should mean that the ingredients used are top quality, but – as is the case with human food – there are no set standards in place to ensure it.

• Look for what Keith Johnson calls "red-flag ingredients" in your pet's food that don't add to the nutrition of the product. Johnson, who's founder and CEO of Cincinnati-based Petbrosia, said that includes sugar, dyes and propylene glycol. The latter is a controversial additive used to preserve moisture, which Johnson said isn't necessary.

"It creates more of a moist, tender type of kibble, which humans, not pets, relate to being meaty," he said.

Dyes are superfluous because dogs are color blind – Beneful's own frequently asked question page acknowledged the dyes are to please owners, not pets. Sugar is used to get pets to devour food more eagerly, Johnson said. "Just like your kids, your pets will eat sugar," he said. "That doesn't mean it's good for them."

• Pay closest attention to the top handful of ingredients in the brand you buy, suggests Johnson, whose tip is echoed on pet-devoted websites such as dogfoodadvisor.com. Federal law requires dog food manufacturers to list ingredients in descending order of their pre-cooked weights. The lower on the list an ingredient, "the less it contributes to the overall quality of the food," the website states.

Johnson said the top ingredient should be the protein – meat, chicken or fish. Corn, soy and wheat likely will be toward the top, but Johnson warns that in lower-quality brands, grains can make up to 85 percent of the product.

Also be mindful of animal by-products, as those are the leftovers from a slaughterhouse considered unfit for human consumption. Not all experts agree that by-products are bad for pets, but most do agree that customers should be making informed decisions.

• If you're looking for a premium brand, look for other "high-end touches," Johnson said, such as added prebiotics, probiotics and glucosamine and chondroitin for joint health. None of these are required by the AAFCO guidelines, but some pet owners swear they're worth the extra money.

Poulimenos credits her chow choosiness with both her pets' stellar health. She boasts that Everett was featured in a calendar as one of America's Top Dog Models.

"I absolutely think it matters," she said of the food she buys. "The cheaper stuff is like the fast food of dog food. Will it fill them up, will they eat it? Sure. It's just like why fast food companies are still in business: At the end of the day, they taste good and people eat them."