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Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula Dog Food is produced by Member’s Mark, the store brand associated with the big box store Sam’s Club. This dog food formula is made with lamb and rice, marketed as a high-protein formula designed to help keep adult dogs healthy and active. For many, however, the determining factor for the purchase of this product is its low price. Some say that the low price is due to the inclusion of inexpensive “filler” ingredients like corn gluten meal and brewer’s rice. Filler ingredients are essentially inexpensive ingredients that dog food manufacturers use to add bulk to their products which do not necessarily add to its nutritional value. If you are considering buying Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula Dog Food for your dog, you would be wise to consider the ingredients used to make this dog food and how they impact the total nutritional value of the product.
Ingredients List
Lamb, brewers rice, poultry by-product meal (source of glucosamine), corn meal, corn gluten meal, ground whole grain sorghum, ground barley, animal fat (preserverd with mixed tocopherols), dried plain beet pulp, ground flaxseed, natural flavor, monocalcium phosphtae, brewers dried yeast, dried egg product, calcium carbonate, salt, potassium chloride, choline chloride, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate, zinc oxide, fructooligosaccarides, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, biotin, d-calcium pantothenate, manganous oxide, Vitamin B12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyriodoxine hydrochloride, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), riboflavin supplement, sodium selenite, calcium iodate, folic acid, Vitamin D3 supplement, cobalt carbonate.
Explanation Of The Top 5 Ingredients
The top 5 ingredients included in Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula Dog Food are: lamb, brewer’s rice, poultry by-product meal, corn meal, and corn gluten meal. Below you will find a brief explanation of each of these ingredients:
Lamb – The fact that a source of whole animal protein is listed at the top of the ingredients list for this Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula is beneficial but it can also be misleading. Whole sources of meat like lamb (or chicken, or beef) contain up to 80% water which means that though they may be the most significant ingredient by volume, once they get cooked down its volume is a fraction of what it once was. Still, it is better to have a whole source of protein at the top of the ingredients list than some type of inexpensive filler.
Brewer’s Rice – Brewer’s rice consists of the small fragments of rice grains that are left behind when the grains are milled. In essence, brewer’s rice is the leftover material that would otherwise be thrown away. While milled rice kernels are only about one half to two thirds the original size of the whole kernel, brewer’s rice grains are about one quarter the size. This ingredient provides your dog with energy in the form of calories but it doesn’t offer much nutritional value.
Poultry By-Product Meal – Though this ingredient may sound questionable, it may actually be more valuable than lamb, the first ingredient on the list. Before you count this ingredient out, consider the fact that meat meals and by-product meals are a highly concentrated source of protein – they may contain up to 300% more protein by volume than fresh meat. Poultry by-product meal consists of the leftover parts of the chicken carcass after the edible portions have been removed – this includes organ meats, feet, and beaks – anything except for feathers. These ingredients may not sound appetizing but they are generally deemed safe for dogs.
Corn Meal – Corn meal is simply a coarse flour made by grinding dried corn kernels and its nutrient profile is greatly lacking. There are several trouble factors related to this ingredient, primarily the fact that corn is one of the top food allergens known to affect dogs. Secondly, corn meal provides very little nutritional value for your dog.
Corn Gluten Meal – This ingredient is the by-product of corn processing and it consists of the proteins found in corn. Corn gluten meal is widely used in animal feed as a protein source, though it is of relatively low nutritional value for your dog. The type of protein found in corn gluten meal is much less biologically valuable than the kind of protein found in meat. Dog food manufacturers use inexpensive protein sources like corn gluten meal to increase the protein content of their products without actually adding more meat.
Other Notable Ingredients
Aside from the top five ingredients, there are several other notable ingredients found in Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula Dog Food including ground whole grain sorghum, ground barley, animal fat, dried beet pulp, ground flaxseed, dried brewer’s yeast, dried egg product, and salt. The fact that both ground whole grain sorghum and ground barley are listed on the ingredients list for this product would not be so troubling if three other sources of carbohydrate had not already been listed. Sorghum is a starchy cereal grain that, other than providing your dog with energy in the form of calories, doesn’t provide much other value. Barley is another starchy carbohydrate that is often considered an inexpensive filler which provides only moderate nutritional value.
A controversial ingredient listed for Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula Dog Food is dried brewer’s yeast. Brewer’s dried yeast is a by-product of the beer making process and it may contain valuable minerals, though some believe it to be linked to food allergies in dogs. One important thing you should know about this ingredient is that it contains about 48% protein – this means that it can be used to increase the protein content of a dog food product without actually adding more meat to the formula.
Dried beet pulp is somewhat controversial as an ingredient as well, though it does provide some nutritional value when present in moderate amounts. This ingredient is the by-product that results from the processing of sugar beets and it is a source of dietary fiber. Ground flaxseed is another source of fiber but it is also very rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Like brewer’s dried yeast, this product has a high protein content that can be used to increase the protein content of the formula without the addition of animal-based protein sources.
The name “dried egg product” might lead you to believe that this ingredient simply consists of dried egg, but you need to be careful about the addition of the word “product”. This product may include low-quality eggs like the unhatched eggs from chicken hatcheries. It is difficult to evaluate the quality of this ingredient, though eggs in general are of high biological value for dogs. Similarly, salt is a beneficial ingredient for dogs – necessary, in fact – but the amount is not listed so it is difficult to tell whether it is healthy or not.
Conclusion
Although this Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula Dog Food lists a whole source of animal protein as the first ingredient, many of the remaining ingredients on the list are of questionable value. The fact that three out of the top five ingredients are low-quality carbohydrates (which may be considered fillers) is very troubling. This formula could benefit from fewer carbohydrate sources and at least one more source of high-quality animal protein. Overall, this Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula Dog Food can be considered of average nutritional value at best.
Paw Rating
This Simply Right Exceed Lamb and Rice Formula Dog Food receives a paw rating of 2.5 out of 5. Though it does contain lamb as its first ingredients, many of the other ingredients on the list are of low to moderate nutritional value.
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