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How NoPickyDog checks a dog food brand

Standard version: 3.9.1 (10 November 2026) · Applies to: every card under nopickydog.com/brands/ (100 cards as of 10 November 2026)

In short

  • For each brand we try to answer the eight questions that WSAVA suggests owners and veterinarians ask about a pet food. Each card shows how many we could verify ("X of 8").
  • A buy or affiliate link can appear only when a card is at 8 of 8, passes all our checks, and the site owner has personally approved it. This threshold is permanent and will not be lowered (section 9).
  • No brand currently qualifies. As of 10 November 2026 no card is at 8 of 8, so no buy or affiliate links are shown.
  • Brand pages carry no ads. The brand list, every brand card, the compare page and every filtered view of the list load no Google AdSense code (section 9).
  • AI is involved. AI agents read brand pages and propose the quotes, and fixed rules in our software set each result. No person reviews cards or individual answers (sections 6 and 11).
  • A score of 0/8 is not a finding that a food is unsafe or of poor quality (section 3).

NoPickyDog does not taste, test, or rate dog food. For each brand, we try to answer the eight questions that the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) Global Nutrition Committee suggests owners and veterinarians ask about a pet food. We answer with lines quoted from sources anyone can open, and we link each source.

WSAVA does not endorse, certify, or review any brand, and it has not reviewed this site. "X of 8" means that of WSAVA's eight questions, this many have an answer we could verify to our evidence bar. It is a count of verified answers. It is not a quality score, and it does not say a food is good or bad for your dog.

How this page is organised. Sections 1–10 explain the standard. Section 11 lists, in plain language, the exact evidence thresholds our software applies to every published card today. Section 12 lists rules the site owner has adopted that are not yet applied. When they take effect, every card will be rebuilt under them. Where section 11 is more specific than sections 1–10, section 11 is what the cards follow.

1. Where the eight questions come from

The questions come from the WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee, Guidelines on Selecting Pet Foods (updated 10 March 2021): https://wsava.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Selecting-a-pet-food-for-your-pet-updated-2021_WSAVA-Global-Nutrition-Toolkit.pdf (hosted on https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/global-nutrition-guidelines/).

WSAVA groups the questions in two parts. Four are about the company: nutritionist, formulation, quality control, and research. Four are about the label: nutritional adequacy, calories, contact information, and who makes the food. WSAVA closes the sheet with: "If the manufacturer cannot or will not provide any of this information, veterinarians and owners should be cautious about feeding that brand." A low count on our cards usually means we have not found, or could not read, dated public evidence. It does not mean the company refused to provide it.

2. What one card covers

  • Each card names one representative product. The nutritional adequacy answer (question 5) must name that product.
  • Questions 1–4 are answered at company level.
  • When question 5 cites a source, the calorie answer (question 6) and a label-based answer to question 8 must cite that same source. The contact answer (question 7) must always cite the same source as question 5. An answer that does not meet this is NOT CHECKED.
  • A card is not a verdict on every recipe the brand sells.
  • Planned: the full same-SKU rule (section 12.1).

3. The four results and how X is calculated

Result Meaning
VERIFIED The quoted source meets the evidence bar for that question (sections 4 and 11).
PARTLY We found something relevant, but it falls short of the bar, or the source is past its age limit (section 7).
NOT DISCLOSED We found no qualifying answer in what we read.
NOT CHECKED We could not read the source that would answer the question. This is usually the package label, or a page we could not read. It does not mean the label lacks the information. Each NOT CHECKED says why: either the product page we read does not show the item, or the label is not online.

A score of 0/8 means none of the eight checks has yet met our evidence standard. We either found no dated, public evidence, found evidence that was incomplete or out of date, or could not access the source. It is not a finding that the food is unsafe or of poor quality.

How X is calculated. X is the number of the eight questions whose result is VERIFIED. PARTLY, NOT DISCLOSED, and NOT CHECKED add nothing. We do not award stars, points, or partial credit, and we do not combine answers into any other score.

3.1 Finding, filtering and comparing cards

  • Brand list (/brands/). All published cards are listed, sorted by verified count, then by PARTLY count, then by name. The list can be filtered by:
    • Score: an exact verified count from 0 to 8;
    • Each of the eight questions: VERIFIED, PARTLY, Not disclosed, or NOT CHECKED;
    • Food type is not offered as a filter yet. No card records a food type, and we do not guess one from page text.
    • Recalls: "Has a recall entry" or "No recall entry". This refers only to recalls listed on the card. "No recall entry" does not mean the brand has never been recalled (section 5). Filters only select cards. They never change a result.
  • Search. The search box on the home page matches what you type (at least three characters, ignoring words such as "dog", "food", "good" or "best") against published brand names and common alternative names, and opens that brand's card. If nothing matches, it opens the brand list. The brand list also has a search box that keeps only the brands whose name or page address contains what you type. It can be combined with the filters.
  • Compare (/brands/compare/). Pick 2 to 4 brands. The page shows each card's existing result, quote and source side by side. It adds no judgment of its own.
  • Only published cards appear in the list, in search, and in compare (section 11.9).
  • Planned: reasons shown on every PARTLY, a source ranking, and rules for retailer pages (section 12.2).

4. The eight questions

Each question below explains why it matters and summarises its bar. The exact wording our software accepts is in section 11.

Q1. Does the company employ a qualified nutritionist?

Why it matters. WSAVA, word for word: "Appropriate qualifications are either a PhD in Animal Nutrition or Board Certification by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (ACVN) or the European College of Veterinary Comparative Nutrition (ECVCN)." and "What are the Nutritionist's name, qualifications and employment status? Consultants may have limited influence compared to a staff Nutritionist."

ACVN board certification continues under the title DACVIM (Nutrition). This is the same certification under a new title, not an additional qualification. Tufts Petfoodology, "What's in a name?" (Lisa M. Freeman, 21 June 2023): "instead of Diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (DACVN), we're now officially Diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Nutrition) or DACVIM (Nutrition)" (https://sites.tufts.edu/petfoodology/2023/06/21/whats-in-a-name-what-is-a-board-certified-veterinary-nutritionist-and-why-does-it-matter/). ACVIM announced on 22 September 2021 that nutrition had become its sixth specialty (https://www.acvim.org/sites/default/files/2025-10/ACVIM_Nutrition-Addition-Press-Release_FINALc582c24a-cfd8-4188-96a4-1fb9d7843066_0.pdf). ACVIM's FAQ gives 21 September 2021 as the official merger date with ACVN (https://www.acvim.org/about-acvim/faqs).

  • VERIFIED: the quoted text states all three of the following, in the present tense:
    1. the person's full name, with positive evidence that it is a person (section 11.1);
    2. the qualification written as DACVN or DECVCN (section 11.2). Other qualifications on WSAVA's list, such as DACVIM (Nutrition), ECVCN written another way, ACVN board certification written out in words, or a PhD in Animal Nutrition, are scored PARTLY for this question. A PhD in another field (for example "Nutritional Sciences") does not qualify, and neither does an MS;
    3. one of the fixed employment sentences in section 11.3, naming this brand or "us" as the only employer.
  • PARTLY: qualified but a consultant, advisor, collaborator, or part-time; employed by a parent company rather than by the brand's company; on staff somewhere other than this brand; employment not stated in one of the fixed sentences in section 11.3; a qualification not written as DACVN or DECVCN; qualification outside WSAVA's list, or carrying a qualifier such as "candidate" or "former" (section 11.4); name incomplete; or past or future tense.
  • Does not count: unnamed "vet-formulated" claims; a DVM without a listed qualification; press coverage.

Q2. Who formulates the diets?

Why it matters. WSAVA, word for word: "Is the recipe developed by an experienced pet food formulator (MS or PhD in Animal Nutrition), a veterinarian, or a pet owner/breeder/trainer?"; "An individual with Board Certification by ACVN or ECVCN may also be cross-trained in pet food formulation". WSAVA adds that recipe development requires knowledge "not taught in veterinary school programs".

  • VERIFIED: one sentence that names the formulator with positive evidence that it is a person (section 11.1), gives one of these qualifications directly after the name: MS or PhD in Animal Nutrition, DACVIM (Nutrition), DACVN, ACVN board certification written out in words, or ECVCN, and states in the present tense that this person formulates or develops the recipes (section 11.5). Employment is not required for this question, so a named, qualified consultant can be VERIFIED here.
  • PARTLY: name incomplete or missing; qualification missing, outside that list (for example a degree in food science), or qualified (for example "candidate", "pending" or "former"); past or future tense; or a sentence that adds other people or conditions.
  • Does not count: "formulated by vet nutritionists" with no name; "AAFCO compliant"; formulation software.
  • One sentence may support both Q1 and Q2 only if it states everything each question needs.

Q3. What quality control does the company use?

Why it matters. WSAVA lists "ingredient (food and supplement) validation, final diet nutrient analysis, toxicology, bacteriology, and packaging/shelf-life screenings prior to, during, and after manufacturing".

  • VERIFIED: both kinds of practice appear in the quoted text (details in section 11.6):
    1. finished-product testing that names what is tested for (for example Salmonella, Listeria, "pathogens", toxins, or mold) and how often (every or each batch, lot or hour, or per batch). "Hourly" counts only when the quote says the finished product is tested. The batch or lot must be a batch or lot of the food: a frequency given for batches or lots of raw materials or ingredients (for example "each batch of incoming ingredients") does not count, and testing of raw materials or ingredients alone does not count as this kind;
    2. a second named check: a nutrient analysis; a certificate of analysis (COA); an ingredient specification; or a named food-safety certification recognised by GFSI (SQF, BRCGS (formerly BRC), FSSC 22000, or IFS; https://mygfsi.com/how-to-implement/recognition/certification-programme-owners/) that the quote says has been obtained. "Pursuing", "seeking", "pending", or "expired" certification does not count. The word "GFSI" on its own is not a named scheme.
  • PARTLY: only one kind of practice.
  • Does not count: "highest quality standards", "human-grade", "USDA kitchens", or a numbered "process" with no tests named.

Q4. What research has the company done, and is it published?

Why it matters. WSAVA asks, "Is it published in peer-reviewed journals?"

  • VERIFIED: the company cites a journal article identified by DOI or PubMed ID, with a year or a recorded date, published within the last 3 years. The age is measured from the date we recorded for the source. If that date is only the date we retrieved the page, a server date, or a month in the web address, the age is measured from 1 January of the year shown in the quote.
  • PARTLY: an article older than 3 years; a citation with no DOI or PubMed ID; a named but unpublished study; a conference abstract or poster, including abstracts printed in a journal supplement. A conference abstract is not a peer-reviewed article. Where the quote shows the brand sponsored or funded the study, the card says "Brand-funded".
  • Does not count: brand-made summaries, white papers, "research agreements", unnamed footnotes, and customer surveys.
  • Example: Freshpet's research answer cites Leverett et al., Animals 2022; 12(15):1881, doi:10.3390/ani12151881, published 22 July 2022. The study used 8 client-owned dogs, and four of its seven authors list a Freshpet affiliation (Crossref: https://api.crossref.org/works/10.3390/ani12151881). The article is more than 3 years old, so the answer is PARTLY.

Q5. Nutritional adequacy statement

Why it matters. A US food sold as "complete and balanced" must meet an AAFCO nutrient profile by formulation, or pass AAFCO feeding trials (FDA, Complete and Balanced Pet Food: https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/complete-and-balanced-pet-food). AAFCO explains the wording of each statement (https://www.aafco.org/consumers/understanding-pet-food/reading-labels/). European reference: FEDIAF Nutritional Guidelines 2025 (https://europeanpetfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FEDIAF-Nutritional-Guidelines_2025-ONLINE.pdf).

  • VERIFIED when the AAFCO-format sentence for the named representative product is found on its label or on the brand's product page or sheet, and its source is dated under section 7. The product name in the statement must match the card's representative product. A general "all our foods meet AAFCO" sentence never counts. "Formulated" and "feeding trials" are both valid. The card says which applies and does not rank them.
  • Planned: the full same-SKU rule (section 12.1).

Q6. Calories

Why it matters. WSAVA: "Having access to accurate pet food caloric content can help prevent unintended overfeeding." AAFCO (https://www.aafco.org/consumers/understanding-pet-food/reading-labels/): the calorie statement "should be expressed in terms of kilocalories per kilogram of food as fed, as well as kilocalories per familiar unit (e.g. per can, per cup or per biscuit)."

  • VERIFIED: both kcal/kg and kcal per feeding unit for the representative product, in the same piece of quoted text (section 11.7). Feeding units follow AAFCO's examples: can, cup (including an "8 fl. oz. cup"), biscuit, and the same kind of unit for the package format (tray, pouch, piece). Ounces and pounds are weights, not feeding units, and do not count as the second unit.
  • PARTLY: only one of the two, or a weight unit only.
  • Does not count: third-party estimates; values we calculate.

Q7. Contact information on the label

Why it matters. WSAVA asks whether the company provides "immediate contact information such as a phone number or email address". US rules separately require the label to show the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor (21 CFR 501.5: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-E/part-501/subpart-A/section-501.5).

  • VERIFIED: an image of the package (a photo, brand label artwork, or a retailer image of the package) that is the same source as the adequacy answer (section 2) and shows the company or brand name and a phone number or email address, quoted as a single line of label text. A quote made of two or more label lines is at most PARTLY.
  • PARTLY: name or postal address with no phone or email.
  • Does not count (NOT CHECKED): any source that is not an image of the package, such as a website "contact us" page, a spec-sheet footer, or retailer text; another product's label. Most cards are NOT CHECKED for this question because the back of the package is not published online.

Q8. Who makes the food?

Why it matters. WSAVA: "Companies may make their own food (i.e., 'Made by') or use a third-party manufacturer (i.e., 'Made for' or 'Distributed by')." Under 21 CFR 501.5(c), a company that did not make the food must qualify its name, for example "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by".

We hold this question to a stricter bar than WSAVA. Third-party manufacturing is common and is not, by itself, a safety problem. Under our bar it means PARTLY.

  • VERIFIED: a "Manufactured by" line with a street address, or a statement that the company makes the food in its own plant, kitchen or facility with a street address and ZIP code, with no hedge. A label-based answer must cite the same source as the adequacy answer (section 2).
  • PARTLY: only a city, state, region, or country; "the majority of our products" or a similar hedge; "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by"; co-packers, partners, third parties, or unnamed facilities.
  • Does not count: "Made in USA" alone; "USDA kitchens" alone.
  • Planned: section 12.3.

5. The recall line (not part of X)

  • Every card shows "FDA animal food recall listings since 2024: N entries.", followed by whether earlier years were checked, and the note "FDA does not post every recall."
  • We match the brand name against FDA's public recall listings (https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts). The machine-readable feed we use is not complete before 2024, so the automatic count starts on 1 January 2024. Each time a card is checked, our software confirms, using the yearly counts recorded when the FDA feed was last measured, that 2024 still has at least half as many listings as any later full year. If it does not, the start date must be measured again before the card can be published. Where older recalls are known, the card may list them. For example, the Freshpet card lists a June 2021 single-lot Salmonella recall from FDA's notice (https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/freshpet-voluntarily-recalls-one-lot-freshpetr-select-small-dog-bite-size-beef-egg-recipe-dog-food).
  • A card's recall count and recall entries are recorded on the day the card's recall data is measured, and are updated when it is measured again. They do not change between measurements.
  • A listed recall counts only with its source: an FDA web address, or a company statement whose quotes were all confirmed.
  • "0 entries" is not "never recalled". FDA states that "Not all recalls have press releases or are posted on this page" (https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/additional-information-about-recalls). Card summaries never say "no recalls", "recall-free", "never recalled", or similar.
  • Recalls never change X. When a card lists recalls, its summary states how many are listed.
  • Planned: a 10-year look-back before any 8 of 8 or link (section 12.4).

Diet-associated DCM. FDA investigated reports of dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs eating certain diets, many labelled "grain-free". FDA has said it does not intend to publish further updates until there is meaningful new scientific information (https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy, content current as of 23 December 2022). We do not score this. Ask your veterinarian.

6. How a card is built, and how AI is involved

  1. Each answer links to the source it quotes. Every VERIFIED answer has a dated source (section 7).
  2. For questions 1–4 and company-level question 8, an AI agent reads the brand's pages and proposes a quote. Some quotes are proposed by an AI model run, which also sets yes/no features ("tags"); others are copied from the source directly by an AI agent reading it. For more than half of the cards (55 of the 100 on 10 November 2026), a fixed rule in our software turns the tags into a result. AI therefore takes part in deciding results.
  3. Label questions 5–8 are read from the label's standard wording.
  4. Our software then re-applies the thresholds in section 11 to every stored quote. This can keep a result or lower it. It can never raise one (section 11.8).
  5. Every published card must pass all our automated checks, including the thresholds in section 11 and the age limit in section 7. A card that fails any check is not published (section 11.9).
  6. Quotes are copied word for word from the source's own text; we do not paraphrase. On 10 November 2026, every VERIFIED answer cited a source of which we had stored an archived copy with its SHA-256 hash (section 7). Today our software checks a quote word for word against its archived copy for calorie lines with a pipe (section 11.7); doing this for every VERIFIED quote is planned (section 12.5).
  7. No person reviews cards or individual answers. Since 10 November 2026, each item proposed for VERIFIED is rechecked by an independent AI review agent (no human review), which is not the agent that proposed it. This recheck does not cover answers that were already VERIFIED before 10 November 2026, and it does not review whole cards (section 12.5). The only human approvals are the site owner's personal approval of a card at 8 of 8 and of any buy or affiliate link (section 9; for the 8-of-8 display, see section 12.5).

Planned: the same independent AI review agent recheck for answers that were already VERIFIED before 10 November 2026, archived evidence for every VERIFIED answer, and automatic word-for-word checking of every VERIFIED quote against its archived copy (section 12.5).

7. Keeping cards up to date

  • Each card shows "Updated <month year>": when the card was last checked.
  • A source's own date. This is a date printed on the page or document. When a document shows more than one date, we use the earliest. A month that appears only in a web address, a date reported by the web server, and a date stored only in a file's metadata (such as a PDF's creation date) are not a source's own date.
  • Every VERIFIED answer needs a clock. There are three kinds:
    1. Printed date: the answer can stay VERIFIED for 3 years from the source's own date.
    2. Metadata date only: we record it, but it counts only if we also stored an archived copy with its SHA-256 hash and the date we fetched it. The answer then expires on whichever comes first: 3 years after the metadata date, or 12 months after the fetch date.
    3. No date of its own: the fetch date counts only if we stored an archived copy with its SHA-256 hash, and then for 12 months. An answer with none of these cannot be VERIFIED. It is shown as PARTLY with the note "no document date".
  • What happens at expiry. An expired VERIFIED answer becomes PARTLY and shows the source's age (for example "archive fetched 2026-11-09, expired 2027-11-09: downgraded from VERIFIED"). The card's count and summary are recalculated, and the card stays published. An answer that was already PARTLY keeps its result and also shows the age note. The age limit is applied each time the site loads its cards, which happens at every build and every time a server starts. An age note on any answer also blocks buy links (section 9).
  • Expiry dates for today's cards. All 44 VERIFIED answers on the 100 cards published on 10 November 2026 have a fetch-date or metadata-date clock. None uses a printed date. Unless the evidence is renewed first:
    • From 9 January 2027: Purina Pro Plan questions 5 and 6 become PARTLY. Their metadata date is 8 January 2024, so 3 years run out before the 12 months from the fetch date. Purina Pro Plan goes from 2 of 8 to 0 of 8.
    • From 10 November 2027: the remaining 42 VERIFIED answers, on 29 cards, become PARTLY (12 months after the 9 November 2026 fetch). Without renewed evidence, every card would then be at 0 of 8.
  • Planned: section 12.6.

8. Corrections

  • Email hello@nopickydog.com with the card URL and your source.
  • We change an answer only when the new source meets the bar in sections 4 and 11. Brands cannot pay for, or request, a higher result.
  • Planned: section 12.7.

9. Money and conflicts of interest

The rule (permanent). A brand that does not have all eight answers VERIFIED will never have an affiliate link or a buy link anywhere on NoPickyDog. This threshold is fixed and will not be lowered.

  • Approval by the site owner. Any buy or affiliate link needs the personal approval of the site owner, and our software enforces this. Showing a card as 8 of 8 also needs that approval; our software does not yet enforce this for the display itself (section 12.5). No card is at 8 of 8 today. A person's name typed on a card is not an approval. An AI agent may not give this approval. The site owner who gives this approval is also the person who would receive any commission.
  • Our software shows a buy or affiliate link only when all of these hold: the brand's published card is at 8 of 8 VERIFIED; it passes its automated checks; no answer carries an age note (section 7); it is marked as having completed the recall look-back (section 12.4); and the site owner has approved it. If anything is missing, no link is shown.
  • As of 10 November 2026 no card is at 8 of 8 and none has been approved, so no buy or affiliate links are shown.
  • If a buy or affiliate link is shown, we may earn a commission when you buy through it.
  • Ads. Brand pages load no Google AdSense code. This covers the brand list (/brands/), every brand card, the compare page, and every filtered view of the list. No page on the site currently loads advertising scripts. We do not take input from advertisers on any card.
  • Commissions, affiliate programs, and ads do not affect the order in which we research brands, the evidence rules, or any result.
  • No brand has paid for, reviewed, or approved this standard or any card.
  • Planned: section 12.8.

See also our Affiliate Disclosure: https://nopickydog.com/affiliate-disclosure/

10. What this standard does not do

  • It does not test food, inspect factories, or verify that a company actually does what it says. We report what the company states and what the label shows.
  • It does not tell you which food suits your dog. Ask your veterinarian.
  • It is not veterinary advice.
  • Our software reads English text in unaccented Latin letters (A–Z). A name is recognised only when its given name and family name each have at least three letters and contain no accents or apostrophes, so some real names (for example "José" or "O'Brien") are scored PARTLY. A conference abstract or poster is recognised only when the quote or citation calls it an abstract, a poster, or a journal supplement. Wording outside the patterns in section 11 is scored PARTLY or lower, even when a person reading it might accept it. The software errs toward the lower result.

11. Adopted rules: the evidence thresholds our software applies

These rules are in effect. Every published card has been checked against them. Each describes the exact wording our software accepts. A quote that does not fit gets the lower result shown.

11.1 Personal names (Q1, Q2)

  • Q1: a name counts only with positive evidence that it is a person, either:
    • a title (Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms., Prof., or Professor) before a given name and a family name; or
    • a degree (DVM, VMD, BVSc, BVMS, MVSc, PhD, or MS) directly after the name. A name with neither (for example "Jane Smith, DACVN") is PARTLY.
  • Q2: the formulator's name counts only with a title before it (capital letters such as "DR." are accepted) or with a degree (DVM, VMD, BVSc, BVMS, MVSc, PhD, or MS) after it. A board credential alone after the name, such as "Jane Smith, DACVIM (Nutrition)", is not a degree, so the answer is PARTLY.
  • Both the given name and the family name must be written out, each at least three letters, starting with a capital letter (Q1) or a capital letter or all capitals (Q2). The following score PARTLY: initials ("J. Smith"), a family name alone ("Dr. Smith"), all lower case, and, for Q1, all capitals.
  • Words of the brand's or parent company's name, and generic words (for example "Team", "Lab", "Labs", "Nutrition", "Veterinary", "Science"), are never read as a person's name. "Our Team", "The Lab", and "Veterinary Nutritionists" are not names.

11.2 Qualifications (Q1, Q2)

  • Q1 accepts only: DACVN and DECVCN. Other degrees may stand beside them (for example "DVM, PhD, DACVN"). Every other way of writing a qualification, including DACVIM (Nutrition), ECVCN, "ECVCN diplomate", "Dipl. ECVCN", "Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition", "board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition" and PhD in animal nutrition, is PARTLY for question 1.
  • Q2 accepts: DACVIM (Nutrition); DACVN; ECVCN (also written "ECVCN diplomate", "DECVCN", or "Dipl. ECVCN"); "Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition"; "board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition"; PhD in animal nutrition; and MS (or M.S.) in animal nutrition, as WSAVA lists it for formulators.
  • Not accepted: a PhD or MS in another field; a DVM alone; another specialty, such as DACVIM (Cardiology); "PhD" or "MS" with no field.

11.3 Employment (Q1)

Question 1 accepts employment only when the quote passes both of the following checks.

  • Check 1: one fixed clause that ends the quote.
    • The quote contains exactly one employment clause: "employed", "works" or "working", optionally followed by "full-time" (or "full time"), optionally followed by "as" and one or two words, each of them "a", "an", "the", "as", "nutritionist", "veterinarian", "veterinary", "certified", "full" or "time" (for example "as a nutritionist" or "as veterinary nutritionist"; "as a chemist" and "as a veterinary nutritionist" are PARTLY), then "by", "with", "at" or "for", then the employer.
    • The employer is "us" or this brand's exact name, and the quote ends there. Only full stops may follow; a question mark or an exclamation mark makes the answer PARTLY.
    • Before the clause, the quote (including any earlier sentence in it) may contain only: the person's name; "Dr."; the credentials DVM, PhD, Ph.D., DACVN and DECVCN; the words "veterinary", "nutritionist", "veterinarian", "board-certified" and "certified"; "a", "an" and "the"; and "is", "works" and "full-time" (or "full time"). Punctuation marks and numbers do not count as words; where the credential itself must sit is set out in section 11.4. Any other word before the clause, including "Yes", "and", "of", "for", "with", "her" or "our", makes the answer PARTLY.
    • If a sentence break comes between the person's name and the clause (a full stop followed by a space, except after an abbreviation such as "Dr.", or "!", "?" or ";"), the sentence with the name must contain "full-time", or "full time" with a single U+0020 between the two words; otherwise the answer is PARTLY. For example "Dr. Jane Smith, DACVN, full-time. Is employed by us." counts, but "Dr. Jane Smith, DACVN. Is employed by us." and "Dr. Jane Smith, DACVN; is employed by us." are PARTLY.
    • For example: "Dr. Jane Smith, DACVN, is employed full-time by us." and "Dr. Jane Smith, DACVN, works full-time for <this brand>."
  • Check 2: every employer in the quote is this brand. Wherever "with", "at", "by" or "for" appears in the quote, what follows it must be "us" or this brand's exact name. A capitalised word directly after a comma, a semicolon, "and" or "plus" is also read as a possible employer unless it is a title, the word "The", one of the credentials listed above, or this brand's name; for example "Dr. Jane Smith, DACVN, Board-Certified, is employed by us." is PARTLY. So are "<Name>-employed" and "<Name> employee" for any name other than this brand.
  • Everything else scores lower. Anything after the employer, any other employer however it is named or referred to (a company name, a person, a common noun such as "a university", or a word such as "them" or "her"), "consultant", "contract", "part-time", "freelance", a date range, a past or future tense, a negation, "works with" written with a single U+0020 between the two words (read as a working relationship, not employment), and a second sentence after the employer all make the answer PARTLY.
  • Wording that does not count on its own: "staff nutritionist", "on staff", "<this brand> employs …", "we employ …", "our team", "works for us" or "is working for us" unless "full-time", or "full time" with a single U+0020 between the two words, appears before the employer in a sentence (a semicolon also ends one) that contains the person's name, "who is …" or "holds …" about the credential, and a quote that opens with "Yes." These are PARTLY.
  • Characters. For question 1, every character in the quote must be a printable ASCII character (U+0020 to U+007E), a curly apostrophe (’ or ‘), or one of the spaces listed below. Any other character anywhere in the quote makes the answer PARTLY. This includes accented letters (also in a person's name or in a brand name that itself carries an accent), letters from other alphabets (for example Cyrillic or Greek), fullwidth and other stylised letters, letter signs such as the Kelvin sign (K), the long s (ſ) and the dotted capital I (İ), ligatures, superscript letters and combining marks. Accents are never removed before comparing.
  • Matching. Capital letters are not distinguished, and a straight apostrophe (') and a curly one (’ or ‘) count as the same, with one exception: after "employed by" written with a single U+0020 between the two words and nothing between "employed" and "by" (no "full-time"), the apostrophe in the brand's name must be the same kind as in the name on the card, so for a brand named "Acme's", "is employed by Acme’s." is PARTLY while "is employed at Acme’s." and "is employed full-time by Acme’s." count. The brand's name must match exactly: a longer name that starts with it (for example "Acme Labs" for the brand "Acme", or "Hill's Pet Nutrition" for the brand "Hill's") is another employer. Some brand names are not accepted as the employer, so for those brands the answer is PARTLY. For a name that begins with a letter or a digit and whose first word is not "Us" or "Our" (in any capitalisation; a punctuation mark other than "_" ends the word), the following always hold. A name that contains an exclamation mark, a question mark, a comma or a semicolon (for example "GO! Solutions (Petcurean)"), or a full stop at its end or followed by a space (for example "Dr. Marty" or "Acme Inc."), is not accepted in any of these clause forms. A name that ends in a character other than a letter, a digit or an underscore (for example a closing bracket, an apostrophe, a hyphen or a quotation mark, as in "Now Fresh (Petcurean)" or "Acmes'") is not accepted directly after "employed by". Other parts of a name can also stop it from being accepted in some or all clause forms, and this list is not complete: for example a possessive in a name of more than one word (as in "Darwin's Natural" or "Grandma Lucy's"), or words that the rules above read as another employer, a working relationship or a qualifier, such as "and", "or", "partner" or "retired". Names that begin with another character, or whose first word is "Us" or "Our", do not always follow these rules. "Acme.com", whose full stop is followed directly by a letter, is accepted in every clause form, and "Now Fresh (Petcurean)" in every clause form except directly after "employed by".
  • Spaces. Only U+0020 (one or more), the no-break space U+00A0, the thin space U+2009 and the narrow no-break space U+202F count as spaces. A tab, a line break (U+000A, U+000D, U+2028), any other control character (U+0000 to U+001F, and U+007F), the ideographic space U+3000, U+FEFF and zero-width characters such as U+200B and U+2060 make the answer PARTLY wherever they appear in the quote. Inside a brand name of more than one word, any run of these four spaces between its words is read as one space, except directly after "employed by" written as described under Matching: there, only a single U+0020 between the brand's words is accepted, and two spaces, or any of the other three spaces, make the answer PARTLY. When the verb is "works" or "working", "full time" written as two words counts only with a single U+0020 between "full" and "time"; after "employed", any of these spaces may stand there.
  • Names. A name that has the form of a person's name under section 11.1 (for example a title followed by two capitalised words) is read as a person, not as an employer.

11.4 Present tense and qualifiers (Q1, Q2)

  • Q1: a credential counts when it is a title directly after the name (for example "Dr. Jane Smith, DACVN, …" or "Dr. Jane Smith (DACVN) …"), or follows a present-tense "is a/an" about that person in the same sentence (for example "Dr. Jane Smith is a board-certified veterinary nutritionist (DACVN) employed by us."). "Who is", "holds" and "has" are PARTLY for this question. "Was", "will be", "used to be", "not", "no longer", and "never" do not count. Neither does a credential that belongs to someone else in the sentence ("a colleague who is …").
  • Q2: the verb must be present tense: "are/is formulated", "are/is developed", "formulates", or "develops". "Were formulated", "formulated our diets", and "will be formulated" are PARTLY.
  • Qualifiers that make a credential PARTLY: candidate, pending, eligible, resident or residency, student, hopeful, -track, in training, in-waiting, former or formerly, lapsed, retired, emeritus, honorary or "(hon.)", elect or "-elect", supervised, reviewed, approved, consulted. This applies whether the qualifier is written as a word, in brackets ("(pending)", "(lapsed)"), or after a hyphen.
  • Lookalike characters: a Latin word containing a Cyrillic letter, a non-Latin letter inside a credential, or an invisible (zero-width) character in a credential makes it not count.

11.5 Formulation sentence (Q2)

  • The whole sentence must be the formulation statement, in one of two forms:
    • Passive: "Our / All of our recipes, diets or foods are …", "Each / Every recipe, diet or food is …", or "Recipes, Diets or Foods are …", then "formulated" or "developed" (optionally "and tested", "and reviewed", or "and approved"), then "by", the name, and the credentials.
    • Active: the name and credentials, then ", formulates" or ", develops", followed by "our recipes", "our diets", or "our foods".
  • Only these may follow the credentials: nothing, ", since <year>", ", a consultant", or ", an external consultant". A sentence that adds a team, a second person, or any other words is PARTLY. A separate earlier sentence (such as "Yes.") does not affect it.

11.6 Quality control (Q3)

  • Kind 1 needs a named test target (Salmonella, Listeria, pathogen, microbiological, toxin, yeast, or mold) and a frequency ("every/each batch", "every/each lot", "every/each hour", "per batch", or "per lot"; "tested hourly", "testing hourly", "test(s) hourly", "hourly testing", or "hourly test(s)" only if "finished product" is also stated). The batch or lot frequency does not count when the batch or lot named is a batch of raw materials or ingredients (for example "each batch of incoming ingredients" or "each lot of raw chicken").
  • Kind 2 needs one of: "nutrient analysis", "certificate of analysis", "COA", "ingredient spec…", with no "not", "no", "never", "without" or "n't" in the 40 characters before it; or SQF, BRCGS, BRC, FSSC, or IFS with a word beginning "certifi" (such as "certified", "certification", or "certificate") within 40 characters, and with no "not", "no", "never", "without", or "lacks" in the 32 characters (about five words) just before the scheme name. A scheme does not count as obtained if the same sentence says it is pending, being pursued or sought, expired, lapsed, suspended, revoked, withdrawn, a goal, planned, or something being worked toward or aimed for, wherever those words sit in the sentence.

11.7 Calories and the " | " join (Q6)

  • Both kcal/kg and a feeding unit must appear in the same sentence of the same piece of the quote.
  • The join. A label and its value that sit side by side on the page may be quoted together, joined by " | " (for example "Calories | 4324 kcal/kg or 321 kcal per cup"). The software reads each side of a " | " as a separate piece.
  • When a "|" is really part of the page. A pipe is read as part of the source's own text only when all of these hold:
    • we stored an archived copy of the page under this card;
    • the file's name is the SHA-256 hash recorded for the source;
    • the file's actual SHA-256 hash matches;
    • the quote is the complete text of one visible element on that page. Visible means: the element and its ancestors carry no hidden attribute, no aria-hidden, no hidden class, and no inline display:none or visibility:hidden, except that an inline display:none on an ancestor whose class list includes lazyload is ignored, because such pages reveal that content when it loads. Our software does not evaluate stylesheets. For a quote taken from a single page element, we also confirm in a browser, on the day we count it, that the line is visible on the live page. The quote must not sit inside a comment or a script, style, noscript, textarea, template, iframe, or dialog block. The element must hold no other elements and no line breaks. If the archive is missing, renamed, altered, or does not contain the quote this way, the pipe is treated as our join (fail closed). This can only lower the result.

11.8 Re-checking only lowers

  • Every time a card is checked, the software re-applies sections 11.1–11.7 and the Q4, Q7 and Q8 bars to the stored quotes, plus the same-source rule in section 2. For each answer, the result can stay the same or go down. It can never go up.
  • If a stored result is higher than the rules allow, the card fails its checks and is not published until it is rebuilt.
  • Many PARTLY answers show what is missing (for example "formulator is not named with an animal-nutrition credential"). Showing it on every PARTLY is planned (section 12.2).

11.9 Cards that fail a check are not published

  • A card is published only if it passes every automated check. These include: the rules in this section; the age limit in section 7; an adequacy statement that names the representative product; a quote and source for every VERIFIED or PARTLY answer; counts that match the eight answers; a summary with no judgment words and no "no recalls" wording; a source for every listed recall; the recall coverage line; a label that was actually read (or is recorded as not published online); and a recorded research step with no error and no test fixture.
  • A card that fails is not listed on /brands/, cannot be compared or found by search, and its address returns "page not found".

12. Adopted — not yet in effect

These rules have been adopted but are not yet applied to the cards. None of them describes a card today. Where a rule below is already partly applied, the rule says so and names what is done today.

12.1 What one card covers (section 2 and Q5)

  • Questions 5, 6, 7, and a label-based answer to question 8 must all come from the same representative product (same SKU: name, format, and size; UPC where visible), whatever source each one cites. Label lines from different recipes are never combined.
  • Question 8 must be answered for the representative product itself.

12.2 Results and sources (section 3)

  • A quote we could not confirm word for word will be NOT CHECKED, with the reason shown.
  • Every PARTLY will show what is missing.
  • Source ranking. When sources disagree, the higher one wins: (1) FDA records; (2) the representative product's package label (a photo of the package, the brand's published label artwork, or a retailer image of the same package, see below); (3) the brand's official specification sheet for that product; (4) the brand's official website or FAQ; (5) brand marketing articles.
  • Retailer package images. An image of the package on a retailer's page counts as label evidence only when it is the same SKU as the representative product, and we keep an archived copy with the capture date. Same SKU means the UPC matches where visible, the name, format and size match, and at least one label value (such as the calorie line or adequacy statement) matches. Retailer page text never counts.
  • Retailer that owns the brand. When the retailer is itself the trademark owner of the brand (for example Costco and Kirkland Signature), its product page is treated as the brand's official page for questions 5 and 6 only. Questions 7 and 8 still need package evidence.

12.3 The eight questions (section 4)

  • Q2: ACVN written as the bare letters "ACVN" after a name will also count, as WSAVA lists it for this question. Today, "DACVN" and the written-out forms count (section 11.2).
  • Q3: for kind 2, ingredients must be tested against their specification or certificates of analysis. Naming a specification will not be enough. A scheme will count only when the plant is stated to be certified under it.
  • Q4: the card records the DOI (or PubMed ID) and we resolve it ourselves. The 3 years are measured from the article's publication date. The article must be peer-reviewed and about the brand's food, or co-authored by the company. The card shows journal, year, DOI, and whether the brand funded or co-authored it.
  • Q7: the package image is archived, and a retailer image counts only when it passes the same-SKU test in section 12.2.
  • Q8: the street address must be the plant's; a head-office or mailing address does not count. A statement or label line must tie that plant to the representative product itself.

12.4 Recall look-back (section 5)

12.5 How a card is built (section 6)

  • Independent recheck of every VERIFIED answer. Since 10 November 2026, each item proposed for VERIFIED is rechecked by an independent AI review agent (no human review), which is not the agent that proposed it, against a written checklist before it is published (section 6). The checklist covers same SKU, archived evidence, date, word-for-word quote, and the question's bar. Not yet in effect: the same recheck for answers that were already VERIFIED before 10 November 2026. The recheck covers only VERIFIED answers; it does not review whole cards.
  • Owner approval of 8 of 8, shown on the card. The approval rule in section 9 will be applied by our software to the 8-of-8 display itself, and the card will show that the site owner approved it, and the date. This is not yet in effect. Until then, our automated tests fail if any published card is at 8 of 8, with or without approval. For now they also fail if any card is stored at 6 of 8 or more. No card is at 8 of 8 today. Individual answers below 8 of 8 are not approved by the owner one by one.
  • AI may propose quotes and tags. It may not give the final approval for 8 of 8 or for a link.
  • Evidence for every VERIFIED answer is archived (screenshot or file, with a hash). Today an archive is required for answers that rely on a fetch date or metadata date (section 7) and for calorie lines with a pipe (section 11.7).
  • Every VERIFIED quote will be checked automatically, word for word, against the archived copy of its source. If the archive is missing or does not contain the quote, the answer is downgraded. Today this is done only for calorie lines with a pipe (section 11.7).

12.6 Keeping cards up to date (section 7)

  • Research age is measured from the article's publication date (Q4).
  • Cards at 8 of 8 are re-confirmed at least every 90 days, and again before any buy link is turned on. A card overdue for re-confirmation loses its buy links until it is re-confirmed.
  • Each week the site will be re-checked automatically: every page in the sitemap loads, the number of brand cards matches the sitemap, and the distribution of scores is recorded.

12.7 Corrections (section 8)

  • A published correction channel for readers and brands, a response deadline, and a correction log on each card.
  • When a correction to an 8-of-8 card is accepted for review, its buy links are switched off until the review is done.

12.8 Money and links (section 9)

  • Links are also switched off while an 8-of-8 card is overdue for its 90-day re-confirmation (section 12.6) or a correction to it is under review (section 12.7).
  • Cards will note when a brand funded or co-authored cited research.

Sources cited on this page (opened 10 November 2026)

Changelog

  • 3.9.1 (10 November 2026). Section 9 corrected. Replaced "Other pages, such as the home page and articles, load Google AdSense and may show ads served automatically by Google." with "No page on the site currently loads advertising scripts."
How NoPickyDog checks a dog food brand