Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Shredded Blend Beef & Rice: our recipe review

Purina Pro Plan · Complete Essentials Shredded Blend Beef & Rice · Dry food · Adult maintenance

On the facts printed on its own label, Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Shredded Blend Beef & Rice scores 76 out of 100 on our rubric: a solid mid table label. The panel opens with Beef, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 26% crude protein it ranks 10 of the 12 Purina Pro Plan recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 16%.

At 382 kcal a cup it sits mid range for energy, so standard portion maths applies. Its adequacy claim rests on feeding trials, the stronger of the two routes AAFCO allows. The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 40 ingredient lines. 5 of them are animal source lines and 8 are plant lines. The first added fat appears at line 8, so 7 lines sit ahead of it in the recipe by weight. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 19; the 22 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

The label facts

How the score breaks down

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it.

• Beef. Beef is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
• Rice. Rice is a milled grain used for energy and to bind the kibble. Whole grain forms keep the bran and bring gentle fibre with them.
• Whole Grain Wheat. Whole Grain Wheat is wheat, a grain that brings energy and gluten protein. Our rubric flags it as a low cost calorie source, not as a danger.
• Corn Gluten Meal. Corn Gluten Meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• Poultry By-Product Meal. Poultry By-Product Meal is the rendered remainder of the named animal once the cuts sold for people are taken: organs, bone and other defined parts. It is legal, defined by AAFCO and nutritious, but its mix varies more from batch to batch than a named meal.
• Soybean Meal. Soybean Meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• Whole Grain Corn. Whole Grain Corn is corn used as an energy base. Cooked corn is digestible and not the villain of dog food folklore, but it is one of the cheapest calorie sources in the industry, which is why our rubric flags it.
• Beef Fat. Beef Fat is rendered fat from the named source. Fat is the densest energy in the recipe and carries much of its flavour.
• Egg Product (Dried). Egg Product (Dried) brings protein with a complete amino acid profile and is easy for dogs to digest, which is why it turns up in most strong panels.
• Dried Beet Pulp. Dried Beet Pulp is the fibre left when sugar is extracted from sugar beets. It is a fermentable fibre that feeds the bacteria of the large intestine.

The brand's recall record

2023: Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets EL Elemental dry dog food was recalled in February 2023 over potentially elevated vitamin D levels. The event covered a veterinary diet, not this recipe.

The event sits in the brand's veterinary line. We count brand level events and say which line they came from, so readers can judge relevance for themselves.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Purina Pro Plan recipes we scored

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.