Our response to the Helsingin Sanomat dog food comparison

Our response to the Helsingin Sanomat dog food comparison

Read Alvar Pet co-founder Hanna's thought piece on Helsingin Sanomat's article on dog foods. Alvar wasn't featured in the comparison – but here's our two cents on the important topic of transparency and quality. 

Är kyckling bra i katt- och hundfoder? Myter och fakta om kyckling som ingrediens Läsning Our response to the Helsingin Sanomat dog food comparison 4 minuter

We received a brilliant request from a customer that we decided to act on immediately. Thank you, Heli and Moira!

"Hi! I have a subscription for my dog from you and I'm very happy with the product, and so is my dog. Helsingin Sanomat had an old updated article about dog foods, but it would be nice to get your own response in the next newsletter: how would Alvar Pet rank in the comparison. Have a lovely spring!"

Link to the HS article: Parhaita timanttijuttuja | Asiantuntija vertaili Suomen suosituimpia koiranruokia ja huomasi isoja eroja

Alvar's response

The article is behind a paywall, but I picked out a few excerpts (sorry they're in Finnish!) and added a response explaining how we operate at Alvar and what you can trust you're getting when you choose Alvar Pet food for your dog.

In practice, pet food only needs to list ingredients at the level of "animal-derived ingredients, grains." We believe that detailed, accurate, and transparent product information demonstrates the reliability and quality of a product.

At Alvar, every ingredient used in the food is listed precisely on the side of the bag. We fools also publish the percentage of every single ingredient on our packaging, even though some have pointed out that someone could copy our recipes. Perhaps it comes down to values in the end: for us, transparency with our customers is more important than keeping secrets from competitors.

All Alvar recipes are mono-protein, meaning they use only one animal-based protein source (or in the case of Juuri, a plant-based one). So if the name includes /Duck, then duck is the largest ingredient in the recipe and the only animal-based protein source.

Why do we think this matters? Finding the right dog food isn't always easy, but if product information is misleading or incomplete, it becomes practically impossible. And overall, we feel that every dog owner has the right to know what they're pouring into their dog's bowl.

We know that especially in the current economic climate, expenses are being weighed carefully. A dry food that costs twice as much but looks exactly the same as a cheaper alternative on the surface can be hard to justify. However, the differences in content are staggeringly large, and their impact on a dog's wellbeing shows even in the short term — but especially over the long term. A quality diet is the cornerstone of a dog's preventive healthcare.

Alvar is also set apart from the kibbles mainstream by its local (Finland and Denmark) production, which follows Nordic production standards and quality control, as well as a transparent supply chain that strongly emphasizes locally sourced ingredients. You can find the origins of all ingredients in all our products here.

Alvars in the comparison

At the end of the article there was a comparison table of eight popular dog foods. Unfortunately we were not invited to participate in the article; the data had been collected from K-Group, S-Group and Musti Group.

I'll add two of our most popular complete foods to the comparison: Alvar Pet Digestion/Duck and Alvar Pet Adult/Fish.

Alvar Pet Digestion/Duck

Alvar Pet Digestion/Duck dry food

Price: €9.00/kg (in a 7 kg bag. Bulk packages available with subscriber price of €6.88/kg)
Country of manufacture: Denmark
Metabolisable energy: 377 kcal / 100 g
All ingredients: Duck 30% (duck meal 20%, fresh duck 10%), potato starch 20%, fava bean starch 17%, whole potato 10%, rapeseed oil 5%, beet fibre 4%, fermented rapeseed 4%, brewer's yeast 2%, flaxseed 2%, hydrolysed yeast and lupin 1%, algae flour 1%, chamomile 0.4%, seaweed 0.4%, fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) 0.2%, mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS) 0.2%, psyllium 0.2%, minerals 0.2%.
Nutritional values: Protein 24.0%, Fat 13.0%, Fibre 2.0%, Ash 7.0%, Moisture 8.0%, Calcium 1.3%, Phosphorus 0.9%, Magnesium 0.1%, Sodium 0.4%, Potassium 0.7%, Omega-3 1.5%, Omega-6 2.3%.

Alvar Pet Adult/Fish

Alvar Pet Adult/Fish dry food

Price: €8.00/kg (in a 7 kg bag. Bulk packages available with subscriber price of €6.19/kg)
Country of manufacture: Finland
Metabolisable energy: 381 kcal / 100 g
All ingredients: Fish 50% (fish meal 30%, fresh salmon 20%), oats 26%, buckwheat 15%, salmon oil 4%, beet fibre 4%, minerals, vitamins, fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), glucosamine, flax, chondroitin sulfate, brewer's yeast, psyllium, rapeseed oil, berries (sea buckthorn, blackcurrant, lingonberry).
Nutritional values: Protein 32.0%, Fat 13.0%, Fibre 3.2%, Ash 7.3%, Calcium 1.7%, Phosphorus 1.1%, Magnesium 0.1%, Sodium 0.3%, Potassium 0.5%, Omega-3 2.0%, Omega-6 1.8%.