Why dry food contains pork lard and greaves
Advice · · Nuova Fattoria
On a bag of Nuova Fattoria kibble, the composition lists two ingredients you probably know better from the kitchen: lard and greaves. They’re not there by chance. Thanks to them, the kibble has high palatability.
What greaves and lard are
Lard is fat, and in the composition you’ll find it as “animal fat (lard)”. The EU catalogue of feed materials describes greaves as a product of making tallow, lard and other animal fats. In the kibble they appear as greaves meal.
Where to find them in the composition
Ingredients in the composition are listed by weight: the first is the one the food contains most of. EU rules on marketing feed require this.
- Stone Crick: extruded maize, greaves meal, pork meal, animal fat (lard). All eight dog recipes start like this.
- Stone Cat: greaves meal, pork meal, extruded maize, animal fat (lard). Six of the seven cat recipes start like this.
- Supreme Cat Fish: fish meal (tuna) 60%, extruded maize, animal fat (lard). It has no greaves meal, but it does have lard.
So lard is in all fifteen kibble recipes, even the fish one.
How the lard gets onto the kibble
The base is extruded maize. Meat meals from pork muscle and pork fat are then applied to the finished kibble under vacuum at room temperature. That is why the kibble is crunchy and smells of meat. With Supreme Cat Fish, it’s fish meal and pork fat that are applied this way.
How much fat each recipe has
The label doesn’t tell you how much lard as such the food contains. It states crude fat, meaning all the fat in the food, including the fat from the meat ingredients.
| Kibble | Who it’s for | Crude fat | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supreme Light | senior, low-activity and neutered dogs | 16% | 22% |
| Supreme Adult | adult dogs with normal and increased activity | 22% | 28% |
| Supreme Puppy | puppies, pregnant and nursing female dogs | 22% | 32% |
| Supreme Plus | adult dogs with high activity | 25% | 32% |
| Supreme Cat Sterilized | neutered and older cats | 14% | 27% |
| Supreme Cat Fish | adult cats | 16% | 27% |
| Supreme Cat Adult | adult cats | 23% | 30% |
| Supreme Cat Kitten | kittens, pregnant and nursing cats | 25% | 32% |
In the dog kibble, the energy value rises with the fat: Supreme Light has 4 100 kcal/kg, Supreme Adult 4 650 kcal/kg and Supreme Plus 4 850 kcal/kg. But they also contain more protein, so it isn’t down to the fat alone.
How to choose
Choose by your pet: by age and activity, and for a cat also by whether it’s neutered. If your pet is on a diet recommended by a vet, follow the vet’s advice when choosing food.
You’ll find each recipe’s full composition on its own page: dry food for dogs and dry food for cats. There’s more about production on the About the food page.