[Alain Stevens – Petfood Advisor]

One of the biggest assumptions many consumers make about pet food scoring systems is that the ratings remain permanently accurate over time.

A kibble receives an “A,” a “B,” or a high score once… and people often believe that rating still reflects the product years later.

But in reality, pet food formulas change constantly.

Manufacturers regularly modify ingredient sourcing, protein blends, fat levels, additives, mineral balance, or even entire recipes depending on production costs, ingredient availability, industrial constraints, or marketing strategies. Sometimes these changes are obvious on the packaging. Sometimes they are extremely subtle and difficult for consumers to notice.

This creates a major problem for static ABCDE-style scoring systems.

Many online charts, viral rankings, and scoring apps are not updated frequently enough to follow all these modifications in real time. A product evaluated months or years ago may no longer match the formula currently sold in stores.

Yet the old score often continues circulating online as if nothing had changed.

This problem becomes even more visible on social media. Old screenshots of pet food rankings are endlessly reshared on Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube. Many consumers never realize that the composition analyzed originally may already be outdated.

In some cases, recipe changes can significantly alter important nutritional elements such as:

estimated carbohydrate levels;
protein sources;
fat composition;
calorie density;
mineral balance;
overall digestibility.

A food once considered appropriate for a certain type of animal may become quite different nutritionally after several formulation adjustments.

Another issue is that some scoring systems rely on partially frozen databases. Even when manufacturers quietly update a recipe, the information may not appear immediately in the rankings. This delay can create a false sense of precision for consumers comparing products.

This is one reason why static universal ratings can become misleading over time.

Instead of treating pet food as something fixed forever, Petfood Advisor uses evolving databases designed to follow formulation updates whenever new verified information becomes available.

The objective is not to permanently lock a product into a simplistic letter grade, but to provide more current and contextualized nutritional information as the market evolves.

Because in pet nutrition, a recipe is never truly “frozen.”

What mattered in a ranking two years ago may no longer reflect the reality of the product today.

This is why consumers should always remain cautious when relying on old ABCDE charts or viral screenshots online. Without regular updates and continuous monitoring, even a popular ranking can quickly become outdated.

In the pet food world, formula evolution is constant. A scoring system that does not evolve with the recipes risks giving consumers an increasingly inaccurate picture of what they are actually feeding their animals.

[Auteur]

Messages