About Open Dog Food
An independent, transparent take on dog food scoring. Built as a hobby project in August 2026, after the Years voluntary recall and new questions about the independence of the best-known rating sites.
Why this exists
In August 2026, the Years voluntary recall left many UK dog owners questioning what they were feeding. Trust in dog food was already fragile, and that moment made the need for checkable label comparisons clear.
Around the same time, one of the UK's largest dog food ranking sites published a statement disclosing that a board member had been affiliated with one of their highest-scoring recommended brands for more than two years. The connection had since ended, and there was no allegation that scores had been directly manipulated. Even so, the disclosure made the site's independence hard to take at face value. If a relationship of that kind could exist without prominent disclosure, there was no way to be sure what else might influence the scores - and the methodology wasn't open, so there was no way to check.
Open Dog Food is our alternative: a ranking system where the data definitions, weights and stored calculation breakdowns are open to inspection, so readers can decide whether the rules and arithmetic make sense.
What we do differently
Open Dog Food ranks recipes by what is declared on the label. We read the ingredient list, match entries to a published glossary, and apply the same mathematical rules to every scored product. Nobody adjusts scores by hand, and brands have no say in the outcome.
- Brands cannot pay for a better score or request a manual adjustment.
- Open ingredient glossary, so you can see how each matched item is classified
- The scoring method and coefficients are published, so the arithmetic can be traced
- Each Recipe score comes from the declared recipe and processing method
- Scored product pages show the feature values and contributions behind the number
- Scoring changes go through a named model version with a public release note, rather than silent per-product tuning. See the methodology.
- For a label, attribution or factual error, send the product URL and evidence through the correction form. We will check the source and correct the record where the evidence supports it.
- Articles show a later update date when one is recorded. A material correction should be noted in the article itself rather than hidden by changing the text alone.
We reward transparency. A label that prints real percentages, names its meats and avoids vague fillers will score better than one that hides behind marketing terms. That is the core of the scoring approach.
Independence and disclosure
I work in the dog food industry for a premium fresh dog food company. I want to be completely upfront about that, because transparency is the whole point of this site.
Open Dog Food is not affiliated with my employer and is not sponsored by any brand. My employer's products are subject to the same parsing and scoring rules as every other product. There is no per-product score override for them, or for anyone else.
That disclosure does not eliminate the risk of bias in choosing rules, evidence or source material. Publishing the method, coefficients, glossary and score breakdowns makes those choices easier to inspect and challenge; it does not prove that they are free of bias.
Disclaimer
Scores and ingredient classifications are our interpretation of publicly available information, and mistakes can happen. Product recipes and labels change, so a score may not reflect the latest formulation. Open Dog Food is not veterinary advice; if you have concerns about your dog's diet, speak to a qualified vet or canine nutritionist. Read the full disclaimer.