Why We Follow A European Rulebook For Indian Dogs
India regulates what your cattle eat. It does not regulate what your dog eats. Here is what we chose to hold ourselves to instead, and why we changed our minds once already.
Here is a fact that surprises most Indian dog parents, and it surprised us too when we first went looking.
The food your dog eats is not held to any mandatory nutritional standard in this country. A standard exists, IS 11968:2019, issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards, and it is a sensible one covering nutrient profiles, additives, labelling and hygiene. Following it is entirely voluntary.
Now consider cattle feed. The Bureau of Indian Standards has a specification for that too, and the food safety regulator has made it mandatory.
The difference is not about how much anyone loves cows. It is about us. Animal feed in India is regulated to the degree that it reaches human beings, through milk and meat. A dog is a dead end in that chain. Nothing your dog eats will end up on your plate, so the rules stop at the bowl.
What Actually Gets Checked
This is not to say nobody is watching. The food safety authority does enforce general provisions on hygiene, manufacturing practice, contamination limits and basic labelling accuracy, which matter enormously and which we welcome.
But there is a gap between food that will not make your dog ill and food that will actually keep your dog well over fourteen years. Nobody in India is checking the second thing. Nobody is checking whether the food in the bag is nutritionally complete, whether it is right for a four-month-old puppy as opposed to a nine-year-old, or whether the words premium, holistic and human-grade on the front mean anything at all.
Which left us with a choice. Meet the floor, which is roughly ankle height, or go and find a better one.
Why We Started With AAFCO
The first standard we adopted was AAFCO, the American framework, and it is the one most premium brands here cite on their packaging.
It is a serious body of work, built on National Research Council science, and it is the reason a good deal of the world's pet food is as good as it is. It is worth knowing, though, that AAFCO does not approve, certify or test anything. It publishes model profiles that American states adopt and that manufacturers formulate against. A brand claiming to meet AAFCO is making a claim about itself.
It also does something else that eventually bothered us. AAFCO sorts dogs into two groups: adult maintenance, and growth and reproduction. Puppies and pregnant mothers share a category.
Why We Moved To FEDIAF
Upon realising that the European FEDIAF is an even better structure, as it takes into consideration various life stages and needs of the dogs, that's what we follow. Three things that convinced us:
It sees more than two kinds of dog. FEDIAF separates early growth from late growth, and both from growth and reproduction, and all of those from adulthood. A twelve-week-old Indie puppy and a five-month-old Labrador are not doing the same biological work, and a framework that treats them identically will be wrong for at least one of them.
It accounts for how much a dog actually eats. This is the part that changed our formulation. FEDIAF sets requirements against energy intake, not just body weight, with separate figures for dogs at different calorie levels. Two ten-kilo dogs can need very different amounts of food depending on how much they move. If your nutrient targets are pinned to weight alone, the dog eating less food is quietly getting less of everything. A sofa-loving Pug in Mumbai and a street-smart Indie who walks six kilometres a day are not the same nutritional problem.
It sets ceilings, not just floors. Most standards tell you the minimum. FEDIAF also publishes maximum levels for several essential minerals, and it distinguishes between a nutritional maximum and a legal one. Too much of a nutrient is a real problem, not a theoretical one, and the ongoing international debate about copper levels in commercial dog food and its links to liver disease is a live example of why upper limits deserve attention. We would rather formulate inside a ceiling than pretend there isn't one.
Why This Matters More Here Than Anywhere
In Europe, FEDIAF sits inside a legal framework. A European brand following it is doing what is expected.
In India, there is nothing underneath us. No mandatory floor, no enforcement, no consequence for a brand that decides its own numbers are good enough. Which means the standard a brand holds itself to is not a compliance exercise. It is a statement about what that brand thinks it owes your dog, and it is entirely voluntary, and you have almost no way of checking.
That is precisely why we picked the hardest one we could find and put it in writing.
What It Costs Us
Choosing a stricter framework is not a marketing decision, it is a manufacturing one, and it is expensive.
Every meal, topper, broth and treat we make goes through micronutrient testing against these numbers. When something comes back short or over, the recipe goes back to the drawing board and the testing starts again. More sardines. Less curcumin. Broccoli instead of spinach. Months of it. Working to FEDIAF rather than a looser standard means more of those loops, and more of them fail. There are no shortcuts.
None of this is visible in the bowl. Your dog will never know the difference between a nutrient profile built on two life stages and one built on four. That is rather the point of doing it properly. The dog just eats, and keeps eating, for as many years as we can manage.
Questions We Get Asked
Is pet food regulated in India?
Partly. Food safety rules covering hygiene, contamination and basic labelling do apply. But India's pet food quality standard, IS 11968:2019 from the Bureau of Indian Standards, is voluntary, and there is no mandatory nutritional requirement a dog food must meet before it is sold.
What is the difference between AAFCO and FEDIAF?
Both set nutrient profiles for complete pet food and both draw on National Research Council science. FEDIAF covers more life stages, sets requirements based on a dog's energy intake rather than body weight alone, and publishes maximum levels for several nutrients where other frameworks set only minimums.
Which standard should I look for on an Indian dog food label?
Either AAFCO or FEDIAF indicates the brand has formulated to an international nutrient profile, which is more than the law requires of them. Ask which life stage the food is formulated for, and ask whether the brand tests finished product or only formulates on paper. The two are not the same thing.
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