Guaranteed analysis

The guaranteed analysis is the US regulatory table on a pet-food label that lists guaranteed thresholds for key nutrients: minimums for crude protein and crude fat, and maximums for crude fibre (US: crude fiber) and moisture. The word guaranteed is the key to reading it correctly, because these are not exact contents but limits the manufacturer commits to: a label guaranteeing a minimum 26 percent crude protein means the food contains at least that much, possibly more (AAFCO, 2024). This is the US counterpart to the European [analytical constituents](/glossary/analytical-constituents) list, and it serves the same purpose with slightly different conventions and spelling. A practical limitation worth knowing is that, because minimums and maximums need not equal the true value, two products with identical guarantees can differ in actual composition, so the table sets bounds rather than a precise profile. It also says nothing about quality: a [crude protein](/glossary/crude-protein) figure reflects measured nitrogen, not how digestible or biologically useful the protein is. To compare a dry food fairly against a wet one, you must convert these as-fed numbers onto a [dry matter basis](/glossary/as-fed-vs-dry-matter), since the high moisture of wet food otherwise makes its nutrients look artificially low. For carbohydrate, which is not listed, owners often apply the [NFE carbohydrate estimate](/glossary/carbohydrate-estimate-nfe). For a fuller guide to label reading, see the [Petipedia glossary](/glossary).

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