# The Clean Label Project



## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

It would be a great idea if I knew what the results were other than a 'star' They don't list WHAT they found in the 1 star (or any stars) to make it deserve it's low/high rating ? Like, what chemical, toxin, impurity was found/not found? Am I not 'getting it'? At first glance I thought it was Checking/testing to make sure the listed ingredients were what is in the food, and if there were any pollutants in the food, but that doesn't seem to be the case? Confusing to me! 
They say they are a non-profit but what are their salaries to themselves if this is a 'well donated to' organization? Hmmmm..........


----------



## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

The lack of transparency on their findings for each specific food is my main concern. They list the contaminants that they test for, but they don't identify what they find, or at what levels, for each of the tested foods. They simply reduce it to a 1-5 star rating. That said, I love that someone's actually doing the work, and I'm surprised by the results: several Orijen varieties are in the bottom 10, while the top 10 are all commercial raw (predominantly Sojos and Stella and Chewy).

I don't feed commercial food, so their findings don't directly impact me. I only found out about the site because a friend is on the hunt for a new dog food, and I suggested several of the ones I've seen listed here: Darwin's, The Farmer's Dog, and Open Farm. The only one Clean Label Project has tested is Open Farm, and their kibbles got 1 star (their treats got 5 stars, except for the salmon which was also 1 star). I checked out Clean Label Project's FB page briefly and saw that they're taking recommendations on what foods to test next, if anyone wants to add to their current list.

The lack of transparency in their results doesn't negate their ratings necessarily, but I don't understand their choice to hide their findings, when their purpose is supposedly greater transparency in pet food.


----------



## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Well, I wrote to them, and here was their response:

"The Clean Label Project does not release raw results for specific products. We developed our rating system because we believe that raw results are only useful in the context of the bigger picture, that is, relative to the rest of the pet food category. The stars are not arbitrary, but the result of a carefully developed system. We developed this system in conjunction with data scientists, veterinarians, epidemiologists, chemists and using survey data from over a thousand consumers to distill the thousands of data-points collected on each product to make it easier to interpret and use the data in a meaningful way."

That's a terrible response. The only information they give are the contaminants they test for, but I have no idea if they're testing mere presence of the contaminant, or against a specific benchmark, and who determined that benchmark. I have no idea whether a kibble was slightly elevated in several contaminants or moderately elevated in one contaminant. I have no idea if the kibbles awarded five stars have normal/acceptable levels across the board or have elevated levels of contaminants.

All in all, I like their approach, but I'm not sure if they're actually achieving their stated goals because of their lack of transparency.


----------



## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

I agree with you Liz! If a food is rated low because they say it is contaminated with something, I want to know what it is contaminated with, and how much of each contaminate it contains! Their statement is a bunch of gobbledy goop meant to say a lot, but says/proves nothing!


----------



## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

I just saw this today also, and I think it would be very useful if they actually told us what their findings were. One thing is it appears anything with fish is rated lower.


----------



## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

I saw that they plan to start rating baby food. I'm sure the backlash against their grading system will be much more vocal then, and perhaps they will revise their pet food grades at that time.


----------

