Journal Article

Grains on the brain: A survey of dog owner purchasing habits related to grain-free dry dog foods

Baynham, Andrew, Banton, Sydney, Pezzali, Júlia G., von Massow, Michael, Shoveller, Anna K.

2021

Overview

Grain-free pet food options abound in the pet food market today, representing more than 40% of available dry dog foods in the United States. There is currently a dearth of information about the factors that contribute to a dog owner’s choice of a grain-free dry dog food and if those factors are similar among countries. Therefore, the primary objective of the current survey was to identify the variables that are predictive of a dog owner’s choice of a grain-free dry food across North America (Canada and the United States) and Europe (France, the United Kingdom and Germany). The survey consisted of 69 questions, took less than 15 minutes to complete and was distributed virtually via Qualtrics (Qualtrics XM, Utah, USA). A total of 3,298 responses were collected, equally distributed between countries. Multinomial logistic regression was performed in SPSS Statistics (Version 26, IBM Corp, North Castle, New York, USA). Male respondents, people from France, people who ranked the importance of ingredients in a pet food in the lower quartiles and people who do not rotate their dog’s diet to provide variety were less likely to select ‘no grain’ when choosing a pet food. In contrast, people who believe that their dog has a food allergy, follow more than 5 specific dietary routines in their own diet, do not try to include grains in their own diet, get their information about pet food from online resources or pet store staff and look for specific claims on pet food (such as ‘no fillers’), were all more likely to select ‘no grain’ when choosing a pet food. This survey provides insight into the similarities and differences in decision making among dog owners in North America and Europe and should be considered when exploring the effects of grain-free dog foods on canine health and well-being.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adolescent / Adult / Aged / Agricultural resources / Animal Feed - analysis / Animal Feed - economics / Animal feeding behavior / Animals / Biology and Life Sciences / Consumer Behavior / Consumers / Consumption / Data analysis / Decision Making / Demographics / Demography / Diet / Diet - economics / Diet - veterinary / Dog Diseases - diet therapy / Dog Diseases - economics / Dogs / Economics / Edible Grain - economics / Editing / Europe / Evaluation / Exercise / Female / Flavors / Food / Food allergies / Food Hypersensitivity - diet therapy / Food Hypersensitivity - economics / Food Hypersensitivity - veterinary / Food industry / Food processing industry / Gluten / Grain / Habits / Human-Animal Bond / Humans / Logistic Models / Male / Medicine and Health Sciences / Methodology / Middle Aged / North America / Nutrition research / People and places / Pet food / Petfoods / Pets / Pets - economics / Polls & surveys / Positron emission tomography / Purchasing / Questions / Reviews / Social Sciences / Surveys / Surveys and Questionnaires / Sustainability / Visualization / Young Adult