Evolve Dog Food Review 2023: Recalls, Pros & Cons

Review Summary

Evolve was founded as an animal-feed manufacturer in 1949, with dry pet food added to its line in 1960. Today, the company manufactures food for dogs and cats, with its dog food line including grain-free and grain-inclusive dry kibble as well as canned wet foods. There have been a handful of recalls including Evolve Dog Food, with the most recent being in 2021. The food is inexpensive, uses meat as its primary ingredient, and receives generally positive reviews.

Below, you can find a review of the brand as well as some of its most popular lines, to help you determine whether it is the right food for your dog.

Click to skip ahead:

• Evolve Dog Food Reviewed
• At a Glance: The Best Evolve Dog Food Recipes
• Discussion of the Primary Ingredients (Good and Bad)
• Pros & Cons
• Recall History
• Reviews of the 3 Best Evolve Dog Food Recipes
• What Other Users Are Saying

At a Glance: The Best Evolve Dog Food Recipes

Evolve Dog Food Reviewed

Evolve has been making dog food for over 60 years and now produces wet and dry, grain-free and grain-inclusive food, as well as a selection of dog treats.

Who makes Evolve Dog Food and Where Is It Produced?

Evolve Dog Food is manufactured by Sunshine Mills. The food is manufactured in the US. The company’s headquarters are in Red Bay, Alabama, and the food is manufactured here and at various sites across the US. All of their food manufacturing plants are certified for food safety, which means that buyers can be assured of good quality, safe dog food.

Which Type of Dog Is Evolve Dog Food Best Suited For?

Although the different recipes do have different nutritional values, the dry food generally contains around 28% protein with 14% fat and 48% carbs. This means that the food is suitable for dogs of all ages. It is considered suitable for active and less active dogs, and because it has fewer carbs than a lot of foods, it is suitable for dogs that need to lose weight or need careful weight management incorporated into their daily diet. Evolve does a grain-inclusive and grain-free line, so if your dog does have an allergy to any specific grains, you can find a range to suit.

Which Type of Dog Might Do Better With a Different Brand?

Evolve Dog Food should be suitable for dogs of all ages, sizes, and health conditions.

Discussion of the Primary Ingredients (Good and Bad)

When looking at the quality of a dog food, it is important to look at its ingredients. This enables us to determine the quality of the protein and to ensure that the food meets all the nutritional requirements of your dog.

Meat First

All Evolve dog foods, including the grain-free and grain-inclusive and both the dry and wet foods, list meat as their primary ingredient. For example, Evolve Classic Chicken & Brown Rice uses chicken as its main ingredient. Chicken is considered a quality ingredient in dog food, but a majority of the content of whole chicken is water, and once it has been cooked and processed, only a fraction of the weight of chicken remains. This means that it might not feature at the top of the ingredient list.

However, in the case of this food, the second ingredient on the list is chicken meal. Chicken meal is effectively a concentrated form of chicken and contains several times the amount of protein as whole chicken. The combination of these two ingredients means that the main ingredient, and the primary source of protein in the food, is chicken. Other recipes have a similar story.

Sweet Potato

Sweet potato features prominently in a number of Evolve’s recipes, especially in the Evolve Grain Free Salmon & Sweet Potato food. Sweet potatoes are gluten-free and contain complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates contain more nutrients than simple carbs and are higher in fiber. The body digests them more slowly, too, which means that they make your dog feel fuller and can help with weight control. Sweet potato is considered a good ingredient.

Avocado

One potentially controversial ingredient that can be found in some of Evolve’s recipes is avocado. Opponents claim that avocado is toxic to dogs, while proponents state that no studies show toxicity in dogs and that it is especially good for a dog’s coat and skin.

28% Protein

The nutrient levels in Evolve foods do vary according to the type of food recipe, but the dry kibbles, which make up the majority of the company’s food lines, have a protein ratio of 27%–28% by dry matter, with the majority of this seemingly coming from meat sources. This is considered a good protein ratio for dogs of all ages and is higher than the ratios found in a lot of competitor dry foods.

Grain-Free Range

Evolve does canned and dry foods. In its dry kibble range, you will find both grain-free and grain-inclusive. Although there is a recent trend for feeding grain-free diets, dogs benefit from the nutrients in grains and, generally, the only reason to avoid these ingredients is if your dog specifically has an allergy to one or more grains. Grain allergies are rare, with most allergic dogs usually reacting to a food’s primary protein source, such as chicken or beef.

Unchelated Minerals

Chelated minerals are minerals that are bound to amino acids, or protein. This means that they are more easily absorbed by the body, so your dog gets more of the benefits of the minerals than with unchelated minerals. Unfortunately, the minerals in Evolve Dog Food appear to be unchelated.

A Quick Look at Evolve Dog Food

Recall History

Evolve Dog Food has been recalled three times in its history. Most recently, it was one of six dog foods that were recalled in 2021 because it contained a dangerous mold toxin. It was also recalled in 2018 because of a fear that it contained dangerous levels of vitamin D.

Reviews of the 3 Best Evolve Dog Food Recipes

1. Evolve Grain-Free Salmon & Sweet Potato Dry Dog Food

With 28% protein, 17% fat, and 48% carbs by dry matter, Evolve Deboned Grain-Free Salmon & Sweet Potato Recipe Dry Dog Food has the profile of a high-quality dog food but at a reasonable, low price. The primary ingredients are deboned salmon, chicken meal, and tapioca starch. It also contains sweet potatoes and garbanzo beans.

The ingredients do include sodium selenite. Some people believe sodium selenite to be toxic to dogs, although it is included in very small amounts in this food. A natural source of selenium would be preferred, but it is highly likely to be safe at the levels found in dog food. This is a grain-free recipe, and it contains good sources of complex carbohydrates to give dogs energy.

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2. Evolve Classic Chicken & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food

Evolve Classic Deboned Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe Dry Dog Food consists of 28% protein, 17% fat, and 47% carbs by dry matter. Its main ingredients are chicken, chicken meal, and ground brown rice.

Although chicken is a healthy protein source, once cooked, it loses a lot of its weight and its protein value. However, the second ingredient on the list is chicken meal, which is a more highly concentrated form of chicken with approximately three times the protein, which means that the majority of this food’s protein likely comes from meat sources. The food is fortified with additional vitamins and minerals, although the minerals are not chelated.

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3. Evolve Classic Chicken & Rice Canned Dog Food

The primary ingredients in Evolve Classic Chicken & Rice Recipe Canned Dog Food are chicken, chicken broth, and chicken liver with the broth adding moisture and flavor to the food so that it is palatable and helps manage your dog’s hydration levels. By dry matter, the food has a protein ratio of 36% with 32% fat and 24% carbs.

Unlike the dry foods above, however, this canned food contains chelated minerals, which means that they offer greater benefit to your canine consumer. It also contains prebiotics to help improve good gut health and maintain digestive balance.

What Other Users Are Saying

To help you determine what other buyers, and their dogs, make of Evolve Dog Food, we have checked online to find reviews and user experiences. Here is what others have said about these products:

• DogFoodAdvisor – “Enthusiastically recommended”
• Dog Food Network – “Evolve dog food is something that you should definitely try for your pet.”
• Amazon – You can see what other buyers are saying by checking out Amazon reviews, here.

Conclusion

Evolve Dog Food has been manufacturing dog food for more than 60 years and they sell both dry kibble and wet canned food. They also have grain-free and grain-inclusive recipes, and all of their food is made using a source of meat as the primary ingredient. Protein ratios are desirable, and the price for these foods is competitively low. Their food is suitable for most dogs and looks worth a try if you’re hunting for a new food to try your pup on.

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Featured Image Credit: Chewy