amaranth

What it is

Seeds of the amaranth plant — like quinoa, a broadleaf pseudo-grain rather than a true cereal. Its protein runs higher and more lysine-complete than most grains, and there's no gluten anywhere in the plant.

Why it's in pet food

Ancient-grain positioning with better-than-average substance: for a carbohydrate ingredient, amaranth's amino profile genuinely stands out. Inclusions are usually accent-scale, so the standing out is proportional.

How Bowlmark scores it

Scores are deterministic math over the printed label — the rules below apply to every product identically, and nothing estimates or fills in a blank.

Neutral — no roster anywhere touches it. The pseudo-grain shelf (amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat family) is where gluten-free recipes shop without going grain-free; a useful distinction the aisle's marketing constantly blurs and this corpus keeps sharp.

Read the full methodology

Foods that list amaranth

No food on the shelf lists amaranth yet. Scan a bag that does and its label joins the catalog — versioned from the day it arrives.

Sources

• NRC Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats (2006)
• WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — Selecting a pet food

Related ingredients

• barley
• barley flour
• brewers rice
• white rice
• whole wheat
• wild rice

Further reading

• Grain-free, legumes and the DCM question
• How to read a pet food label