beef heart

What it is

Beef heart is cattle cardiac muscle: lean, protein-dense, naturally rich in taurine and B vitamins, with a texture and amino profile closer to muscle meat than to glandular organs like liver.

Why it's in pet food

It supplies named animal protein with organ-level nutrition and less of the vitamin A dose logic that governs liver. Recipes and raw-style formulas use it as a bridge between meat and organ.

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.

Beef heart is a named protein source to the engine — the word "beef" is what it reads. When it is the first ingredient it earns the 15-point fresh named-protein bonus on the ingredient-quality pillar; in any other slot it earns nothing, because only named meals score in the second and third slots. No deduction applies — an organ sold under its own name is the transparent version of what "by-product" hides.

Read the full methodology

Foods that list beef heart

Ranked by score where scores exist. Placement here is never sold.

• Frostpeak Provisions Freeze-Dried Raw Beef Recipe Nibs92
• Barrowfield Raw Frozen Raw Beef Recipe Patties91
• Ladle & Bone Grass-Fed Beef & Organ Crumble90
• Southcape Air-Dried Grass-Fed Beef & Green Mussel Recipe88
• Stella & Chewy's Stella's Super Beef Freeze-Dried Raw Dinner Patties76

Sources

• WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — Selecting a pet food
• ACVN — taurine essentiality in cats

Related ingredients

• beef kidney
• beef liver
• beef lung
• turkey gizzard
• turkey heart
• turkey liver

Further reading

• By-products and meals, without the panic
• Protein quality vs quantity — why the % is only half the story