hydrolyzed fish protein

What it is

Hydrolyzed fish protein is fish protein enzymatically split into very small peptide fragments. Hydrolysis is the technology behind veterinary hypoallergenic diets: fragments below the immune system's recognition threshold are far less likely to trigger a food-allergic reaction.

Why it's in pet food

In therapeutic diets it is the entire point; in ordinary food it is usually a palatant, since hydrolysates carry strong savory flavor. Which role it plays in a given recipe is a position-on-the-label question.

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.

Hydrolyzed fish protein carries no deduction or bonus today: it is not among the unnamed-fish terms, and hydrolysates are not named-protein candidates. If your vet has prescribed a hydrolyzed diet for suspected food allergy, that clinical context outranks any label score — this is one of the places the engine deliberately stays out of medicine's lane.

Read the full methodology

Foods that list hydrolyzed fish protein

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

Sources

• WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — Selecting a pet food
• MSD Veterinary Manual — food allergy in dogs and cats

Related ingredients

• green-lipped mussel
• herring
• herring meal
• krill meal
• mackerel
• mackerel meal

Further reading

• Protein quality vs quantity — why the % is only half the story
• Storing pet food so it stays the food you bought