peanuts

What it is

Ground or roasted peanuts — botanically legumes, nutritionally nut-like: dense fat, decent protein. Two footnotes matter more than the nutrition: peanut crops are aflatoxin-prone (the mold toxin behind real pet-food recalls, managed by testing-based quality control), and human peanut allergy does NOT meaningfully translate to dogs — the panic doesn't port across species.

Why it's in pet food

Palatability, mostly — peanut flavor sells dog treats. Whole peanuts in quantity are a fat bomb; as a treat-aisle flavor they're benign for the overwhelming majority of dogs.

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 in the engine; the vigilance points elsewhere. The pantry trap worth repeating from the sorbitol page: some HUMAN peanut butters are sweetened with XYLITOL, which is life-threatening to dogs — check the jar's label before sharing, every time, because brands reformulate. Plain, xylitol-free peanut butter in moderation is the classic pill vehicle for good reason.

Read the full methodology

Foods that list peanuts

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

Sources

• FDA animal & veterinary recalls
• FDA — xylitol and dogs (paws off, it's dangerous)
• WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — Selecting a pet food

Related ingredients

• peanut butter
• peanut flour
• peanut hulls
• peas
• pinto beans
• red lentils

Further reading

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