Potatoes in pet food — what it is and how it scores

What it is

White potato, a nightshade tuber: cooked, it's digestible starch with modest protein and potassium. The family hazard is solanine — concentrated in green skin, sprouts, and raw peels, not in the cooked flesh pet food uses. A properly processed potato ingredient carries none of that story; a pantry raid on sprouting potatoes can.

Why it's in pet food

When grain-free formulation removed rice and corn, potatoes (with legumes) inherited the starch job — they bind kibble, expand well, and cost little. The FDA's 2019 DCM inquiry described grain-free diets rich in legumes and/or potatoes; the engine's informational flag implements the legume pattern specifically, as its ingredient pages document.

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.

Potato is a splitting-rule base: three or more potato-worded entries in the top 8 — potato, potato starch, potato fiber, potato protein — count as fractionating one ingredient and take the single −12 deduction. One or two entries trigger nothing, and potatoes are NOT on the cheap-grain first-ingredient rule (that names corn, wheat, and soy). No bonus seat either: the roster's tuber seat belongs to sweet potato.

For dogs

Cooked plain potato is fine; green-skinned, sprouted, or raw potatoes are the solanine forms — peelings from the counter are the classic exposure, and quantity matters, so a big raid warrants a vet call.

Read the full methodology

Common questions

Answers come from this entry and the scoring rules above — reviewed before publish, like everything else on this page. For anything about your own pet, your vet knows best.

Are potatoes bad for dogs?

Cooked, white potato is digestible starch with modest protein and potassium — a properly processed potato ingredient is respectable. The family hazard is solanine, concentrated in green skin, sprouts, and raw peels, not in the cooked flesh pet food uses: peelings from the counter are the classic exposure, and a big raid on sprouting potatoes warrants a vet call.

Why are potatoes in grain-free dog food?

When grain-free formulation removed rice and corn, potatoes (with legumes) inherited the starch job — they bind kibble, expand well, and cost little. The FDA's 2019 DCM inquiry described grain-free diets rich in legumes and/or potatoes; the engine's informational flag implements the legume pattern specifically.

How does Bowlmark score potatoes?

Potato is a splitting-rule base: three or more potato-worded entries in the top 8 — potato, potato starch, potato fiber, potato protein — count as fractionating one ingredient and take the single −12 deduction. One or two entries trigger nothing, and potatoes are NOT on the cheap-grain first-ingredient rule (that names corn, wheat, and soy). No bonus seat either: the roster's tuber seat belongs to sweet potato.

Foods that list potatoes

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

Compare foods that list potatoes

Same species, same form, both scored — closest scores first, so the comparison is a real one.

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Sources

Cite this page

Bowlmark. "Potatoes in pet food — what it is and how it scores." https://www.bowlmark.com/ingredient/potatoes

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Verified: Last verified August 22, 2026

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