sorbitol

What it is

A sugar alcohol used as humectant and mild sweetener in semi-moist treats and dental products. Sugar alcohols vary wildly by species tolerance, and the family name causes dangerous confusion: sorbitol is the tame one; XYLITOL — common in sugar-free gum, mints, some peanut butters — triggers massive insulin release in dogs, with life-threatening hypoglycemia and liver failure at small doses.

Why it's in pet food

Moisture retention and gentle sweetness without sucrose. Pet-food formulators use sorbitol precisely because it's the boring member of its family; xylitol does not appear in pet food, only in human products your dog might raid.

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: sorbitol is not on the sugars deduction list (chemically an alcohol, not a sugar) and carries no flag. The safety freight on this page points at the pantry, not the pet-food label: sugar-free HUMAN products are the xylitol vector — check gum, mints, and peanut butter before sharing, and treat suspected xylitol ingestion as an emergency, immediately.

Read the full methodology

Foods that list sorbitol

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

• Gleam & Gnaw Spearmint Dental Sticks47

Sources

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

Related ingredients

• cane molasses
• fructose
• honey
• maltodextrin
• sucrose
• sugar

Further reading

• The marketing dictionary: which label words mean anything
• Treat budgets — the 10% rule, with actual numbers