soybeans
Soybeans are the whole bean behind the soy fractions — protein-dense and rarely used whole. How Bowlmark scores soy terms.
Also appears on labels as: soybean · soya beans · whole soybeans
What it is
Soybeans are the whole legume — around 36% protein and 20% fat before processing. Pet food rarely uses them whole; the fractions (meal, flour, protein concentrates) do the actual work.
Why it's in pet food
Whole soybeans appear mostly in baked and specialty recipes. The soy story on most labels is really a fractions story — which is why the engine watches the family at the top of dry formulas.
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.
The cheap-grain rule covers soy terms at the FIRST slot of a DRY formula: soybeans leading such a label take 10 points off for dogs, 14 for cats, on the ingredient-quality pillar. Elsewhere on the list, no deduction applies. 'Soybean'-worded terms count toward the splitting rule's soy base since the 2026-08 matcher update — versioned config, stated as it now stands.
Foods that list soybeans
No food on the shelf lists soybeans yet. Scan a bag that does and its label joins the catalog — versioned from the day it arrives.
Sources
Related ingredients
Further reading
Cite this page
Bowlmark. "Soybeans in pet food — what it is and how it scores." https://www.bowlmark.com/ingredient/soybeans
- Engine
- Methodology engine v1.1.0 · config 13c99e2f
- Verified
- Last verified August 20, 2026
No stored score to stamp yet — the engine and config above are the ones a scan runs today.