Question About Calculating Amount Of Meat In A Dry Food

[cheesycats]

So, I was trying to calculate the amount of carbs in a food that reads like this:
Protein: (min) 32%
Fat: (min)12%
Fiber (max) 4%
Moisture: (max) 10%
Who’s main ingredients are chicken, chicken meal, peas, chickpeas, and pea flour.

And this food
Protein: (min) 36%
Fat: (min) 16%
Fiber: (max) 3.5%
Moisture: (max) 10%
Main ingredients are chicken, chicken meal, legumes, chickpeas.

No info on ash but I just assume it at something under 5%
Which puts the first food at 37% carb. However as I was contemplating that I realize that peas have a protein boosting effect (these particular foods don’t list pea protein specifically but I’m assuming it still boosts protein) so in reality this carb calculation can’t be correct because the 32-36% protein isn’t all meat. It can be some meat half meat or mostly meat but because of the peas it’s not really possible to know.
These foods are same brand and the first is a non lid food and the second is a lid food. The main ingredients are the same so idek what’s up with that. The lid is also more pricey. But for what reason? Marketing I’m assuming.

Anywho. My main question is how do u know if the protein number is actually meat and not peas or some other protein based veggie? Which of these foods has more meat? Can u even tell in reality?

 

[cheesycats]

To put it into perspective when I calculate friskies indoor delights (and assume ash is also 5%) it only puts me at 2% more carbs than the first food. Which is insane to me. Beucase there’s no way. Corn and corn gluten meal are the first ingredients. So it can’t be correct. The protein boosting of corn gluten meal and soybeans has to play a part in that which leads me to believe friskies is probably closer in the 50-60% range and the first foods are around 40-50% range. But as I stated in my original post there isn’t a way to even tell because there’s no way to tell what makes up that protein percent. My mind is boggled

 

[KarenKat]

I don’t think there is a way to know how much meat there is. You can try contacting the companies that make each food and asking for carbs and %meat by weight, but they may not provide that number. Worth a shot?

 

[cheesycats]

I’ve always been under the assumption that calculating carbs was exact. I never really took into account the whole pea protein potato protein thing. I’ve seen many ppl calculate carbs that way on this forum and in reality I don’t think any of its accurate at all.

 

[Azazel]

There’s no way to know. If the peas are listed within the first 5 ingredients then there’s probably lots of them.

I know in the UK they actually list the percentage of each ingredient in proportion to the whole amount. North American companies don’t do this, most likely so that people don’t realize that most of the protein in a food is plant-based.

Given the low moisture value in the above listed foods, I’m assuming they are dry. It’s probably safe to assume that most of the protein in those foods is plants based. They are also both very low in protein in general.

 

[Azazel]

I’ve always been under the assumption that calculating carbs was exact. I never really took into account the whole pea protein potato protein thing. I’ve seen many ppl calculate carbs that way on this forum and in reality I don’t think any of its accurate at all.

The values can’t be exact because they are based on minimums and maximums. And although we can get estimates of the amount of protein, fat, and carb, we have no way of knowing what the exact sources of these values are if the company doesn’t provide this information to us.