Gravy Train Dog Food Review 2024

Having been launched in 1959, Gravy Train will be a familiar name to many pet parents — although because of the events of recent years, this might not be for the right reasons.

In this Gravy Train dog food review, Wag! asks the question: is Gravy Train good for dogs? The answer is a conclusive no. Gravy Train dog food contains all the sort of things we don’t want to see in canine recipes — lots of carby filler, artificial ingredients and not much in the way of actual meat.

Gravy Train Dry Dog Food

Since the beginning of Gravy Train, the dry dog food has had a unique feature — when parents add warm water to the kibble, this forms a gravy. This effectively makes wet dog food (or a close relation) at a fraction of the price. At the same time, it’s possible to serve Gravy Train dry dog food to pets without adding water.

Currently, there are two flavors of Gravy Train dry dog food and the ingredient list for both makes for bad reading. 

Let’s start with the first ingredient. Parents shopping for dog food should be looking for a source of animal protein as the first-listed ingredient — ideally, a named meat or fish, but a named meat or fish meal as the next best option. With Gravy Train dry dog food, the leading foodstuffs are corn and soybean meal. 

The first of which is a cheap filler ingredient that gives dogs energy, but has little else by way of nutritional quality. Soybean meal is a source of protein, albeit one that has been found to be inferior to poultry offal meal when it comes to digestibility.

We wouldn’t be so concerned about the amount of soybean meal in the food if there was also a decent amount of animal-derived protein, too. However, that’s not the case with Gravy Train dry dog food. The only such ingredients are vague substances, including meat and bone meal, animal fat and animal digest. What meat? Which animal? Your guess is as good as ours.

This is why ‘Flavor’ finds its way into the beef, liver and bacon product. Dog food companies have to follow certain FDA-set guidelines when naming products. If a dog food company uses ‘flavor’ in a product name, it does not have to guarantee a certain proportion of the ingredients to which it’s referring (in this case, beef, liver and bacon). 

Instead, the dog food in question only has to impart the advertised flavor to a trained testing dog. That’s why in Gravy dry dog food, you’ll see ingredients like ‘artificial beef flavor’ and ‘animal digest’, rather than any actual beef, liver or bacon.

And to top it all off, that alluring deep brown color on the front of the package? Well, that’s something to do with the artificial colors seen at the tail-end of the ingredient list. While these aren’t actively harmful, it’s reasonable to ask why they need to be added.

Gravy Train Dry Dog Food Flavors

• Beefy Classic
• Meaty Classic Beef, Liver and Bacon Flavor

Gravy Train Wet Dog Food

In addition to the pair of dry dog food recipes, there are also five Gravy Train wet dog food meals. These are slightly better when it comes to meat content… but not by much.

Notice the use of the word ‘with’ in each of the titles. Just like ‘flavor’, this provides a linguistic clue on the can’s content. As per the FDA’s guidelines, the ingredient that follows ‘with’ only needs to make up 3% of the product’s total weight.

So while ‘Chunks in Gravy with Beef Chunks’ sounds positively carnivorous, beef is the sixth-biggest ingredient by quantity and only makes up 3% of the recipe’s total weight. You only have to look at the ingredient list to work out what the other 97% is — water, soybean meal, meat byproducts, wheat flour, and animal fat are all mentioned in the ingredient list before you get around to the titular beef.

Just like the dry dog food, these recipes also feature vaguely named animal-derivative ingredients and artificial colors.

Gravy Train Wet Dog Food Flavors

• Chunks in Gravy with Beef Chunks
• Chunks in Gravy with Chicken Chunks
• Chunks in Gravy with T-Bone Flavor Chunks
• Meaty Ground Dinner with Beef and Bacon
• Ground Dinner with Chicken

The food is cheap and good for parents shopping on a budget

At the time of writing, we found Gravy Train dry dog food retailing for less than $1 per pound and Gravy Train wet dog food for $1.20 each. This makes it one of the cheapest dog food brands around and a lifeline for pet parents on a tight budget looking for dog food.

The recipes meet the AAFCO’s nutritional standards

Although Wag! has found much to criticize about Gravy Train’s formulas, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that all of the products meet the AAFCO’s Maintenance nutrient profile — this means it includes all of the vitamins and minerals that adult dogs need to function healthily.

The ability to add warm water to the dry food and get gravy could be handy

Some dogs can be picky when it comes to mealtimes and turn their nose up at kibble. When warm water is added to Gravy Train dry dog food, the meal becomes saucy and possibly more enticing for fussy canines. This adds a degree of versatility and also allows for the possibility of wet dog food for those on a budget.

The wet dog food was implicated in a serious recall scandal

Back in 2018, there was a Gravy Train dog food recall after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found pentobarbital in the company’s canned dog food. This substance is a drug used by veterinarians for anesthetic and euthanasia and should not be present in dog food even in microscopic quantities.

The ingredient list is pretty woeful

Wag! has found much to dislike in Gravy Train dog food ingredients. The dry dog food has corn, a cheap filler ingredient, as the first-listed ingredient, rather than a source of animal protein. The wet recipes fare slightly better when it comes to meat content, but there’s an awful lot of vaguely titled animal derivatives and meals in the mix, too.

The brand has been recently sold to another company

In 2023, Gravy Train was one of a number of pet food brands sold by the J.M Smucker Co. to Post Holdings. This isn’t the first time that Gravy Train has switched hands — previous owners include General Foods and Del Monte Foods.

The products aren’t widely available

At the time of writing, Gravy Train dog food is only available to buy through select retailers. Parents who prefer to buy products in-person might not be able to find a nearby location stocking the brand.

“Our yellow lab wasn't eating her dry food so we switched to this and she loves it! She eats it dry and cleans her bowl twice daily. I am glad we found a dry dog food our Princess loves.”

“I use this to supplement boring dry dog food. I mix in just enough with their daily dry and add water to create a thin gravy. 2 of my dogs act like this is their favorite junk food. One of my dogs (my Mastiff) has zero interest in it. He’s a picky eater.”

“My dogs are not usually picky but they would not eat this! We even added water to make the gravy but nope. We ended up feeding to the pigs so at least not completely a waste!”

Read more reviews at Chewy.

Gravy Train has been on pet food shelves since 1959, the year in which the brand was launched by General Foods. At the time, the product was unique for the way it allowed parents to add warm water to the kibble to make an accompanying gravy. This defining feature was always mentioned in TV commercials for the products.

Over the years, the company has been acquired by different conglomerates, including Del Monte Foods and Big Heart Pet Brands.

In 2016, Gravy Train was one of The J.M Smucker Co.’s pet food brands that had products recalled after testing found the presence of pentobarbital, a banned substance in pet food, in canned food.

In 2023, Gravy Train’s previous owner, The J.M Smucker Co. sold Gravy Train and several other pet food brands to Post Holdings.

There has only been one Gravy Train dog food recall, but it was a big one.

In 2018, a Washington DC-based TV station published an investigation into the contamination of dog food. One of the main findings was the fact that pentobarbital was found in many of the tested Gravy Train products. This is a powerful drug used by vets for pet euthanasia and is banned from dog food, even in trace quantities.

Gravy Train’s then-owner, The J.M Smucker Co., issued a product recall that also included other pet food brands under its control, including Kibbles ‘n Bits, Ol’ Roy and Skippy.

We have been critical of Gravy Train, but also appreciate there’s a need for budget-friendly dog food products. There are some better-quality wet and dry dog food products that lie on the cheaper end of the scale — here are just a few.

• American Journey
• Diamond Naturals
• Solid Gold
• Wellness
• Whole Earth