The difference between gluten-free, grain-free and wheat-free pet food

Written by Samantha | 3 September 2024

The popularity of gluten-free, grain-free and wheat-free pet foods is increasing. The reason for this is that this food reflects the needs of people. Owners care about the best for their fluffball. Sometimes a pet also needs a special diet due to food hypersensitivity or other conditions. For whatever reason, you are considering feeding your pet grain-free, gluten-free or wheat-free food. In this article, we explain the difference so that you can make the best food choice for your pet. As always there are a lot of choices and it is sometimes difficult to see the forest for the trees. What is the difference between gluten-free, grain-free and wheat-free? It's quite simple; Gluten is a protein that can be found in several grains, but not all grains. Gluten-free means that this specific protein does not occur in the feed, but the feed may contain other types of grain, such as rice or maize. Grain-free, on the other hand, means that no form of grain has been incorporated into the feed at all. Gluten-free is therefore not by definition also grain-free, although grain-free is always gluten-free. Grains containing gluten are wheat, barley, spelt, and rye. In principle, oats are gluten-free but can be contaminated with gluten from other grains. So if your pet really can't eat gluten, it's best to avoid oats. 'Wheat-free' feed means that the feed does not contain wheat, but does contain other types of grain and therefore automatically gluten.