Caramel

Why this ingredient is used

Caramel in pet food is not the dessert. It is a brown food colouring (E150) made by heating sugar or corn syrup with acids, alkalis, or ammonia. Its purpose is to darken the colour of gravy and sauce in wet food so that the product looks meatier than it is. A 4-percent-chicken pouch with caramel colouring looks like a 40-percent-chicken product on the shelf. This is pure visual deception aimed at the human buyer. Caramel itself has minimal caloric impact but its presence is a reliable indicator that the rest of the formula is built on marketing rather than nutrition.