Propylene glycol in dog and cat food

How it appears on a label

Pet-food labels vary by market and language, and Open Pet Food Facts carries ingredient tags in several languages at once. This class is matched on propylene glycol, e1520, with accents folded so an Italian or French label resolves to the same flag.

Why the species matters

This flag applies to cats specifically. A cat is not a small dog: cats need dietary taurine and metabolise several compounds differently, so an ingredient that is routine in one species’ food can be inappropriate in the other’s. Tell the app which animal you have and it flags a species mismatch as well as the ingredient.

How it affects the score

Propylene glycol is treated as toxic and caps a product's score below 25 on its own. Open Pet Food Facts has sparse nutrition coverage, so pet scoring is driven by the ingredient list rather than by a nutrition table.

This is not veterinary advice

The flags here are class-level and precautionary. If an animal has eaten something on the toxic list, call a vet or a pet poison-control line — not an app.