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In our animal science class, we were fed dog food (dog cookies) by our professor who claimed that if we were ever at war and had a shortage of food, we should keep water and dry dog food on hand rather than other types of food. His reasoning was that dry dog food provides all the nutrients humans need in a minimal package.

Is it safe to consume dog food in volume or regularly? Does it really keep a human in good health? What ingredients in dog food should we look out for?

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  • I don't see how eating just one food can keep you in "good" health. It would probably keep you alive, but I'm no expert. – user194 Feb 8 '12 at 14:14
  • This sounds like a health question (which is off-topic here, because we're not health experts), not a food safety question. Food safety-wise, you'd want a dog food approved for human consumption. Also, once mixing with water, you'd want to consume or refrigerate within two hours (etc.) I'd suggest that if you're planning for disaster, MRE's are probably a better choice. – derobert Feb 8 '12 at 14:56
  • This is way off topic, but FWIW, dry pet food and treats have been subject to all kinds of recalls and FDA shutdowns, many of them involving atrociously high levels of mold (mycotoxin/vomitoxin/etc.). So even if it was healthy in a nutrient sense (and many argue that a 100% dry food diet is not even healthy for dogs), it might actually be unsafe to consume, especially considering the amount you'd need to eat just to satisfy your hunger. Would you really want to always be uncertain of whether or not your next meal might poison you? If you're worried about nuclear war, buy canned human food. – Aaronut Feb 8 '12 at 15:58
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    @Aaronut I don't think it's legal to buy or sell canned human, even during nuclear war. – Jeff Axelrod Feb 24 '13 at 3:01

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