PetTreatLabels — AAFCO Label Generator (Estimator)

1. Your product

Dog treats / snacks only in v1. No cat food, no raw / jerky / freeze-dried, no “complete and balanced” food.

Product name Manufacturer name & address (city, state, ZIP) Net weight Species

2. Your recipe

Search USDA foods Weight (g)

Add an ingredient manually (not in USDA data)

Name Weight (g) Protein / 100 g Fat / 100 g Dietary fiber / 100 g Total carb / 100 g

3. Finished batch — required

Finished batch weight, weighed after baking (g) — required Treats per batch Moisture % of finished product — optional, leave blank to calculate Crude fiber override, % as fed (lab value — optional)

Why we ask: Guaranteed Analysis is as-fed % of the finished batch — water lost in baking concentrates everything else. If you skip the finished weight, the numbers are wrong, so the tool refuses to generate a label. Moisture: leave blank and the tool calculates it from the water balance — USDA water values for your ingredients minus the water lost in baking (raw weight − finished weight). Enter your own value only if you measured it (oven-dry or lab); your entry overrides the calculation and both numbers are shown. Crude fiber: USDA reports dietary fiber, not crude fiber, and there is no verified conversion — so the fiber line is labelled “estimated”. Common ingredients now use sourced crude-fiber values (Feedipedia / published proximate analyses); anything else uses a provisional type factor, shown per ingredient under the label. Enter a lab crude-fiber value above to replace the estimate.

3b. Laboratory values — optional

Estimate now, verify by lab, enter lab numbers here, and the label is ready to use. Got your lab report back? Enter the measured values below — each line you enter replaces the estimate on the label and is marked “lab”. When all four Guaranteed Analysis lines (protein, fat, fiber, moisture) are lab values, the label switches from DRAFT — ESTIMATE to a final label.

Lab values are on which basis?

Check your lab report: most reports give as-fed %, but some give dry-matter %. If yours is dry-matter, choose that above and enter the lab moisture too — the tool converts with it (as-fed = dry-matter × (100 − moisture) / 100). Entering dry-matter values as as-fed is the most common mistake; the tool warns you if the numbers don't add up.

Lab crude protein, % as fed Lab crude fat, % as fed Lab crude fiber, % as fed Lab moisture, % as fed Lab ash, % as fed Lab energy, kcal/kg

Enter only the values your lab report gives you. A line is either lab or estimated — never mixed. You are responsible for the accuracy of the values you enter; this tool does not check your lab report. Guarantees are still derived with the same conservative margins from the values used (lab or estimated).

Guarantees are not means. A lab report gives a measured mean; the label guarantee is a limit. The tool shows both, and the guarantee sits on the safe side of the mean — copying the lab mean straight onto the label risks failing a state test of the next batch. AAFCO advises at least two analyses per variety and setting guarantees from mean ± 2 SD; one single lab test is a starting point, not full cover.

Recipe freeze: lab values apply ONLY to the exact recipe and batch tested. If you change the recipe after sending the sample — including following a recipe suggestion — the lab result no longer matches and the label must be re-done.

4. Your draft label

Free preview — the draft is watermarked “DRAFT — ESTIMATE”. Enter all four lab values above and it becomes a final label. The print-ready PDF unlock is a stub in this local build (no payment is wired). New here? Read the step-by-step workflow — from recipe to a label you can sell with.

Load the sample recipe or build your own, then press “Generate draft label”.

5. State registration checklist

Dog treats are commercial feed in most states — cottage-food law usually does not cover them. Minnesota is the national exception. Check your state before you sell.

About this tool — please read

Estimator, not a lab.
AAFCO does not approve, certify, test or endorse pet food. There is no such thing as an “AAFCO approved” treat, and this tool will never print those words.
Old-format panel only. This is the pre-PFLM Guaranteed Analysis panel, acceptable during AAFCO’s enforcement-discretion period (to ~2030). The new Pet Nutrition Facts box is not built yet — do not mix formats.
Recipe suggestions. After the label, the tool compares your numbers with reference points (AAFCO adult-maintenance floors on a dry-matter basis, the 10% treat rule, baked-biscuit moisture rules of thumb) and suggests concrete fixes. These are reference points only — treats are not required to meet AAFCO complete-and-balanced profiles, and suggestions are never a pass/fail.
Workflow guide. How to label your dog treats — step by step: estimate, improve the recipe, freeze it, lab test, enter lab values, register. Includes the FAQ.
Lab values. Estimate now, verify by lab, enter the lab numbers in section 3b, and the label is ready to use: each entered line replaces the estimate and is marked “lab”. All four Guaranteed Analysis lines from the lab make it a final label (no DRAFT watermark). You are responsible for the accuracy of the values you enter.
Lab step: a full proximate panel (Midwest Labs F2) was $40 per product per batch in research (2026-11-15); sellers typically report $75–150 per product. A lab test is the only way to confirm your guarantees before registration.
Data: nutrient values from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (public domain, CC0). AAFCO ingredient names are suggestions only — see the free AAFCO Chapter 6 PDF: 2025 OP Chapter 6. AAFCO’s Official Publication is copyrighted and is not reproduced here.