Ingredient file // Fat or oil
Beef Tallow
A tasty energy fat, short on omega-6
Beef tallow is the fat rendered from cattle tissue, a by-product of beef slaughter. In kibble it supplies dense calories and flavor, but it carries little linoleic acid, so another oil has to cover the essential fatty acid.
- What it is
- Fat melted out of cattle tissues during rendering, then separated from the protein and bone solids.
- Made from
- Beef fat and carcass parts from slaughter
- Main job
- Calories and flavor
- Typical amount
- Not published; one dog trial fed 6.5 and 13%
- Watch for
- Dogs on a fat-restricted diet for pancreatitis
- Not the same as
- Unnamed animal fat
Our read // In our catalog
In 1 of every 1023 foods we track
Share of foods that list it
0%
3 of the 3,068 foods with an ingredient list on file, from 3 brands. 2 dry dog food, 1 dog food topper.
Each square is 1% of the catalog
Where it sits on the label
Median position 8. In the top five of 0 foods, so it is usually a supporting ingredient.
Above the salt
Listed before the salt in 67% of foods. In the rest it is under about 1% of the recipe.
Price per lb
Median of the cheapest bag price across 1 priced foods, 10% below the catalog. The price is the food's, not the ingredient's.
Who leans on it
33%
of the foods that list it are from Unconditional. 3 brands use it in total.
What it is
How it is made
Tallow comes from the beef industry's rendering plants, which cook down the fat, bone and trimmings that do not sell as meat. The melted fat is drawn off and sold apart from the protein meal.1,2,3
- 01 // Source Fat and trimmings After the meat and hide are taken, about 32 to 40% of a slaughtered steer goes to rendering.
- 02 // Process Ground and cooked Material is ground to an even size and cooked in batch or continuous cookers that drive off water and free the fat.
- 03 // Process Fat separated Presses and centrifuges pull the liquid fat away from the solids, which become meat and bone meal.
- 04 // Process Checked for impurities For feed use, tallow from restricted cattle material must hold no more than 0.15% insoluble impurities.
- 05 // Output Beef tallow A firm, nearly pure fat, roughly 36 to 43% oleic acid, shipped in bulk to feed and pet food plants.
What is in it
Composition, dry matter
1.5-4
% linoleic
The share of tallow's fatty acids that is linoleic acid, the omega-6 dogs must get from food. That is why tallow rarely works alone.
Fatty acid rows are percent of total fatty acids; tallow is nearly pure fat, so the basis barely matters. Where on the carcass the fat came from moves the profile more than what the cattle ate.1
Why it is in the bag
What the manufacturer gets
-
01
Dense calories
Fat carries more than twice the calories of protein or starch per gram. In one dog trial, dogs did not eat less as fat rose, so their energy intake climbed.4
-
02
Flavor on the outside
Fat is often sprayed onto kibble after extrusion. In a palatant maker's coating trial at 3 and 9%, dogs preferred the higher level and ranked tallow among their favorites.6
-
03
A steady by-product supply
Every slaughtered steer sends about a third of its weight to rendering. US plants made about 2.8 million metric tons of inedible tallow and greases in 2003.3
How much A Brazilian dog trial fed it at 6.5 and 13% of the diet, and blood glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol stayed within the normal range.4
Our read // The claims
What the evidence supports
Strong: controlled studies in dogs agree. Some: small or mixed dog data. Thin: mechanism or lab work only. None: nothing, or the evidence points the other way.
-
Brands say
Beef fat makes kibble taste better to dogs
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
The results are mixed. A palatant maker's trial ranked tallow and bacon fat as dogs' favorite coatings, but a 30-dog academic test found tallow the least preferred fat, 44% against 56% for sunflower oil.5,6
-
Brands say
A highly digestible source of energy
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
Fat in dog diets digests at about 85 to 95%. In a Brazilian Latin square trial at 6.5 and 13% inclusion, soybean oil digested better than tallow. Tallow is a good energy fat, not the best one.4
-
Brands say
Tallow gives dogs a shiny coat
Outruns the evidence
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
Tallow is only 1.5 to 4% linoleic acid. In a 12-week trial that never named tallow, coat gloss improved on all three 13%-fat diets regardless of fat mix, compared with an earlier 9%-fat diet. No study credits tallow itself.1,7
-
Owners say
Fatty ingredients like tallow cause pancreatitis
Outruns the evidence
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
A 385-dog case-control study tied pancreatitis to getting into the trash (odds ratio 13.2), unusual food items (4.3 to 6.1) and table scraps (2.2). It did not measure fat in the dogs' regular food, so it says nothing about tallow in kibble.9
-
Owners say
Saturated fat clogs a dog's arteries
Outruns the evidence
Evidence
- Strong
- Some
- Thin
- None
A postmortem study of 30 dogs with atherosclerosis and 142 without found affected dogs over 50 times likelier to have diabetes or hypothyroidism. That study did not look at diet, and we found no dog study linking dietary saturated fat to clogged arteries.8
Straight answers
What owners ask
-
Q01
Is it just filler?
No, it's energyFat is the most concentrated calorie source in a kibble, more than twice the energy of protein or starch per gram, and it carries flavor. An ingredient doing that much work is not filler.
-
Q02
Is it safe for a beef-allergic dog?
UsuallyFood allergies react to protein, and tallow is fat with very little solid residue left. Beef protein is a different matter: it was the trigger in 102 of 297 dogs with proven food reactions.2,11
-
Q03
Can tallow carry mad cow disease?
Not by ruleFDA bans high-risk cattle material from all animal feed. Tallow made from such material is allowed only when its insoluble impurities, the solid residue, stay at or below 0.15%.2
Who uses it
Brands, best sellers and the company it keeps
Top brands, by foods that list it
Usually listed with, share of the foods that list it
- Beef 100%
- Soybean Meal 67%
- Flaxseed 33%
- Sweet Potatoes 33%
- Pumpkin 33%
- Coconut Glycerin 33%
- Gelatin 33%
- Chicken Meal 33%
- Dried Peas 33%
- Brown Rice 33%
- Pea Fiber 33%
- Peas 33%
On the shelf
Foods that list it
3 foods in our reviews list it. Here are some of them.
Our read // On the bag
Treat it as the fat, then find the oil
Tallow on a label is the recipe's added fat, an ordinary and useful choice. Next, look for a second fat that brings linoleic acid, such as soybean, sunflower or flaxseed oil, because tallow barely supplies it. For a dog with pancreatitis, read the fat percentage, not the fat's name.
Sources
What we read
Checked October 1, 2026.
- 1 Land animals
- 2 21 CFR 589.2001 Cattle materials prohibited in animal food or feed to prevent the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy
- 3 Animal Rendering: Economics and Policy (RS21771)
- 4 Uso do óleo de soja e sebo bovino sobre a digestibiblidade da dieta, perfil bioquímico e consistência fecal de cães adultos
- 5 Determination of fat preferences of adult dogs
- 6 Fat Type and Amount: Its Impact on Palatability
- 7 Skin surface lipids and skin and hair coat condition in dogs fed increased total fat diets containing polyunsaturated fatty acids
- 8 Association between diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism or hyperadrenocorticism, and atherosclerosis in dogs
- 9 Associations between dietary factors and pancreatitis in dogs
- 10 Pancreatitis in Dogs
- 11 Critically appraised topic on adverse food reactions of companion animals (2): common food allergen sources in dogs and cats