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Ingredient file // Plant protein

Fava Protein

A real plant protein that needs a partner

Fava protein is the protein-rich part of faba beans, separated from the starch with air. It reliably raises a food's protein, but it runs short on methionine, so it works alongside meat, not instead of it.

What it is
The protein-rich fraction of dehulled, finely milled faba beans, separated from the bean's starch by air.
Made from
Dehulled faba (fava) beans
Main job
Plant protein boost
Typical amount
Not published for the concentrate
Watch for
Low methionine; it needs a meat or other protein partner
Not the same as
Whole fava beans or pea protein

Our read // In our catalog

In 1 of every 3068 foods we track

Share of foods that list it

0%

1 of the 3,068 foods with an ingredient list on file, from 1 brand. All dry dog food.

Each square is 1% of the catalog

Where it sits on the label

Median position 2. In the top five of 1 food, so it is usually a main ingredient.

Top five List position, heaviest first

Above the salt

100%

Almost always listed before the salt, so there is more of it than a pinch.

Price per lb

Foods with it $7.73
All foods $3.25

Median of the cheapest bag price across 1 priced foods, 138% above the catalog. The price is the food's, not the ingredient's.

Who leans on it

100%

of the foods that list it are from Rayne Nutrition. 1 brand use it in total.

The story

From an ancient Jericho bean to a pet food protein

Faba beans are one of the oldest crops people grow. Seeds dated to 6250 BCE have turned up at Jericho, and the plant, domesticated in the Middle East, is now farmed across Europe, North Africa, China, the Americas and Australia. World output reached 4.5 million tonnes in 2012, with China growing about a third. In Europe, feed experts suggest the beans as an alternative to soybean for livestock protein.5

Pet food is a newer market, and the pulse industry has paid to open it. Saskatchewan Pulse Growers put $145,035.70 into a dog food project that ran from March 2018 to February 2023, aimed at the most faba bean meal dogs can eat. It reported no adverse health effects at about 30% of the diet. Other key dog papers carry industry money too: a Kansas State University trial funded by 3D Corporate Solutions, and an ADM-funded protein test.1,2,8

The turning point came in July 2018, when FDA opened an investigation into dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy eating foods high in peas, lentils, other legume seeds or potatoes. Faba beans are legume seeds, so fava protein sits inside the group under scrutiny. FDA's last update, in December 2022, said it would post nothing more until there was meaningful new science. The cause is still unresolved, and fava has no long heart study of its own.3,6

What it is

How it is made

Faba beans are a pulse crop grown for food and feed. Protein makers split the dry bean into a protein-rich fraction and a starch-rich one. The starch is sold separately, and the protein goes to food and pet food plants.1,4,5

  1. 01 // Source Dry faba beans Mature seeds average about 29% protein and 45% starch on a dry basis.
  2. 02 // Process Dehulled The hull comes off first, which removes fiber before the bean is milled.
  3. 03 // Process Milled and air classified Fine flour is split by air into a protein fraction and a starch fraction, with no water or acid.
  4. 04 // Output Fava protein A dry powder of about 64% protein that still carries the bean's vicine and convicine.

What is in it

Composition, dry matter

65

% protein

Crude protein in a tested faba bean protein. Whole faba beans average about 29%, so most of the starch is gone and the protein is more than doubled.

Crude protein 64.6%1
Crude protein, second sample 64.1%4
Total dietary fiber 22.1%1
Crude fat 4.1%1
Whole bean, crude protein 25.2-33.5%5
Whole bean, starch 39.8-48.5%5

Air classification cannot pull out all the starch, so these concentrates stop near 64% protein, against about 90% for a wet-extracted isolate. Variety matters too: tannin-free beans digest better in pigs and poultry.4,5

Why it is in the bag

What the manufacturer gets

  1. 01

    Lifts the protein figure

    At about 65% protein on a dry basis, a few percent of fava protein raises the crude protein on the bag without the cost of more meat.1

  2. 02

    Lysine-rich plant protein

    Faba protein is high in lysine, 5.4 to 6.8%, but relatively short on sulfur amino acids, with methionine at 0.6 to 1.0%. It needs another protein, such as meat, to cover that gap.1,5

  3. 03

    A dry, low-footprint process

    Air classification uses no water bath. One life cycle study found it had a lower environmental impact than wet protein isolation, and far lower than cow's milk protein.4

How much No dog trial has fed the concentrate itself; whole dehulled beans were tested at 10 to 30% of the diet, and authors capped them at 20%.2

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.

  1. Critics say

    Fava protein raises the protein number without meat

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    This is arithmetic. Crude protein counts protein from any source, and a tested faba bean protein ran 64.6% protein on a dry basis against about 29% for the whole bean. The label figure goes up with no meat added.1,5

  2. Brands say

    A high-quality plant protein for dogs

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    In an ADM-funded rooster assay its essential amino acids were 88 to 96% digestible. Its methionine score for adult dogs was 34%, rated low quality, and the authors say a complementary protein is needed.1

  3. Brands say

    Fava is easy for dogs to digest

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    No dog trial has fed the concentrate. In a 12-dog trial of whole dehulled beans, digestibility dropped slightly, stools got softer and more frequent, and dogs preferred the control food at 10% and 30%.2

  4. Owners say

    Fava avoids the pea and heart disease problem

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    Faba beans are pulses, the group FDA and Tufts cardiologists point to. One 8-dog trial at 30% fava flour saw normal heart function after 7 days, far too short to clear it.3,6,7

  5. Owners say

    Fava beans are toxic to dogs

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

    1. Strong
    2. Some
    3. Thin
    4. None

    Vicine causes favism in humans with an enzyme defect. In an 8-dog trial at 30% fava flour, no hemolytic anemia appeared, and the authors found no reports of favism in dogs. Long-term data is still missing.3,5

The research

Studies worth knowing

Published research we read for this page, dog studies first.

  1. 2020 // Feeding trial, 4 foods

    Dehulled faba beans cost dogs a little digestibility2

    12 Beagle dogs at Kansas State University

    Found. Dry matter digestibility slipped from 89.1% on the control food to 88.0% at 30% beans. Stools softened, daily stools rose from 1.52 to 1.85, and dogs preferred the control over the 10% and 30% foods.

    What it means. Whole faba beans work in kibble at moderate levels, and the authors advise keeping them at or below 20% of the diet.

  2. 2021 // Feeding trial, 6 foods

    A week of fava diets left red blood cells normal3

    8 neutered beagles

    Found. After 7 days on each of four fava bean foods, red blood cell counts were unchanged and no anemia, the main sign of favism, appeared. Fasting and peak glucose did not differ from two commercial foods.

    What it means. Fava did not poison dogs in the short run, but one week says nothing about long-term feeding or heart disease.

  3. 2020 // Lab digestion test

    Faba protein digests well but falls short on methionine1

    Roosters with the ceca removed, a lab model for dog and cat foods; no dogs

    Found. Essential amino acids in faba bean protein were 88.0 to 96.3% digestible, yet its methionine score for adult dogs was only 34.0%, which the authors rated low quality.

    What it means. The protein gets absorbed, but a food needs meat, cereal grains or another protein to cover the methionine gap.

  4. 2020 // Lab analysis

    Dry-sorted faba protein keeps compounds a wet isolate loses4

    Faba bean protein ingredients; no animals

    Found. The air-classified ingredient reached 64.1% protein on a dry basis against 90.1% for the wet isolate. Vicine and convicine were detected in the dry product but not in the isolate.

    What it means. Fava protein made by air sorting carries the bean's natural vicine and convicine along with its protein.

Straight answers

What owners ask

  1. Q01

    Is it just filler?

    No, it's protein

    At about 65% protein it does real work. The fair criticism is quality: it runs short on methionine, so it adds protein reliably only when meat or another protein fills that gap.1

  2. Q02

    Is it the same as fava beans?

    No, a fraction

    Whole faba beans are about 29% protein and mostly starch. Fava protein is the fine, protein-rich part air-sorted out of dehulled bean flour, with most of the starch removed.1,5

  3. Q03

    Is it better than pea protein?

    Not proven

    In the one study that tested both, each scored low on methionine for adult dogs: 42.7% for pea protein and 34.0% for faba bean protein. Neither has a proven edge.1

Who uses it

Brands, best sellers and the company it keeps

Top brands, by foods that list it

  1. Rayne Nutrition 1

Usually listed with, share of the foods that list it

  1. Quinoa 100%
  2. Millet 100%
  3. Organic Sorghum 100%
  4. Coconut Oil 100%
  5. Blueberry Fiber 100%
  6. Dicalcium Phosphate 100%
  7. Dried Pumpkin 100%

On the shelf

Foods that list it

1 foods in our reviews list it. Here are some of them.

Rayne Nutrition Plant Based Plant-Based Dry Dog Food25.6% protein

Our read // On the bag

Count it as plant protein, then find the meat

Fava protein near the top means part of the protein figure is bean, not meat. Look for a named meat above it and count every pulse on the list, since several stacked together push the recipe toward a pulse diet. Low in the list behind real meat, it is doing a fair job.

Sources

What we read

Checked October 1, 2026.

  1. 1 Use of precision-fed cecectomized rooster assay and digestible indispensable amino acid scores to characterize plant- and yeast-concentrated proteins for inclusion in canine and feline diets Translational Animal Science, 2020 // Journal
  2. 2 Evaluation of faba beans as an ingredient in dog diets: apparent total tract digestibility of extruded diets with graded levels of dehulled faba beans (Vicia faba L.) by dogs Journal of Animal Science (Europe PMC record), 2020 // Journal
  3. 3 The Effect of Fermentation of High- or Low-Tannin Fava Bean on Glucose Tolerance, Body Weight, Cardiovascular Function, and Blood Parameters in Dogs After 7 Days of Feeding: Comparison With Commercial Diets With Normal vs. High Protein Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2021 // Journal
  4. 4 Comparison of Faba Bean Protein Ingredients Produced Using Dry Fractionation and Isoelectric Precipitation: Techno-Functional, Nutritional and Environmental Performance Foods (Europe PMC record), 2020 // Journal
  5. 5 Faba bean (Vicia faba) Feedipedia (INRAE, CIRAD, AFZ, FAO), 2014 // Database
  6. 6 FDA Investigation into Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2022 // Government
  7. 7 Diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy: the cause is not yet known but it hasn't gone away Petfoodology, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 2023 // University
  8. 8 Research Objective: faba bean meal and fermented faba bean meal in dog food Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, n.d. // Industry
An ingredient on its own tells you very little. What matters is how much of it there is and where it sits in the list. That is why we weigh the top five rather than reacting to any single name further down. Back to the wiki

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