What's the difference between lamb and lamb meal in dog food?

This trips up a lot of people, so it's worth clearing up. Fresh lamb is roughly 70% water, which means once it's cooked into kibble, a lot of that listed weight disappears. Lamb meal is lamb that's already had the water removed and been ground into a dry, concentrated protein. Kilo for kilo on the ingredient list, meal delivers more actual protein than fresh meat does.

So "meal" isn't the villain it's sometimes made out to be. Most good dry foods use a mix of both, and a bag listing lamb meal high up is often carrying more lamb protein than one listing fresh lamb first. It's a manufacturing reality of making kibble, not a corner being cut.

The distinction that genuinely matters is named versus unnamed. "Lamb meal" tells you the species. "Meat meal", "animal protein" or "meat and bone meal" doesn't, and it means the recipe can change from batch to batch depending on what was cheap. If your dog has a sensitivity, that kind of ingredient makes it almost impossible to work out what set them off.

Read for the animal's name. If it's there, you can usually trust the rest of the panel a bit more.