Skip to content
In The Kibble
My dogs

Ingredient file // Fruit or vegetable

Barley Grass Extract

A green label garnish with one small dog trial

Barley grass extract is dried juice or powder from barley leaves cut before the plant forms grain. It carries chlorophyll and plant flavones, but nothing has been shown for dogs at the small amounts a kibble uses.

What it is
Young barley leaves, pressed for juice or ground whole, then dried to a green powder before any grain forms.
Made from
Barley seedlings cut 7 to 15 days after sprouting
Main job
Plant compounds and label appeal
Typical amount
Not published; one dog trial fed 2.8% sprout powder
Watch for
Heavy metal and nitrate control at the supplier
Not the same as
Barley grain

Straight answer

Is Barley Grass Extract safe for dogs?

Read past it to the ingredients that matter

Expect barley grass extract near the end of the list as a small add-in. Judge the food by the protein, fat and starch sources above it. Do not pay extra for it, and ignore chlorophyll or detox claims. Its only dog trial fed whole sprout powder at 2.8% of the diet.

Why it is in the food
Plant compounds and label appeal

Our read // In our catalog

In 1 of every 3,204 foods we track

Share of foods that list it

<1%

1 of the 3,204 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 31. In the top five of 0 foods, so it is usually a minor ingredient.

Top five List position, heaviest first

Price per lb

Foods with it $2.50
All foods $3.25

Median of the cheapest bag price across 1 priced foods, 23% below 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 Artemis. 1 brand use it in total.

What it is

How it is made

Barley grass is not a leftover. Growers raise barley for its young leaves, which sell to people as a greens supplement in two forms: dried grass powder and juice-derived powder.1,2

  1. 01 // Source Barley seedlings Barley is grown for its leaves and cut at the leaf stage, 7 to 15 days after sprouting, before jointing.
  2. 02 // Process Leaves pressed For extract, cut leaves are squeezed for juice at low temperature. Whole-leaf powders skip this step and keep the fiber.
  3. 03 // Process Dried fast One process spray-dries the juice in about 3 seconds. Freeze-drying keeps more antioxidants; hot-air drying destroys more.
  4. 04 // Output Green powder A fine, shelf-stable green powder that a kibble plant adds in small amounts as barley grass extract.

What is in it

Composition, as fed

438-662

mg per 100 g

Chlorophyll in dried barley grass, the compound labels sell. Animal studies show only 1 to 3% of natural chlorophyll is absorbed.

Crude protein 19.9-34.1%1
Dietary fiber 2-39.1%1
Fat 2.3-6%1
Chlorophyll 4,380-6,620 mg/kg1
Saponarin 3,000-12,600 mg/kg1
Potassium 24,000-43,000 mg/kg1
Calcium 3,300-8,190 mg/kg1

These rows describe dried grass powder; no source publishes an analysis of extract, which keeps less fiber. Plant age matters too: vitamin C ran from 0.1 to 6.4 g/kg dry matter, falling as plants aged.1,2,3

Why it is in the bag

What the manufacturer gets

  1. 01

    Borrows the greens story

    Barley grass already sells to people as a greens supplement in powder and juice forms. Adding it lets a dog food carry chlorophyll and antioxidant language without saying how much went in.2

  2. 02

    Carries plant flavones

    Dried grass holds saponarin at 300 to 1,260 mg per 100 g, plus chlorophyll and GABA. Their effects come from lab and rodent work at high doses.1,2

  3. 03

    A weight-control angle

    One Korean beagle trial, funded by a government agriculture agency, fed barley sprout powder and saw weight loss, which gives brands a hook for weight claims.4

How much No source publishes how much extract a kibble holds; the one dog trial fed barley sprout powder at 2.8% of the diet.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.

  1. Brands say

    Barley grass helps dogs lose weight

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

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

    In a 16-week trial, 7 beagles fed 2.8% barley sprout powder lost 7.2% of body weight while 7 controls held steady, and leptin fell. One small, unreplicated trial, using whole sprout powder, not extract.4

  2. Brands say

    Supports healthy gut bacteria

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

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

    In that same 14-dog trial, gut bacterial diversity did not differ from controls; only the ratio of two bacterial groups shifted. The cited trial did not show barley grass improving digestion or stool in dogs.4

  3. Brands say

    Antioxidants protect your dog's cells

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

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

    Dried grass carries saponarin at 300 to 1,260 mg per 100 g. The antioxidant effects come from lab and rodent work at high doses, human trials are small and brief, and the cited work did not measure antioxidant status in dogs.1,2

  4. Owners say

    Chlorophyll detoxes and freshens breath

    Outruns the evidence

    Evidence

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

    The human evidence is for chlorophyllin, a supplement form: it cut a urinary aflatoxin-DNA marker 55% over 16 weeks and lowered urinary trimethylamine, an odor compound, but not fecal odor. Natural chlorophyll is 1 to 3% absorbed, and the cited work includes no dog study.5

Straight answers

What owners ask

  1. Q01

    Is it just filler?

    No, a garnish

    Filler means cheap bulk, and this is a small add-in chosen for its plant compounds and the greens story on the label. Whether the amount in a kibble does anything for a dog is untested.2,4

  2. Q02

    Does barley grass contain gluten?

    Not the grass

    Barley's gluten proteins, the hordeins, build up in the developing grain, first appearing 6 days after flowering. Grass cut at the leaf stage has no grain yet. Barley grain, if the food also lists it, does carry gluten.2,7

  3. Q03

    Is it the same as barley?

    No

    Barley grain is a starchy seed. Barley grass is the leaf, cut 7 to 15 days after sprouting, about 27% protein in dried form, with a different set of plant compounds.1,2

Who uses it

Brands, best sellers and the company it keeps

Top brands, by foods that list it

  1. Artemis 1 / 11

Foods that list it / all the brand's recipes we track.

Usually listed with, share of the foods that list it

  1. Chicken 100%
  2. Chicken Meal 100%
  3. Turkey 100%
  4. Barley 100%
  5. Brown Rice 100%
  6. Oatmeal 100%
  7. Millet 100%
  8. Peas 100%
  9. Pea Flour 100%
  10. Egg Product 100%

On the shelf

Foods that list Barley Grass Extract

1 food in our catalog lists it, highest on the label first.

Artemis Fresh Mix Medium-Large Dog All Life Stages Dry Dog FoodArtemisArtemis Fresh Mix Medium-Large Dog All Life Stages Dry Dog FoodDry // No. 31 on the label

Sources

What we read

Checked October 1, 2026.

  1. 1 Preventive and Therapeutic Role of Functional Ingredients of Barley Grass for Chronic Diseases in Human Beings Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2018 // Journal
  2. 2 Young Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Preparations: From Phytochemical Complexity to Clinical Relevance Molecules, 2026 // Journal
  3. 3 Evaluation of barley grass as a potential source of some nutritional substances Czech Journal of Food Sciences, 2007 // Journal
  4. 4 Anti-Obesity Potential of Barley Sprouts in Dog Diets and Their Impact on the Gut Microbiota Microorganisms, 2025 // Journal
  5. 5 Chlorophyll and Metallo-Chlorophyll Derivatives Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, 2021 // University
  6. 6 Characterization of Paroxysmal Gluten-Sensitive Dyskinesia in Border Terriers Using Serological Markers Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 2018 // Journal
  7. 7 Hordein Accumulation in Developing Barley Grains Frontiers in Plant Science, 2019 // Journal
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

Keep In The Know,
Know What's In The Bowl

The In the Kibble newsletter. Useful emails for dog owners: what we find inside dog food, how to feed well, and a heads-up when a food is recalled.
DOUBLE OPT-IN // ONE CLICK TO STOP // NEVER SHARED