How We Write and Review Our Content

Our articles and Knowledge Hub pages are written by the Grub Club team, and each one names its author in the byline.

Before anything goes live, a member of the team checks every factual claim against the source it cites.

Content that makes a claim about a dog's health or nutrition is reviewed by Dr Anna Cherry, a veterinary surgeon registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Her qualifications, her role at Grub Club and her entry on the RCVS register are on her profile page.

A "Reviewed by" line appears only on a page she has actually reviewed. Not every article on our blog has been reviewed yet. We are working through the archive, starting with articles about allergies, digestion and itchy skin. If an article has no review line, it has not been reviewed by a vet.

The reviewer reads the whole page, not a summary of it, and checks that:

• every claim is supported by the source cited for it;
• each study is described accurately, including how many dogs it involved, how long it ran, what it was compared against, and who funded it;
• nothing suggests that a food treats, cures or prevents a medical condition;
• the advice is safe, and says clearly when a dog should see a vet.

The reviewer can ask for changes, and a page is not marked as reviewed until they have been made.

A vet reviewing a page is not the same as a vet examining your dog. If your dog is unwell, please speak to your own vet.

We prefer published, peer-reviewed research carried out in dogs. When we cite a study, we say how many dogs were in it and how long it lasted, and we link to the paper itself.

We weigh evidence the way a vet would. A trial in dogs counts for more than a laboratory test. A controlled trial counts for more than an uncontrolled one. A review of other people's research is useful background, but it is not new evidence in itself.

We tell you when a study was funded by, or written by people employed by, a company with an interest in the result. Where the evidence does not exist, we say so rather than filling the gap, and we do not publish a figure we cannot trace to a source.

Every page shows the date it was first published and the date it was last updated.

On Knowledge Hub pages, "Updated" is the date the page was last reviewed by our vet. On blog articles, it is the date the article was last edited.

Both dates are always visible, and we do not change a date without changing the page.

Knowledge Hub pages are reviewed at least once a year, and sooner if a new study is published that changes what they should say.

When we find an error, we fix it. If the error changed the meaning of a claim, rather than being a typo, we add a short note to the page saying what changed and when.

If you think we have got something wrong, please email us at hello@mygrubclub.com. We truly value and appreciate all feedback and questions.

We sell insect-protein dog food, so we have an obvious interest in the evidence looking good. That is the reason we hold ourselves to the standards on this page.

On Knowledge Hub pages, anything about our own products sits in a clearly labelled section headed "Where Grub Club fits", separate from the information above it.

No content on this site is paid for or sponsored by anyone else.

No. Our content is general information about dog nutrition. It cannot take account of your dog's history, and it is not a substitute for advice from a vet who has examined your dog. If you are worried about your dog's health, please speak to your vet.