Purina Dog Chow has been around since 1926, with no recalls in its history. I'd say that's good quality control. The same can be said for most of Purina's dry and canned products.
As to the OP's question, TOTW is trendy and has a wolf on the bag, so no questions will ever be asked about Diamond's shady history. I fed their Chicken Soup brand to a sick cat with no complaints, but a lot of working breeders got the shaft when their dogs started dropping dead from kidney problems about 12 years ago. As I recall, hundred of complaints to Diamond fell on deaf ears for a year or more. I personally don't trust the brand and wouldn't feed anything manufactured by them again.
That's actually not true.
Purina had a recall on both their Beneful and Pro Plan dog food brands in March of 2016. Prior to this they had a had a recall in August of 2013 in regards to their Purina One Beyond brand for salmonella bacteria and these were both listed on dog food advisor.
Other sites list other recalls and Purina overall has terrible ratings, especially when it comes to the quality of their foods.
Here is Dog food advisor's review of the Purina dog food brand:
"
Purina Dog Chow Dog Food
The Bottom Line
Judging by its ingredients alone, Purina Dog Chow looks like a below-average dry product.
But ingredient quality by itself cannot tell the whole story. We still need to estimate the product’s meat content before determining a final rating.
The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 24%, a fat level of 11% and estimated carbohydrates of about 57%.
As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 26% and a mean fat level of 11%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 55% for the overall product line.
And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 43%.
Near-average protein. Below-average fat. And above-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food.
When you consider the protein-boosting effect of the corn gluten and soybean meals in this recipe and the soybean germ and corn germ meals contained in other recipes, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing a modest amount of meat.
Bottom line?
Purina Dog Chow is a plant-based dry dog food using a modest amount of unnamed meat and bone meal or named by-product meals as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 1 star."
When you compare this to dog food advisor's review of the Taste of the Wild brand, it is basically and night and day comparison:
"Taste of the Wild Dog Food
The Bottom Line
Judging by its ingredients alone, Taste of the Wild Dog Food looks like an above-average dry product.
But ingredient quality by itself cannot tell the whole story. We still need to estimate the product’s meat content before determining a final rating.
The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 32%, a fat level of 17% and estimated carbohydrates of about 43%.
As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 32% and a mean fat level of 18%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 42% for the overall product line.
And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 57%.
Above-average protein. Above-average fat. And below-average carbs when compared to a typical dry dog food.
When you consider the protein-boosting effect of the pea products, garbanzo beans, brewers yeast and flaxseed in this recipe, and the potato protein contained in other recipes, this looks like the profile of a kibble containing a moderate amount of meat.
Bottom line?
Taste of the Wild is a plant-based dry dog food using a moderate amount of named meat meals as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 4.5 stars.
Highly recommended."
On consumer affairs, Purina Pet Foods currently holds a 2.7 rating out of over 155 votes while the Taste of the Wild brand has a 4.3 rating out of over 729 reviews.
Now when I started this thread I like you thought that Taste of the Wild had a very bad reputation, but it turns out they actually have a stellar reputation beating out premium high quality brands like Wellness, Merrick, Blue Buffalo, and Nature's Variety. They have only had one recall in their entire history and that was back in 2012. While it is true that Diamond manufacturers their food, Diamond currently has a pretty good reputation as well, at least if consumer affairs is any indication. A lot of their foods have scored pretty high on sites like dog food advisor as well.
I will honestly never know why people continue to feed their pets brands like Pedigree, Purina, Science Diet, Royal Canin etc. You see vets always pushing this stuff and it makes me wonder if some vets actually even care about your pets or just making money from kickbacks. I had a vet one time who was really pushing my dog to eat Science Diet and when I asked why, he said that he "believed in the science of how it was made"...
