Federal regulation requires ingredients in descending weight order, but each form of an ingredient counts separately. "Ground corn," "corn gluten meal," and "corn bran" can each appear lower on the deck than if their combined weight were declared as a single ingredient — and a recipe with all three at positions 4, 7, and 9 may have more total corn than the headline chicken at position 1. Watch for the same root word appearing multiple times: peas + pea protein + pea fiber + pea starch is a four-way split. KibbleWatcher's deck-cleanliness score penalizes the protein-stretcher forms directly to defuse this manipulation.