Most human food is not poisonous to dogs, but a short list genuinely is, and a much longer list causes trouble through fat, salt, or sheer quantity. Start with the ten never-feed items below, then use DogSafe's crawlable A-Z food directory for the exact item.
The short answer
Everything else on this page is a question of how much, how fatty, how salty, and how big your dog is. That is the honest shape of the problem: a lick of something rich is rarely an emergency, and a whole plate of the same thing can be.
DogSafe currently covers 2070 foods. The complete food directory links every exact-item verdict in manageable pages, while this guide explains the safety rules that apply across the list. Use the most toxic foods list if you want the dangerous end on its own, and the weight-based checker when you need an amount worked out for your own dog.
The ten that are never a portion question
Four of these do damage that has nothing to do with how rich the food is. Xylitol, the sweetener in sugar-free gum and some peanut butters, triggers a rapid insulin release and can cause liver failure; there is no safe amount and it is the fastest-moving item on this list. Grapes and Raisins can cause acute kidney injury, and the toxic dose is genuinely unpredictable rather than merely low.
Macadamia nuts produce a distinctive weakness in the hind legs, tremors and fever. Onion and Garlic damage red blood cells, and because the effect is cumulative and delayed, a dog can look completely normal for a day or two before the anaemia shows. That delay is why allium exposure is worth a call even when your dog seems fine.
Chocolate and Caffeine are both methylxanthines, and the dose that matters depends on your dog's weight and on how dark the chocolate is. Alcohol affects dogs far more strongly than people at the same volume. Moldy Food is the one people forget: mouldy leftovers and compost can carry tremorgenic mycotoxins that cause severe tremors and seizures within hours.
How much is too much?
For everything outside the never-feed list, three thresholds matter and they scale with body weight. The first is the treat rule: food outside a dog's normal diet should stay under about a tenth of daily calories, which for a 20 lb dog is a very small amount of cheese or meat and for an 80 lb dog is meaningfully more.
The second is fat. A large fatty load is a recognised trigger for pancreatitis, and it is the single most common reason a dog that ate human food ends up at a vet. Fatty foods and pancreatitis covers which foods carry the real fat risk and what the early signs look like.
The third is salt, which is a quantity problem rather than a trace problem. A dog that eats a large amount of a very salty food and then cannot drink freely is the case that goes wrong. Published toxic doses vary by source and by dog, so rather than reproduce a number here, use the weight-aware checker at /check, and see how body size changes a dose for why the same mouthful is a different event for a Chihuahua and a Labrador.
Browse all 2070 foods without loading one enormous page
The complete DogSafe food directory is split into fast, sequential pages with direct links to every food guide. That structure keeps the A-Z useful on a phone, gives each item a crawlable route from the category, and avoids making a reader download thousands of table rows before getting an answer.
Use the directory as an index, not as a substitute for the individual guide. Start with the closest exact name on the label or recipe, open that item, and then compare its ingredient list with what your dog actually reached. Prepared dishes often belong to more than one risk group: a casserole may combine a safe base ingredient with onion powder, a fatty sauce, and a large amount of salt. When the exact product is not listed, search the ingredients one at a time and give priority to sweeteners, alliums, chocolate or caffeine, alcohol, grapes or raisins, macadamia nuts, mould, concentrated salt, and unusually fatty ingredients. This approach is slower than guessing from the dish name but much more reliable, and it gives a veterinarian or poison-control specialist a clearer account if you need to call.
If you already know the name, the instant checker is faster. If you are comparing a family of foods, start with cheeses ranked by risk, sauces and condiments, deli meats or fish and seafood.
Beyond food: the other three catalogues
Food is the largest section of the site but not the only one. Houseplants and cut flowers are covered under plants, where Lily and Sago palm are the two worth knowing by name before anything happens. Cleaning products, batteries and garage chemicals are under household, led by Antifreeze and Bleach.
Several of these categories now have directory pages of their own. Every cheese ranked by risk, sauces and condiments, the deli counter, fish and seafood and human medications each go considerably deeper than a single row in the table above can.
Human medicine is the category where good intentions cause the most harm, because owners reach for it deliberately. Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen are the two most common accidental poisonings in the medications catalogue, and neither has a safe at-home dose for a dog.
Signs to watch for
Whatever your dog ate, the signs that move a situation from watch-at-home to call-now are broadly the same: repeated vomiting, diarrhoea that will not settle, a painful or bloated belly, drooling, weakness or wobbliness, tremors, collapse, pale or yellow gums, laboured breathing, marked thirst, straining to urinate or producing no urine, and any sudden change in behaviour or alertness.
Timing matters as much as the sign itself. Allium damage and grape kidney injury both show up late, so a dog that looks well two hours after eating either is not yet in the clear.
What to do next
Work in this order. Take away what is left and keep the packaging, since the ingredient list is often the thing that decides the answer. Estimate the amount honestly, including the possibility that your dog ate more than you can see. Weigh your dog or use the most recent known weight.
Then decide. If the food is on the never-feed list, call now regardless of amount. If it is not, and your dog is well, a small amount of a non-toxic food is usually a watch-at-home situation. If your dog is showing any of the signs above, or the amount was large, or your dog is small, elderly, pregnant, diabetic or has a pancreatitis history, call. When to call the vet and when to watch at home walks that decision through properly, and the first ten minutes covers what to do while you are still deciding.
Do not make your dog vomit unless a veterinarian or a poison control line tells you to. It is the wrong move for corrosives and for anything that can be inhaled, and it is unnecessary for most of what is on this page.
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Frequently asked questions
What human food can dogs eat safely?
Plain cooked meat and fish without bones, most plain vegetables, and many fruits are fine in small amounts. Plain chicken, carrot and rice are the usual safe answers. The catch is that ‘plain’ is doing real work in that sentence: the seasoning, sauce, butter or garlic added during cooking is what usually causes the problem, not the underlying ingredient.
What human food is toxic to dogs?
The ten that are dangerous at any amount are xylitol, grapes, raisins, chocolate, onion, garlic, macadamia nuts, alcohol, caffeine and mouldy food. Beyond those, cooked bones, very salty foods and very fatty foods cause a large share of real veterinary visits without being toxic in the strict sense. The main guide above links each of those hazards once, so this answer stays readable instead of repeating the same link list.
Can dogs eat human food every day?
As a small part of a complete diet, yes, provided it stays under roughly a tenth of daily calories and avoids the never-feed list. The practical risks of daily human food are weight gain and an unbalanced diet rather than poisoning. If your dog has a medical condition or is on a prescription diet, check with your vet before making it a habit.
How much human food can a dog have?
The usual guidance is that treats and extras should stay under about ten percent of daily calories, which scales with body weight. A 20 lb dog reaches that limit on a strikingly small piece of cheese; an 80 lb dog has more room. Fat and salt are the two things worth counting rather than volume alone, because both cause trouble well before the calorie limit does.
What should I do if my dog ate something on the never-feed list?
Call rather than wait. Keep the packaging, estimate the amount, and have your dog's weight ready. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center and the Pet Poison Helpline both run around the clock and can tell you whether the amount matters for your dog's size. Do not induce vomiting unless you are told to. The first ten minutes covers the rest.
Are there foods that are safe for dogs but not puppies?
Broadly the same list applies, but the margin is much smaller. A puppy's body weight is a fraction of an adult's, so the same mouthful is a far larger dose, and puppies dehydrate faster when vomiting starts. Rich or fatty foods that an adult dog would shrug off are also more likely to cause significant digestive upset in a young dog.
Does cooking make a dangerous food safe?
No, not for the items that matter. Cooking does not deactivate the compounds in onion or garlic, and cooked forms such as onion powder are more concentrated by weight than the raw vegetable. Cooking bones makes them more dangerous rather than less, because they splinter. Grapes and xylitol are unaffected by heat, so baking or simmering a food does not create a safe exception.
Is a dog that seems fine after eating something in the clear?
Not necessarily, and this is the most common mistake. Onion and garlic damage red blood cells over several days, so anaemia can appear well after the meal. Grape and raisin kidney injury also declares itself late. Pancreatitis after a fatty meal typically shows up within one to three days. For those exposures, feeling reassured at the two-hour mark is premature.