Pet food: Who makes what?

If you haven’t already seen it, be sure to visit the Pet Food Information website to find out more about where your favourite pet foods are manufactured.  For example, you might be interested to know that Wellness brand canned food is manufactured by Menu Foods, as is Avoderm, Castor & Pollux, Innova, Nature’s Variety, Newman’s Own Organics, Pinnacle cat food, and Wysong.  It doesn’t necessarily reflect poorly on Wellness, because the foods are made using OMH’s specific recipes.  However, as pet owners I think we’re entitled to be concerned about issues like cleanliness in the manufacturing process.  I’ve always been a fan of Fromm Family food, but now that I know their food is made in China, I’m obviously going to think twice about feeding it because I worry about lack of oversight.  Fromm Family has done nothing to cause my concern, it’s the fault of the pet food industry as a whole.

I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that all pet food companies maintain their own manufacturing plants.  It would add incredible expense to the cost of pet food.  However, those of us who pay extra for foods which are (for example) free of corn, don’t feel very comfortable finding out that the food we buy has been made in the same vats as other brands which do contain corn.  I don’t know what the solution to the problem is (except for us all to make our own pet food!), but this new transparency in the pet industry is good, and I’d encourage you to take advantage of the information offered on the Pet Food Information list.

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If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, there was an interesting article in today’s paper called, “Perils and Gains of Unexpected Demand”.  It’s about how small pet food companies, like Evanger’s, are coping with higher demand because of the pet food recall.  Evanger’s has seen a surge of orders, and has had to hire staff and expand the number of hours the company is in production.  It all sounds good, but it also demands up-front cash outlays that not all companies have available.  Evanger’s owns their own plant outside Chicago, and manufacturers their own brand, plus some private label brands like Life4K9.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/10 at 09:02 PM

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  1. where do you see that INNOVA (Natura) products were made by MenuFoods.  Their website asserts that they make all their own products

    Posted by EmilyS  on  04/17  at  10:14 AM

  2. Hi Emily - I found the information on The Pet Food List (http://thepetfoodlist.com), under “Natura”.  The list has changed a bit since I wrote this entry a week ago, because at the time, the list just said that Innova wet food was manufactured by Menu.  The site has since been updated to say that it’s manufactured by Menu, but in a plant which wasn’t shut down or affected by the recall.  In any case, you can go to http://thepetfoodlist.com and read about Natura.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  04/17  at  03:46 PM
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