Pretend Human Grade and Not Profitable – Truth about Pet Food

Blue Buffalo and Purina Pet Care have an ugly competitive past. In 2014, Purina testing of Blue Buffalo pet foods led to multiple lawsuits – one costing Blue Buffalo $32 million.

Both of these companies were recently in the news, discussing future plans of the brand. Both have different, but similar perspectives on human grade pet food.

Blue Buffalo’s perspective.

Blue Buffalo (owned by General Mills) announced they are potentially entering into the refrigerated pet food space. The company is currently testing a fresh dog food in 200 pet food stores.

The new pet food line is called “Fresh“. We could not find a list of ingredients. We also could not find information if the product is a human grade pet food or a feed grade pet food pretending to be human grade.

In a news story, Blue Buffalo stated (bold added): “‘We’re testing how pet parents are going to receive it, and how they’re going to use it,’ said Bethany Quam, president of the pet segment for Golden Valley-based General Mills. ‘It’s extremely humanized — a resealable deli container that can be a full meal or put on top of a bowl of dry food.‘”

“‘It’s the simple idea of wanting to feed your pet like family,’ Quam said. That humanization trend is seen as key for sustained growth in pet food.“

Blue Buffalo’s terms of “humanized“/”humanization” do NOT guarantee the pet food is actually human grade. The pet food label does not appear to have the Human Grade disclosure, we assume the new food is/will be feed grade marketed as a human grade pet food.

Per their own words, Blue Buffalo’s perspective is marketing the humanization of pet food, not necessarily human grade pet food.

Purina’s perspective.

Nestle Purina Petcare recently stated at an investor conference they are currently not interested in producing a human grade pet food – their reasoning was money. A Nestle executive stated (bold added):

“As of today, we are not totally convinced by the economics of some of these sub-segments. It’s a little bit early so we prefer to continue reviewing and let’s wait and see if we believe that there is a case for profitable growth there as well.”

“The market opportunity is there. Could we get a good return out of it? We are not totally, totally sure at this stage, but it’s something that we will continue monitoring on a permanent basis.”

Per their own words, Purina’s focus is not human grade pet foods, it’s “profitable growth“…”a good return“.

It appears neither brand is interested in selling pet ‘food’ (human grade pet food). Selling pet feed (feed grade) marketed and labeled as food is working fine for them. It appears both brands are focused on profits and growth of their company provided by significantly less expensive (and inferior quality) feed grade ingredients and feed grade manufacturing.

But…would that change if regulations required pet food labels to disclose feed grade quality of ingredients?

Currently, regulatory authorities allow pet feed manufacturers to mislead consumers not requiring truthful labels. Such as pet feed manufacturers are allowed to make claims of ‘Made with Real Chicken’ even though the ‘chicken’ could be sourced from condemned, illegal per federal law chicken. Our consumer association – AssociationforTruthinPetFood.com – filed a Citizen Petition with FDA 9 months ago requesting disclosure of feed grade ingredients on labels. We fully evidenced that federal law requires this. Even though FDA was required to provide their response within 120 days, the agency has not given us an answer to our Petition.

So…pet owners searching for actual human grade pet foods (human edible ingredients and supplements, manufactured in a licensed human food facility) will need to continue to be diligent in asking questions of their manufacturer. Because regulatory authorities allow pet food labels and websites to mislead pet owners – we have to ask questions.

Are food ingredients human edible?
Are supplements human edible?
Is the pet food manufactured in a licensed human food facility?

It’s worth the effort – ask them!

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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