Does Freshpet Marketing Cross the Line? – Truth about Pet Food
Freshpet pet foods do not meet the legal requirements of a human grade pet food. Human grade pet foods (those with the term Human Grade on the label) requires 100% human edible ingredients (including supplements) and requires the pet food to be manufactured in a licensed food facility per federal/state food safety standards. Freshpet pet foods are NOT manufactured in a licensed food facility.
But their marketing seems to be claiming their pet foods are exactly the same as human food. Below is a screen shot of their website:
And the brand has new television commercials that take it one step further…
We did a online chat with Freshpet for verification if the pet food is feed grade OR if the pet food is manufactured per the same safety standards as human food (otherwise known as ‘food’). Our initial question (not shown in the chat below) was “Are ingredients in your pet foods human grade?“
Freshpet admitted their pet products are not human grade, they are not manufactured in a licensed human food facility. They are feed grade.
Regarding their statement: “The remainder of our recipes use human quality ingredients that are sourced through USDA or FDA registered suppliers” – Freshpet has not responded to my request for an explanation of ‘human quality ingredients’. As well, it is federal law that all food or feed ingredient suppliers be registered with the USDA or FDA. Their statement does not guarantee ingredients in their pet foods are of ‘stored in your refrigerator next to your food’ quality as condemned and diseased animal materials are sourced from USDA or FDA registered suppliers.
So…what do you think? Does their marketing cross a line? Does the Freshpet marketing intentionally try to make pet owners believe their dog food is identical to human food?
There are significant differences between human food manufacturing (and pet foods that are manufactured per human food safety standards) and feed grade pet food manufacturing. For food products that contain more than 3% meat (which includes human grade pet foods), a USDA inspector is required by law to be onsite during all hours of operation. The USDA’s role is to assure all safety standards are followed; ingredients are human edible and stored under refrigeration, manufacturing conditions are clean.
Feed grade pet foods are NOT held to the same standards. No USDA representative is onsite to assure human edible ingredients, proper storage of ingredients and clean manufacturing conditions.
As example, through Freedom of Information Act we acquired the FDA inspection report of a Mars Petcare feed grade pet food facility. The inspection report stated:
“Inspectional Observations
1. Failure to inspect, segregate, or otherwise handle raw materials and ingredients used in manufacturing under conditions that will protect the animal food against contamination and minimize deterioration.2. Failure to take effective measures to exclude pests from your plant and protect against contamination of animal food by pests (Discussion Item from 10/27/2016 EI).”
The inspection report also stated employees of this feed grade pet food plant documented that “millions of roaches” infested the food production area.
Even though this feed grade pet food facility did not protect ingredients from contamination and deterioration, and even though there was a roach infestation in the food production area – there was no recall, no warning letter issued. Why? Because this was/is acceptable manufacturing conditions for a feed.
This is not to say that all pet feed manufacturing facilities are infested with roaches or allow raw ingredients to deteriorate. The significant issue is they CAN BE. These inferior manufacturing conditions are allowed by FDA in pet feed manufacturing, but are NEVER allowed in food manufacturing. And consumers are never told which manufacturing facilities are filthy and which are clean.
So again…do you believe it is misleading marketing for a feed grade pet food – that is not manufactured per food (human grade) standards – to call itself a ‘food food’?
And – do you believe that any feed grade pet food should be stored in your refrigerator next to your food?
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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