Nom Nom Now Sells to Mars Petcare – Truth about Pet Food

The shocking announcement was published in Bloomberg News: “Mars to Buy Pet-Food Brand Nom Nom in $1 Billion Deal.” A Mars Petcare representative stated “Nom Nom will be an autonomous brand within Mars’s Royal Canin division.”

$1 Billion?

The Bloomberg story stated Mars is purchasing Nom Nom for $1 billion dollars. Nom Nom is a tiny company – compared to Mars brands. Nom Nom has ONLY 5 different pet food products, four dog food products and one cat food product.

A $1 billion dollar price tag for only 5 different varieties? Or is there more to the purchase?

Is the price tag Human Grade related?

The Nom Nom Now website states “We only use whole food ingredients, processed in the USA and fit for human consumption.” But…the Nom Nom website does not clarify if supplements are human grade, or if manufacturing standards meet human food safety requirements.

Because Nom Nom Now does not make the Human Grade claim on their label, we can only assume that the pet food does not fully meet the legal requirements of a Human Grade pet food. To be clear, for a pet food to make the Human Grade claim on its label (or in marketing), regulations require: 100% human edible ingredients, 100% human edible supplements, and manufactured in a licensed human food facility (under constant USDA inspection). With pet food regulations, the Human Grade label claim is ‘all or nothing’. A pet food must meet all of the legal requirements or they cannot claim Human Grade on their label.

Unfortunately for pet owners, the ONLY guarantee we have to quality of ingredients in any pet food is the full requirement of Human Grade pet food. When a pet food is manufactured under constant USDA inspection, we are guaranteed every ingredient and supplement is human edible. The USDA inspector does not allow any inedible ingredient on manufacturing premises.

When a pet food is manufactured in a pet food facility, there is no legal requirement for a USDA inspector to oversee the manufacturing process or provide us assurances all ingredients are Human Grade. In fact, the FDA openly allows non-Human Grade pet foods to utilize very inferior ingredients including illegal animal waste (diseased animals and/or animals that have died other than by slaughter). Manufacturers claim human grade ingredients on their website or in correspondence to pet owners, but no regulatory authority validates those claims – they could be misleading.

Such as…Mars Petcare claims Cesar pet foods is a “gourmet wet dog food“. However, an inspection of a Mars Cesar manufacturing facility found the plant ‘failed’ to “minimize deterioration” of pet food raw ingredients and documents showed the pet food plant was infested with roaches in the food production area. Is millions of roaches and deterioration of ingredients actually ‘gourmet’?

Will Mars Petcare and their lobby group Pet Food Institute influence changes in the existing legal standards of Human Grade pet food?

The legal standards of Human Grade pet food have been in discussion at AAFCO for the last couple of years. More discussion is planned for the next meeting happening next week in Mobile, AL. As the largest manufacturer of pet food in the world, Mars Petcare certainly has influence with trade associations and in turn influence with the regulatory authorities of AAFCO. We will continue to watch what AAFCO does for Human Grade pet food requirements, especially now.

Will it matter to Pet Owners that Mars will own Nom Nom?

Back in 2010, the Procter & Gamble company purchased Natura Pet Foods – at the time one of the most respected pet foods in the US. Consumers and retailers that trusted the Natura brand since it began were horrified and refused to purchase or with retailers carry the product after the P&G purchase. Four years later, P&G sold Natura to Mars (in 2014) and today the brand doesn’t even exist.

Only time will tell if pet owners will trust Nom Nom after the Mars purchase or if history will repeat itself and the sale will destroy the brand.

What do you think?

If you are a customer of Nom Nom Now – will you continue to purchase the pet food after the Mars purchase of the company?

How much can Mars Petcare own?

Per the Mars website, the company owns (this is not a complete list):

• Banfield Pet Hospitals
• VCA Pet Hospitals
• Blue Pearl Pet Hospitals
• AniCura Pet Hospitals
• Linneaus Pet Hospitals
• VSH Pet Hospitals
• Pedigree pet food
• Royal Canin pet food
• Whiskas pet food
• Iams pet food
• Nutro pet food
• Dreamies cat treats
• Sheba cat food
• Cesar dog food
• Temptations cat treats
• Eukanuba pet food
• Greenies dog treats
• Aquarian fish food
• API fish products
• Buckeye horse feed
• Spillers horse feed
• Winergy horse feed
• WISDOM PANEL^® Canine DNA Tests
• WHISTLE pet tracking device
• Leap Venture Studio
• Companion Fund
• Kinship
• WALTHAM Petcare Science Institute

When will we reach a point of Mars Petcare owning too much of pet related businesses? Or have we passed that point?

Are pets put in jeopardy with one privately held company owning veterinary hospitals, veterinary labs, and multiple pet food brands?

Wishing you and your pet the best –

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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