The New York Times has an article about a dog food company called Freshpet which started up after the Chinese dog food poisonings back in 2007. Apparently this company is now putting on TV commercials appealing to our patriotism.
Their real marketing strategy, however is only partly based on fear and patriotism. There's also a good dose of dependency marketing to store owners:
What has convinced supermarkets, along with earning higher margins than on lower-priced food, is that Freshpet is sold in smaller quantities and that most products must be used within seven days of opening. That means it can more often be the reason for the trip to the supermarket, and shoppers buying other items. “You buy 40 pounds of kibble and you don’t come back for a month or two,” Mr. Morris said of large packages of dry food. “But we’re like milk and eggs.”
Please note that the line "must be used within seven days of opening" is code for "a lot more waste" than you may be used to.
Freshpet claims their food is "cooked, not processed." Apparently the company is confident that their customers will not figure out that cooking is a process and so too is grinding up the food into a puree that is put into a tube that is very much like a great big hot dog. Are hot dogs processed food? Right. Then so is this stuff. And, to be clear, I love hot dogs!
Though Freshpet is selling patriotism, not all of the food sources come from the U.S. Some comes from Canada, and another 3% comes from other places like New Zealand (the source of their lamb).
I could find no mention on their web site of where their factory is actually located, but it's in Quakertown, Pennsylvania and is an old hamburger-patty and meatball plant.
Nothing wrong with that and quite a lot good -- they at least seem to own their means of production, which is the First Step towards the kind of accountability and vertical production stream that is necessary for a quality dog food. They also have gone to the trouble of passing at least a few AAFCO feed trials. Sure AAFCO feed trials are pretty minimal, but look at how many dog food companies do not even do the minimum!
Bottom line: I have hosed a LOT of dog food companies in the past, but this one at least owns its means of production, has passed AAFCO trials, and is mostly buying its feed stock domestically.
That's as good as Purina does, and so this company gets thumbs up on these all-important elements.
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