5 Dog Food Industry Secrets

For thousands of years, dogs foraged and hunted for their meals, were fed bones and meat from the butcher, or ate scraps from the table - and they thrived. 

Commercial dog food and kibble weren’t created because dogs were lacking in nutrition, it began by humans seeing money making opportunities and implementing deceptive marketing strategies that convinced dog owners to feed it.

Here are 5 dog food industry secrets on how dogs have strayed so far from eating natural foods.

1. In 1860, an electrician was visiting London and saw a business opportunity when he spotted dogs at the docks waiting for sailors to toss them stale hardtack (cheap, durable biscuits). He invented the fibrine dog cake, biscuits similar to what the sailors threw out, with the addition of vegetables, beetroot, and meat. He targeted an elite crowd in his advertising and utilized new marketing techniques like billboards.

2. In 1918, WWI just ended and new technologies like cars and tractors eliminated the need for horses, creating a surplus. A man saw the opportunity to buy up cheap horse meat and sold the first canned dog food in 1922 under the brand name Ken-L-Ration.

2. In WWII, all available metal was sent for the war effort and the metal used to make cans for dog food was no longer available. Companies innovated to keep up with demand and found that by using by-products from cereal manufacturers, they could create shelf-stable food that could be sold in bags. The ability to create a dry, cheap food with a high-profit margin began attracting larger corporations to the pet food industry.

3. In 1956, Nestle’s Pet Food Division borrowed an extruder from the cereal department, made some tweaks, and created the first dry kibble. Extrusion is a method of mass-producing shelf-stable foods by mixing wet and dry ingredients together and then feeding it through a machine where it is subject to extreme heat and pressure. This extreme heat and drying removes beneficial nutrients and moisture from the food that dogs need for optimal health. To create demand and sell this new extruded dog food, marketing campaigns focused on scaring people away from feeding real food.

5. Major preventable diseases like kidney and liver failure in dogs became so prevalent (from all the pro-inflammatory, processed dog food) that companies could market their food as a solution to these issues. This led to another trend in dog food manufacturing: the veterinary diet. While marketed to manage specific health issues, these diets typically use highly processed, cheap ingredients and are focused more on meeting strict nutrient profiles than providing the body with premium, whole-food nutrition.

In the following decades through today, the pet food market has continued to experience explosive growth. Now when you walk into your local pet store or grocery store, the shelves are stocked full with all types of different dog food options. With so many different food types, flashy packaging, and meaningless marketing claims, it’s more important than ever to know what is in your dog’s food and where and how it’s made. 

Many dog food companies, like Steve’s Real Food (the first commercial raw diet in the US in 1998), are working hard to return to nourishing dogs how nature intended with fresh, raw food diets. While rising costs of living and unpredictable lifestyles dictate what we are able to feed our dogs, adding as little as 20% of fresh foods can make all the difference. Find a pet store near you or shop raw food online.