We sent basic questions to this new pet food brand. It took four weeks to get responses, however that was in part due to an employee (who was originally responding to my emails) that left the company and our emails got lost.
We asked this cat food brand:
- Are ingredients human grade or feed grade?
- Are supplements human grade or feed grade?
- Where are the foods manufactured? by which co-packer?
- What is the country of origin of all ingredients including supplements?
- Are any meat ingredients dehydrated? As example, with the chicken dry formula – the first ingredient is “chicken”. Is the chicken ingredient fresh/frozen chicken or is the ingredient dehydrated chicken?
The initial response from Made By Nacho to the above 5 questions was only this:
“Our products are not human grade, therefore they are considered feed grade. Made by Nacho is made in the USA from the finest globally sourced ingredients. Our proteins are not hydrated.”
We sent follow up questions, this time we received a more detailed response:
“Here at Made by Nacho we source most of our ingredients from the U.S. and turn to other locations only when we need to. When it comes to sourcing, we’re incredibly stringent. We source from trusted suppliers, with even higher stringency around protein procurement.”
“The freeze-dried pieces in our dry and treat recipes are sourced and made in the U.S. In addition, our dry and wet recipes are all made in the U.S.“
“While we source as much as possible domestically, there are a few ingredients, like some vitamins, trace minerals, and taurine that are critical to a feline diet that are almost solely available from China. With that said, very strict measures are put in place to assure food safety and traceability from a trusted supply chain. We are confident in the quality of our ingredients whether they’re sourced locally or globally.”
“As for our chicken, we use fresh for our dry kibble, and frozen for our wet recipes. So to answer the over-arching question of if our meats are fresh or frozen – it could be either, depending on the recipe, but our first ingredient proteins are not dehydrated.”
With regards to taurine, many pet food companies tell consumers China is the only or almost only country of origin option. To our knowledge, there is no pet food ingredient that is only available from China. Taurine as example is also available from Japan.
Because Made by Nacho emphasized they were “stringent” with sourcing and have “very strict measures” in place to assure ingredient quality – we asked them what these statements mean.
We asked: Can you give me information on what being “incredibly stringent” on ingredient sourcing means? Does that mean you test all incoming ingredients? If so, what tests are performed and how often?
They replied:
“We do regular raw material tests, and we also do test on finished goods.”
We followed up with: Can you share what “regular raw material tests” are? What testing is done and how often? Also the same for finished goods – what testing is performed and how often?
However, Made by Nacho chose not to provide that information. They stated:
“So sorry to let you down, but that is the extent of the information that we can share regarding our testing.”
We appreciate that Made by Nacho was quick to respond to our questions (once the employee issue was resolved). We do however wish they would provide consumers with responses to all questions.
Wishing you and your pet the best –
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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T Allen
May 2, 2022 at 12:10 pm
Really? Refusing to answering testing questions just dumped them froma “maybe, possibly, won’t kill our pets” to ” don’t believe a word you say, you are just like all the rest”. 🙁
Caorline
May 2, 2022 at 12:23 pm
I find it ridiculous that o companies can be truthful about pet food
Take taurine for instance is that ever tested for impurities or actual amount
If you check out brands of popular german cat food 1gram of taurine is each serving of canned food unlike here I would imagine why heart and kidney and eye issues are so prevalent here in the USA where the percent in cat food doesnt even come close to a fraction of a gram
I add taurine to my cats canned food esp the older ones
Thankyou for informing us of what little honest info u can get from pet food manufacturers Thankyou Germany is way ahead of us
Teresa
May 2, 2022 at 12:32 pm
That is BS that they “can’t” tell you the procedure and how often testing is done.
Judith
May 2, 2022 at 2:57 pm
Thanks! I will never buy “Made by Nacho” So good to know it is not human grade – in other words it is junk!
Cassie Owen
May 2, 2022 at 11:51 pm
Same here. I want to know why they include “cane molasses” in some of their pet food (e.g. minced beef), given that I can’t find anything online that indicates cane molasses is beneficial to cats (I’ve actually found information to the contrary–that any type of sugar is NOT good for cats.) Thank you for reporting on this. I won’t be buying any more of this brand.
Marsha Hix
May 4, 2022 at 3:18 pm
I do not care for Bobby Flay, so I would not buy his food anyway.