Started back in 2012, the List is our annual ‘list’ of pet foods we trust to give our own pets. A list of pet foods from one very picky pet food consumer advocate to other picky pet food consumers.
Key Feature of the 2025 List:
Validated Ingredient Quality
Verification is the most significant part of the List. Pet food brands included in the List voluntarily provided us documentation that all ingredients in their pet foods are actually food (human grade ingredients, not feed grade ingredients). As well, if the company claims they use organic ingredients or meats sourced from certified humanely raised animals, they provided that documentation as well.
Note: The 2025 List is a digital product (a pdf document).
No refunds on digital products.
Please read the detailed information below before purchase.
The List provides you with vital information that the pet food label does not…actually cannot. Existing pet food regulations do not allow pet food manufacturers to disclose pertinent information such as ingredient and supplement quality, manufacturing standards, laboratory testing protocols, or confirm no use of pesticide fumigants in or around ingredients. The 2025 List provides pet owners all of this information about each brand included, and much more.
The 2025 List includes:
- 47 brands
- 45 manufacture dog foods
- 32 manufacture cat foods
Styles of pet foods include cooked (sold frozen and shelf stable), raw, freeze dried, dehydrated, can (one option). No kibble style pet foods are included.
- 46 brands sell in the US, some regionally.
- 15 brands sell in Canada.
- 11 brands have limited distribution outside of North America.
All companies included provided verification of:
- Human grade food ingredients;
- Human grade supplements (if applicable);
- Human food manufacturing standards (if applicable);
- Organic or non-GMO ingredients (if applicable); and
- Meats sourced from humanely raised animals (if applicable).
You can download the document immediately after purchase in the shopping cart. Please see download instructions on the order page.
Note: The 2025 List is a digital product (a pdf document).
No refunds on digital products.
By feeding your pet a food from the 2025 List, you are not only providing your cat or dog quality nutrition but you are also supporting pet food consumer advocacy.
Why charge for the List?
TruthaboutPetFood.com, our consumer stakeholder organization AssociationforTruthinPetFood.com, and myself personally (Susan Thixton) are 100% consumer supported. We have been actively advocating for pet owners since 2006, attending AAFCO meetings since 2011. We could not do the work we do without consumer support.
Why is there a need for a ‘list’, aren’t all pet foods the same?
The WORST thing about pet food is the FDA and each US state allows pet food manufacturers to use highly inferior quality of ingredients (known as feed grade). These regulatory agencies allow the pet food industry to be basically waste disposal manufacturers.
When we (TruthaboutPetFood.com) made an official request to the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine to stop allowing waste ingredients in pet food, the agency responded with:
“We do not believe that the use of diseased animals or animals that died otherwise than by slaughter to make animal food poses a safety concern and we intend to continue to exercise enforcement discretion.”
Below is one example of what this FDA “enforcement discretion” allows in pet food:
This image is from Google Earth of Baker Commodities in Vernon, CA. This is one of many rendering facilities across the US (and around the world) that takes dead animal carcasses and condemned animal parts and repurposes the material into pet food/animal feed ingredients. Ingredients do not travel under refrigeration (they are decomposing), ingredients are dumped onto the ground and bulldozed into large pits where they are ground and cooked.
Would you knowingly feed your pet rotting, decomposing meat sourced from a diseased animal?
Knowingly purchase a cat or dog food made with unrefrigerated condemned meats dumped on the ground?
Of course you wouldn’t. But how do you know?
The FDA and the pet food industry is well aware that no one would knowingly purchase a pet food that is made with condemned, diseased animal material…which is exactly why the same regulatory authorities (FDA and each US state) that allow this waste to be disposed of into pet food do not require pet food manufacturers to disclose their use of this waste on pet food labels or websites.
Pet owners are NOT informed which pet foods include waste feed grade ingredients. In fact, pet food manufacturers are allowed (by regulatory authorities) to place images of grilled steak or roasted chicken on their labels even when inside that bag or can of pet food are ingredients sourced from diseased animals and decomposing dead animal carcasses.
How big of a problem are waste ingredients in pet food?
Per the USDA, in the first three quarters of FY 2024 (October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024), more than 5 million chicken and turkey carcasses were condemned (deemed inedible due to disease) and more than 150 thousand cattle and hog carcasses were condemned. This is an estimated 100 million pounds of diseased animal material that is allowed to be disposed of into pet food (in just nine months).
Thankfully there are pet food manufacturers that feel the same way you do about waste ingredient pet food. They would never feed waste to their pets and they would not make a pet food that includes them. There are pet foods that use 100% food (not feed grade) ingredients, and they manufacture their pet foods to the same safety standards used in human foods (some are even manufactured in human food plants).
The problem is finding these ethical pet food manufacturers.
As we stated above, regulatory authorities allow the pet food industry to mislead pet owners with images of quality ingredients when their pet foods contain ingredients that are far from quality. On the surface a pet food could appear to use food grade ingredients, but…
This is exactly why we require verification of all pet foods included in the List. A pet food label or website can look great, but can/will the company provide the evidence that validates the pet food is actually food (not feed grade)? Sometimes they do and sometimes they do not.
To be included in the TruthaboutPetFood.com List, the manufacturer provides us with ingredient verification of human grade ingredients, and if applicable verification of organic ingredients and meats sourced from certified humanely raised animals.
How are pet foods selected for the List?
We often learn of new pet foods from consumers, but sometimes manufacturers themselves reach out asking to be considered for the List.
The consideration process begins with a company responding to a list of questions regarding their pet foods – such as quality of ingredients, country of origin of ingredients, what testing is performed on pet foods or ingredients. If all responses seem to be a pet food I would consider to give my own pets, the next step is verification. Manufacturers are required to provide us evidence of human grade ingredients, human grade supplements (if applicable), organic ingredients (if applicable), and meats sourced from certified humanely raised animals (if applicable). After all verification documents are examined, the pet food is added to the List.
For pet food brands that were included in last year’s List – the exact same consideration process occurs. New responses to questions, new verification documents are required each year.
The entire process – from initial contact to publishing the List – takes about 3 months.
No pet food company pays a fee to be considered for or included in the List. A few years ago, a pet food company gave a pet owner false information stating they were not included in the List because “we opted not to pay for our review.” Not true. Every company on the List voluntarily responds to questions and submits verification documents; no pet food company ever pays to be considered for the List. This website or myself personally NEVER accepts money/gifts from pet food manufacturers.
Why Are Some Companies Excluded?
If you know of a pet food – perhaps even a human grade pet food – that is not on this List, it could be as simple as I am not aware of the brand or the company didn’t respond to my emails. Another reason a brand might not be included in the List is information I have been provided by pet owners. I have been forwarded many emails over the years by pet owners of their correspondence with a pet food brand. I have read emails where a company gave the pet owner false information (such as about regulations), and emails where a pet food company insulted the pet owner. If I find a company treats a pet owner poorly or misleads or lies to a pet owner – that is not a brand I would trust to give my own pets.
I do not share why any brand is not included in or was removed from the List. It is always our hope that an issue that prevented a pet food from being included in the List will be corrected and they can be considered again in the future.
The 2025 List pet foods are not commonly found in big box stores, most of these brands are available in your locally owned independent pet food stores or many are available direct from the manufacturer, shipped to your home. Each manufacturer page in the List tells you where and how to purchase the foods.
Price ranges of pet foods on the 2025 List:
- $1.10 to $5.70 a day to feed a 10 pound cat.
- $2.55 to $14.22 a day to feed a 30 pound dog.
The 2025 List is a digital document that is downloaded to your computer after purchase. The document can be downloaded directly in your shopping cart…
…or it can be downloaded in your receipt email.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
Become a member of our pet food consumer Association. Association for Truth in Pet Food is a a stakeholder organization representing the voice of pet food consumers at AAFCO and with FDA. Your membership helps representatives attend meetings and voice consumer concerns with regulatory authorities. Click Here to learn more.
What’s in Your Pet’s Food?
Is your dog or cat eating risk ingredients? Chinese imports? Petsumer Report tells the ‘rest of the story’ on over 5,000 cat foods, dog foods, and pet treats. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Click Here to preview Petsumer Report. www.PetsumerReport.com
Find Healthy Pet Foods in Your Area Click Here
The 2025 List
Susan’s List of trusted pet foods. Click Here to learn more.
The 2024/25 Treat List
Susan’s List of trusted pet treat manufacturers. Click Here to learn more.
