We often get asked – What “GRADE” of food does Perfectly Raw use in its products?
All of our poultry and pork ingredients originate from the same animals being processed for people in human grade food processing facilities. These processing plants are strictly regulated and inspected by either federal CFIA or provincial inspectors. At no time does Perfectly Raw ever use condemned products from diseased or dying animals. Perfectly Raw only uses viable, nutritious products from animals deemed safe for the human food chain.
Perfectly Raw is inspected annually by the CFIA, at the request of the USDA, so that we can export our products to the United States. Perfectly Raw is also a FDA Registered Food Facility.
The process at our poultry supplier begins with the removal of heads, feathers, entrails and feet. These waste parts go directly to a rendering plant, where they are turned into meat and bone meal. The “cut-up” birds that we get our ingredients from have the thighs, wings, drumsticks and breasts removed for sale to restaurants and grocery stores. The necks, backs and lean meaty bones from these birds continue down another line and go into our insulated, plastic shipping bins.
The lean meaty bones is what we call “GLMB”. This product includes the frames, thigh bones, ribs etc that are left after the boneless thighs and breasts are removed. While obviously very high in bone content, the machines that remove the thighs and breasts do leave quite a bit of meat, making an excellent high protein/low fat product.
Any product leaving a CFIA facility and destined for a non-CFIA pet food manufacturing facility, instead of the human food chain, must be marked with a human food grade dye. This is simply a food colouring that is used in many human food and beverage items. The dye is lightly sprayed on top of the product prior to our bins leaving the plant reclassifying it from “human food grade” to “animal food”. The quality has not changed, only the classification.
As soon as our bins are filled they are placed into our running, refrigerated trailer.
These ingredients are then brought to our processing plant the following morning to be turned into our highly nutritious, raw pet foods the same day. Our products are literally “24 hours from feather to freezer.” It just doesn’t get any fresher than that.
The same protocols are in effect for our pork suppliers. As the hogs are processed, hams, pork chops, bacon, etc. go in one direction for people to consume, while the kidneys, livers, hearts etc from the same animals either go for human consumption, or to pet food manufacturers, like us.
Situated in rural Manitoba, Perfectly Raw is proud to use poultry and pork ingredients sourced from animals raised by Manitoba farmers, and processed locally in Manitoba. Perfectly Raw’s mission is to provide all pet owners with an affordable, high quality, natural raw pet food that they can be confident is safe and nutritious for their family pets.