The term Human-Grade refers to the quality of a finished dog food product. The term applies to a product that is legally suitable and approved for consumption by a person (“edible”). In contrast, the term Feed-Grade applies to a product that is not suitable for consumption by people and is only legally approved to be fed to animals (“inedible”).
The FDA and USDA are responsible for regulating human foods and determining ‘edible’ status. In order to be allowed to produce human foods, a manufacturing facility undergoes far more frequent and detailed inspections by these and other agencies, compared with the inspection that a pet food plant undergoes.
Other terms like “Human Quality” or “Table Grade” are not legal definitions for human food or pet food. A number of manufacturers use these terms to imply that their manufacturing and finished products are better than they really are.
Only a facility that actually produces human foods, undergoes the inspections and approval necessary to have genuine human grade status and therefore, a pet food must be made in such a plant in order to be called ‘human grade’. Human food plants to not make kibble, the dry nuggets of food fed to many pets in the US. In fact, The Honest Kitchen is the only pet food company that is 100% human grade!
