March 11, 2008
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The Honest Kitchen is a pet food company that’s a little bit different. Even though every product that comes off the production line is intended to be consumed by a cat or dog, human beings actually taste each batch of food and cookies to make sure it’s just right.
Company executives also taste individual ingredients during R & D Sessions. The canine companions who join staff at their downtown San Diego office also love to participate in the frequent tasting meetings – this, their most favorite of weekly tasks.
“Tasting our products is vitally important to us,” commented Cami Hawkinson, a member of the R & D Team, “we simply wouldn’t feed our own animals a product that we couldn’t eat ourselves.” Laurette Lamontagne, the company’s Operations Manager added, “Tasting our diets allows us to apply a fourth, fundamental sense to the QC process.”
The revelations about what goes on behind closed doors at The Honest Kitchen’s corporate center are not quite as shocking as they initially appear; the company’s products actually are guaranteed human edible, and are made in a plant right alongside foods and beverage mixes for consumption by people. Manufacturing takes place under FDA inspection and every ingredient must be stamped and approved for human consumption in order to even enter the plant.
In 2004 The Honest Kitchen obtained a Statement of No Objection from the federal FDA to use the term Human Grade on its product labels – a first in the industry and a feat that is yet to be replicated by the company’s industry peers.
The Honest Kitchen became embroiled in a legal battle over the Human Grade issue in 2007 when state regulators with the department of agriculture in Ohio refused to register the products with the ‘human grade’ statement on the labels. The company took them to court over the issue, and won.
So how to the product actually taste? “They’re probably a little bland by most humans’ standards,” states Lucy Postins the company’s founder and lead nutritionist. “But our canine and feline consumers absolutely love the recipes – and in comparison with what I’d imagine most regular pet food probably tastes like, they’re really quite delicious!” she continued.
The Honest Kitchen was founded in 2002 and produces a proprietary line of dehydrated raw, human grade foods for dogs and cats.
For more information please contact Lucy Postins at Lucy@thehonestkitchen.com or (619) 544 0018.
