Taste of the Wild High Prairie Puppy Formula Grain-Free Dry Dog Food

We love dog food brands that are committed to transparent business practices. If you make quality dog food you should be willing to openly talk about how it’s sourced and produced. That’s why we reached out to pet food companies, asking questions about all their brands and products. Each company had three weeks to reply to our messages.

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How Easy Was it to Reach the Company?

Taste of the Wild was exceptionally responsive to our first email. They also responded quickly to the follow-up email sent to clarify a few of their answers. They received a perfect transparency score. Answers to the questions are below.  

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Does Taste of the Wild have a veterinary nutritionist on staff? If so, who are they?‍‍‍

We use a team approach for veterinary and pet nutrition. The team is comprised of staff members as well as outside consultants. Dr. Alexia Heldman is the staff veterinarian while Dr. Melissa Brookshire and her veterinary team provide regular consultation. In addition, Dr. George Fahey, a prominent nutritionist, provides nutritional consultation on an ongoing basis. Mark Brinkmann has been formulating recipes for Diamond Pet Foods since 1995, and trained under Mark Morris, the founder of Hill's Science Diet.

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Who formulates your recipes, and what are their credentials?‍‍‍

See previous answer.  

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Do you test your products using AAFCO feeding trials? Why, or why not?‍‍‍

We utilize a 3rd party, certified laboratory to make sure our foods are well accepted by the pet, and nutritionally adequate.  These tests are non-invasive. The work is conducted by registered technicians and supervised by licensed veterinarians.  Finding the right balance is the key, just as it is with many decisions we all face.  We hold ourselves accountable to find the proper balance between minimal animal testing, and food safety assurance. All of our diets are formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO for either all life stages or maintenance.  This statement is printed on each and every bag.

(Follow up email response)
With regard to the AAFCO 6-month feeding trials, we do use them from time to time, but only on a limited basis. We believe that these tests can be overstated in their value. The AAFCO test protocol only requires 8 dogs be in the study, and most research facilities use only beagles. In our view, that protocol by itself does not constitute a robust assurance of nutritional adequacy. In fact, it is possible to pass an AAFCO feeding trial with nutrient values that fall below the AAFCO Nutrient Profile requirements.

We believe strongly in the value of the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles. These profiles were  developed by some of the best pet nutritionists and veterinarians in the world and were updated in 2016 to reflect new nutritional information available. These profiles are comprehensive lists of required nutritional values, the span of which includes Amino Acids, Vitamins, Minerals, and Fatty Acids. Validating our adherence to these requirements is the path we use most often to ensure nutritional adequacy. It is our view that meeting and exceeding these requirements assures that our foods are nutritionally adequate for the pets that we are feeding.

This is a wonderfully transparent answer. They articulated a belief we found was shared by other manufacturers.

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What country are your products manufactured?‍‍‍

Taste of the Wild, a Diamond Pet Foods brand, is manufactured here in the U.S. in facilities wholly owned by Diamond. We are committed to product safety and quality, and adhere to stringent food safety protocols. We constantly monitor and test our raw materials, production environment, processes and finished products. We've developed a comprehensive food safety system as outlined below.

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Can your manufacturing facilities be visited?‍‍‍

Food safety is our #1 priority and it shows in the amount of new business we get from word of mouth—friends and neighbors talking to one another, recommending our foods. Please visit our corporate website,  http://diamondpetcompany.com/#facilities/1 for a virtual tour of our facilities to get an inside look at what it takes to create high quality pet food.

(Follow up email response)
Due to safety regulations and to ensure that our quality control protocols are followed, tours of our facility are limited to the virtual tour on our website.

What quality measures do you use to assure consistency and quality?‍‍‍

Here are a few of the ways we ensure quality:

          * On-Site Product Testing

          * Mycotoxin Control

          * Microbial Testing

          * Water Purification

          * Air Quality Control

          * Test and Hold Program

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Does Taste of the Wild own its manufacturing facility? If it is another company, what company is it?‍‍‍

Taste of the Wild, a Diamond Pet Foods brand, is manufactured here in the U.S. in facilities wholly owned by Diamond.

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Do any parts of your product come from China?‍‍‍

There are ingredients that are critical to our formulations (i.e. folic acid and taurine) that can only be sourced out of China.  Our choice is to either include these ingredients or manufacture our foods without them, which would not be in the best interest of your pet, in our view.

Some pet food companies are making “China-Free” claims despite the facts I’ve outlined above.  They accomplish this by utilizing a loophole in European law.  European laws allow for ingredients purchased outside their continent, then reprocessed in Europe, to be labeled with European origin.  We could likewise hide behind that loophole in the law, and tell you what you want to hear, but choose not to for obvious reasons.  I’d rather you not feed our foods than to tell you they are China-free, when they are not.

This is another example of Taste of the Wild giving much more complete answers, that include belief statements which we feel is a transparent way of communicating to consumers.  While the content or claims could be contested, it is very transparent.