Pet food gets doggone good
HEALTHY: Four-legged foodies eating well
Oh, what lucky dogs! Bring on the pasta, salmon filet and grain-fed beef!
Our pets are fast becoming fourlegged foodies — they’re basically eating gourmet meals good enough for humans. Natural and organic cuisine is sweeping the pet set, and startups are feeding the fresh-prepared pet food revolution and transforming pet lifestyles across Canada.
Pet parents are investing heavily in their furry family member — spending is expected to hit $8.3 billion by 2018.
Human food chefs at Tom&Sawyer Fresh Prepared Pet Meals are whipping up Italian Beef Pasta and Sous Vide Salmon Filet for Fido’s dinner. And how about starting off the day with some Good Morning Sunshine — oatmeal, blueberries, ground beef and beef liver?
“Dogs and cats deserve fresh, healthy meals, just like the rest of the family,” says Peter A.P. Zakarow, of Tom&Sawyer (tom&sawyer.com), the gourmet pet-takeout joint and online business headquartered in Toronto.
Zakarow would eat his own dog food: “It’s like eating super high-quality restaurant meals, as are all of our treats, using only ingredients fit for human consumption” and nutritionally balanced for dogs.
A medley of meats, fish, vegetables and fruits from Canada are prepared in Tom&Sawyer’s awesome open commercial kitchen by trained chefs such as Trish Donnelly, who’s been feeding humans for the past 20 years in top kitchens and alongside celebrity chefs.
The Italian Beef Pasta dog meal is flying out the door.
“It looks and smells just like a pasta dish we would order at a restaurant — and because of the high quality restaurant-grade food ingredients, it actually is,” co-founder Kristen Matthews says.
These entrepreneurs figure pets eating the same old dish day-in, day-out are barking up the wrong tree. Matthews says it’s “both boring and unhealthy.”
Tom&Sawyer is also busting into the trendy-treats business with Tom & Cheese Crackers, fresh Tuna Bones, and Apple Spice Muffins, which are also available in their lounge for clients, where humans get lattes.
B.C.’s foleysvitalitydog.com gives pampered pets Bison with Saskatoon Berries, Duck with Honey Sweet Papaya and Angus Beef with Fresh Blueberries.
And treatshappen.com delights discerning dogs with Sweet Potato Chips and Beef Trachea Bites. The list goes on.
It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there for entrepreneurs, and fresh pet food startups are shaking up the industry.
“If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t feed it to your dogs,” says Meghan Elenbaas of Lucky Dog Cuisine, whose offerings, especially Bugsy’s Best Beef and Barley, have pups licking their chops.
“If you were to eat nothing but Lucky Dog for the rest of your life — not that we recommend that — you would probably be eating much healthier than the average Canadian. Our food is not just dog food, it’s food for dogs,” Elenbaas says.
One of the company’s employees ate only Lucky Dog Cuisine for a month to raise money for canine cancer research.
“I have never seen a dog, or a human, turn it down,” adds Elenbaas, who plans to expand out of Ontario soon.
Tom&Sawyer will also be taking their popular business across Canada and into the U.S.
Right now it’s a subscription-based home delivery, where vacuum-sealed, one-pound packaged pet meals are delivered every two to four weeks.
All Good Dog Food is also biting into the wholesome pet gourmet business.
“Like humans, you are what you eat,” says Jonathan Cooper, top dog at allgooddogfood.com.
“Most traditional dog foods contain rotting vegetables, meat not fit for human consumption, harmful preservatives, and chemical fillers,” says Cooper, noting his recipes have quality ingredients as well as essential vitamins and minerals necessary for healthier bones, stronger muscles and increased energy levels.
Think twice before buying the cheap bagged stuff, stresses Elenbaas: Commercial dog food is essentially a dumping ground for the human food industry.
“Condemned meats are allowed in pet food and by eating stuff often sold on supermarket shelves, dogs can ingest up to 18 pounds of preservatives a year. It’s no surprise that their life spans have decreased by roughly 18 per cent over the last 20 years,” says Elenbaas.