WSAVA GUIDELINES

Yes. Our full-time head of R&D, Dr. Gerardo Perez-Camargo, is a qualified veterinarian with a PhD in Animal Nutrition who formulates every recipe we produce. Dr. Perez-Camargo has 25 years of experience in the development of nutritional products for cats and dogs, and holds several scientific publications and patents on cat and dog nutrition. Also employed full time is Dr. Diana Valtierra who has a PhD in Food Science from McGill University. In addition to the two full time employees, Freshpet assembled a team of nutritionist veterinary consultants called The Nutritional Council. The Nutritional Council guides, supervises and validates the research collaborations performed by Freshpet and works to continuously evaluate and improve Freshpet’s ingredients, processes, and pet food products.

Aside from Dr. Gerardo Perez-Camargo – our full-time onsite Head of R&D who holds a PhD in Animal Nutrition – we have an internal group of Freshpet technical staff of full-time food scientists, microbiologists, biologists, and nutritionists. We also validate our recipes & research with our Nutrition Council, our team of highly certified animal nutrition experts that includes two DVMs, two DACVNs, two PhDs, and a DVN.

Yes. Freshpet has done both AAFCO growth and adult maintenance feeding trials, as well as digestibility studies. Diets are formulated following AAFCO feeding guidelines and nutritional profiles are confirmed by independent laboratory analyses. You can review some of the results of these studies on this website:
- CLICK: Digestibility Analysis
- CLICK: Amino Acid Digestibility Study
- CLICK: Grain Free Meal Maintenance Study

Freshpet produces the majority of our complete and balanced products at the Freshpet Kitchens in Bethlehem, PA. Only a small percentage of products are produced at another US location, but they are still manufactured with Freshpet’s highest quality standards.

Freshpet strives to source from suppliers who align values of helping achieve goals in providing high quality products for pets. A team comprised of Research & Development (R&D), Quality Assurance (QA) and Procurement examines and approves every supplier within Freshpet and every ingredient is scrutinized for organoleptic properties, proximate analysis, vitamin and mineral profiles, potential candidates, and microbiological safety. In addition, consistent ingredient traceability and sustainability are monitored. The nutrient composition of raw ingredients is systematically measured versus suppliers Certificate of Analyses. Variations of ingredients trigger rejections. Every hour samples of all Roasted Meal products are sent for microbiological analysis. Samples are tested for Listeria, Salmonella, Anaerobic Plate Count, Enterobacter, yeast, mold, and Lactic Acid Bacteria. This is a part of the control before being released for distribution. Further quality controls on all products happening every 30 minutes to one hour ensure the color, pH and inclusion levels as well as packaging checks.

Yes. You can consult our Nutrient Database to access guaranteed analyses of all products, and complete nutrient profiles. The ‘Contact Us’ form allows more specific questions to be asked for each product.

All caloric values can be found on this website by choosing 'Foods' in the navigation and then choosing 'Cat & Dog Food'.

Freshpet conducts studies including AAFCO Adult Maintenance, ingredient processing, palatability, digestibility and more. You can learn more about our Studies & Analysis by clicking on 'Research' in the navigation bar on this website. Freshpet is also currently working on skin microbiome and senior dental feeding studies. Results are published once studies are completed.