Food vs Feed – What’s In Your Dog’s Food?

The ingredients in your dog's food shouldn't be a mystery. Here at NewRoad, we believe you deserve to know exactly what your pup is eating.

The majority of commercial dog food is classified as feed-grade, meaning it's not fit for human consumption. Feed-grade ingredients are not required to meet the same quality standards as human foods.

If you were to check the label on a typical bag of commercial dry dog food, you’d find it’s made with substantial amounts of rendered animal products like chicken meal and fat. There is very little information, if any, available on how rendered meat meals and fats like chicken meal and fat are produced. In a nutshell, meat meals are feed grade ingredients produced by third-party vendors who are allowed to use diseased animals or animals that have died of unknown causes.

The animals used in rendered meat meals are not required to be inspected and certified by the USDA and are not fit for human consumption. In other words, there is no way to know the origin and quality of the animal proteins used in the rendered meat meals common in major dog food brands.  

We started NewRoad Foods because dogs deserve better

Our dogs are family and we treat them like it, thus we feed them like it. Our clean kibble is 100% human-grade and completely safe for you to eat. We use USDA-inspected and certified chicken, wild-caught whitefish, and all our ingredients are non-GMO.

Some dog foods may contain human-grade ingredients, but if their food is produced in a pet food facility, the finished dog food itself isn’t 100% human-grade. Pet food manufacturing facilities are not held to the same rigorous standards as human food manufacturing facilities, which is why we decided to take the road less traveled. 

Our recipes are proudly 100% human-grade. We make our dog food in a commercial kitchen, right alongside other small businesses making pies, donuts, and meal prep kits for human food channels. 

In this video, we pull back the curtain on our ingredients, processes, and philosophy, and let you see inside our kitchen and manufacturing process:

We formulate all our recipes in partnership with a network of experienced nutritionists who have over 35 years of experience in pet food research and development. When it comes to developing healthy, nutritious pet food, we know what we’re talking about. 

We've developed a range of recipes with different functional benefits tailored to your pup’s specific needs. These include our Weight Management formula for dogs striving for that summer body or our Healthy Aging formula for our friends looking to age gracefully. All NewRoad recipes have been carefully formulated and tested many times over (by analysts at independent labs and by discerning dogs!).

In addition to being safer, healthier and more nutritious, our food is also a lot tastier–pick up a Trial Pack and let your dog decide for themselves!