12/27/2024
To our pet food partners and parents,
We have been receiving a lot of emails regarding questions about the Avian Flu strain H5N1. The Avian Flu is present in California where we source our poultry. We know how scary and anxiety producing this is and I want to take a moment to address what we at RAWR are doing to ensure that our food is consistently safe and clean.
We buy our poultry from the same farms since day one which means we have never used products from unknown sources. Our G.A.P certification requires we use only the same poultry from the same G.A.P certified farms for each and every production run. G.A.P certification sets higher food safety standards for the farms through audits requiring specific handling and cleaning procedures, offering a reduced risk of contamination.
We understand how easily a virus can spread so knowing how the farms operate is not enough. We reached out to our farms and have spoken at length about the biosecurity measures they have in place. Avian Flu testing is happening multiple times a day to ensure that their farms and processing facilities are free from the H5N1 virus. Any positive testing will result in a closure of the farm and facility as well as having all birds at that location destroyed. The facility will only reopen once there are multiple negative testing results.
All of our products are produced in a USDA facility and we use only USDA inspected human grade meat. Our poultry is either whole bodies or whole pieces. We never use meals, mechanically separated meat or feed grade items and we never substitute ingredients. We have never cut corners on what goes into your cat's food and we never will.
After a production run is completed we have a strict test and hold policy. This means we send a sample of our products to a third party lab for salmonella and E coli testing. Once we receive a negative test result we release the food to our distributors and it is then put into store circulation. We have contacted our third party lab and once available we will be adding the H5N1 test to all RAWR products that could be affected. This includes our entire line of complete meals, both bone in and boneless sliders including beef and rabbit. We will also be adding testing to our RAWR Parts Department poultry and rabbit parts to err on the side of caution.
We have heard from some of you that you are interested in temporarily cooking our food until testing is available. Our boneless line is safe to cook, it is made with eggshell powder instead of bone so there is no risk of harm to your cat!
Your cat's health is our top priority, it is the reason we started RAWR in the first place. We are taking every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of our food and will continue to be transparent and available to each and every one of you. Please reach out if there is anything I haven’t covered that is a concern for you.
Wishing you and your pets a healthy and happy 2025!
Sabrina Simmons
Owner/Founder