USDA Certified & Audited

Why Is USDA Certified Important?

Not all pet food manufacturers are required to be USDA inspected. Being USDA Certified is 100% voluntary, but Happee Dawg believes being USDA Certified and inspected on a daily basis helps guarantee quality and safety. Our parent company (Far West Meats) manufactures human food, therefore, we already have the process and procedures required for human food processing in place. We transfer them over to our pet food manufacturing process and continue to keep the same standards. This insures all raw materials are purchased from USDA vendors with letter of guarantees backing the quality of our raw materials.

WHAT BEING USDA CERTIFIED MEANS

USDA Certified means the United States Department of Agriculture is present during production of Happee Dawg products. The USDA agent is present inspecting every ingredient and expiration dates for quality, ensuring equipment sanitation, and inspecting employees for food handling sanitation guidelines.

What is a Third party audit? ​

Third-party audits are used to verify your plant's compliance with current regulations and industry practices through program reviews and on-site observations. These audits, including HACCP, Distribution Centers (DC), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Food Safety Management Systems, Pet Food/Animal Feed, Packaging and Dietary Supplements, employ a combination of food safety principles, regulatory guidelines and industry best practices to provide an objective overview of your program. Evaluations and audits and inspections are conducted by specially trained, experienced auditors with extensive knowledge of the food industry and specific training in each sector.

 Food Safety

We take the safety and quality of our raw pet food seriously. Our products are produced in a USDA-inspected facility, ensuring that we adhere to the highest standards of food safety. This facility follows stringent safety and sanitation measures, as well as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), to guarantee that every batch of our pet food is safe for your beloved companions.

To further enhance the safety of our products, we incorporate the use of bacteriophages specifically designed to target and eliminate harmful bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. This innovative approach is used on all our frozen pet food meals and helps us provide you with raw pet food that meets the highest safety standards, so you can have peace of mind knowing that you are feeding your pets nutritious and safe meals. We utilize a Test & Hold procedure which guarantees that no batch will be released to market until it is clear of pathogens.

Thank you for trusting us with your pet's nutrition.

Silliker Good Manufacturing Practicing and food safety systems audit.