How to Evaluate a Pet Treat Contract Manufacturer

Evaluating a pet treat contract manufacturer comes down to four checks: food safety evidence (a GFSI-recognized certification and the audit report behind it), regulatory footing (FSMA compliance in the US, export certification at the border), operational fit (formats and minimums), and how the manufacturer behaves under questioning. Certificates get you a shortlist. The audit report, the mock recall and a plant visit tell you whether a co-packer can carry your brand’s risk. Here’s how to run each check, and what the answers mean.

What certifications should a pet treat co-packer hold?

Start with whether the plant holds a certification recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative. GFSI currently recognizes 12 certification programme owners; the list includes SQF, along with BRCGS and FSSC 22000. For treats specifically, SQF publishes a dedicated Food Safety Code for Pet Food Manufacturing built on HACCP, so an SQF-certified pet food plant was audited against pet food hazards rather than a generic food standard.

Here’s the opinion this article is built on: the certificate is the weakest piece of evidence the certification process produces. Under SQF’s pet food code, a certification or re-certification audit runs no less than two days, produces a numeric score, and documents every non-conformance along with its corrective action. Ask for the last full audit report, not the certificate frame on the wall.

A plant that shares its report, minor findings included, is showing you how it handles scrutiny. A plant that offers only the certificate is asking you to take two days of auditor findings on faith. Neither answer is neutral.

Do pet treats need government approval?

In the US, no. The FDA regulates treats as animal food under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and animal food doesn’t need pre-market approval unless it contains a new food additive. The law still requires the product to be “safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, free of harmful substances, and truthfully labeled.”

Since FSMA, registered animal food facilities must also run a written food safety plan, meaning a hazard analysis plus preventive controls, on top of current good manufacturing practices. On a plant tour, ask to see the hazard analysis for the product family closest to yours.

One misconception to clear early: AAFCO states plainly that it “does not regulate, test, approve or certify pet food”. It writes model regulations that many states adopt into their own feed laws. A supplier describing itself as “AAFCO certified” is claiming a credential that doesn’t exist, and that alone should slow the conversation down.

Canada is a different picture. The CFIA is blunter than most buyers expect: “pet food is not a comprehensively regulated commodity in Canada compared to food for human consumption or livestock feeds”, and the agency’s oversight is limited to import and export requirements. Read that carefully if you’re commissioning treats from a Canadian plant: domestic food safety discipline is largely voluntary, so third-party certification and audit history carry more of the weight, and labelling claims answer to the Competition Bureau rather than a food regulator.

The border is where Canadian oversight gets real. CFIA issues country-specific animal health certificates for pet food exports, such as certificate HA2828 covering pet food and treats entering the US. A Canadian co-packer that ships south regularly can show you that paper trail, and you should ask to see it.

What should you ask on the plant tour?

The Pet Nutrition Alliance’s manufacturer evaluation project, built on WSAVA diet-selection guidance, put questions to more than 200 manufacturers across the US and Canada: whether they employ a qualified nutritionist, what share of their plants they own, and whether they’d hand over nutrient data for randomly selected products. Those questions work because each one is verifiable. Borrow the method:

  • Who formulates, and who reviews the formulation? A plant that develops recipes should be able to name the person and their credentials.

  • What share of production happens in this building? Some “manufacturers” are brokers who subcontract your run. You want to know whose floor your product is actually made on.

  • Trace this lot backwards. Ask them to run a mock recall on a finished lot while you watch. Speed here is the single best proxy for how a real incident would go.

  • Walk me through allergen changeover. Treats share lines. The procedure between a chicken run and a fish run is where cross-contact lives or dies.

Minimums deserve a more charitable reading than they usually get. A co-packer quoting a 10,000-unit minimum on a dehydrated SKU is describing dryer capacity and changeover cost, and a good operator can walk you through that arithmetic in plain numbers. Be more suspicious of a minimum that seems too low: it can mean an underused line, or that your small run will get squeezed between larger customers whenever capacity tightens.

Common questions

Is “AAFCO certified” a real credential? No. AAFCO says outright that it does not regulate, test, approve or certify pet food. States base their feed laws on AAFCO’s model regulations, but enforcement belongs to state officials and the FDA.

How long does an SQF audit take at a pet food plant? Under the SQF pet food manufacturing code, a certification or re-certification audit lasts no less than two days, with the exact duration set by facility size, process complexity and food safety risk. At least half of a re-certification audit must happen on-site.

Do pet treats need FDA approval before they’re sold? No pre-market approval is required for animal food. The manufacturer still has to meet FD&C Act requirements for safety and labeling, and registered facilities carry FSMA obligations: a hazard analysis, preventive controls and current good manufacturing practices.

Who regulates pet treats made in Canada? No single agency does, comprehensively. CFIA’s role is limited to import and export requirements, Health Canada covers veterinary health products, and labelling falls under the Competition Bureau. That gap is why certifications and audit reports matter more for Canadian plants, and it’s worth asking a Canadian co-packer directly which voluntary standards it holds itself to.

About Village Fare

Village Fare is a Canadian pet treat manufacturer in Mono, Ontario, with 15-plus years in business, running contract manufacturing programs alongside private-label production and wholesale supply across six treat formats. If you’re evaluating co-packers, their capabilities are published at villagefare.ca.

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