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Brand facts & recall history · checked 2026-10-19

The Farmer's Dog: Facts, Recalls & Verified Foods

The Farmer's Dog is made by The Farmer's Dog (independent, venture-backed operating company; no corporate parent), founded 2015 — it scores green on 3 of 5 WSAVA-aligned criteria we track (1 red, 1 undisclosed), no FDA recalls on record, and 0 of the 4 The Farmer's Dog foods we've verified carry an AAFCO feeding-trial statement.

· 4 The Farmer's Dog food labels checked

The scorecard

WSAVA-aligned criteria

The World Small Animal Veterinary Association's nutrition guidelines suggest questions to ask any pet food maker before you buy. Here are this brand's answers, each with its source, or marked undisclosed when we could not confirm one.

3 of 5 criteria confirmed yes · 1 confirmed no · 1 undisclosed. Undisclosed is common, especially for smaller brands — it means we couldn't confirm an answer from a public source, not that the answer is unfavorable.

✓ Qualified nutritionist on staff Yes — sourced

WebSearch results (brand's own digest pages, which returned 403 on fetch) named on-staff nutritionists such as Rae Sires DVM DACVIM(Nutrition), Renee Streeter DVM DACVIM(Nutrition), and Joseph Wakshlag DVM PhD DACVIM(Nutrition), but I could not fetch a page naming them, so names are unverified by a primary fetch.

source & quote
“The Farmer's Dog recipes are created by board-certified veterinary nutritionists.”
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✕ Owns its manufacturing Co-packed

Contrary report also notes founders 'spoke with over 200 factories before finding one that would manufacture for The Farmer's Dog' — uses contract manufacturer(s), not its own owned plant.

source & quote
“As of September 2024, the company said it had no plans to vertically integrate by opening its own factory, specifically to continue operating in a facility with human food-level oversight.”
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? Runs AAFCO feeding trials Claims trials, no label shows one

says: some recipes (multiple, not all). Also cites a Cornell long-term feeding study going beyond AAFCO trial design. None of the 0 AAFCO statements we read on its labels says "animal feeding tests".

source & quote
“Multiple recipes from The Farmer’s Dog have been through AAFCO feeding trials”
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✓ Publishes its quality-control testing Yes — sourced

covers: finished-product nutrient analysis, finished-product safety (pathogen) testing. Same page also says 'Every one of our ingredients is inspected and tested by a third-party laboratory' (ingredient testing).

source & quote
“we test every batch of our completed product for nutritional adequacy and food safety”
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✓ Publishes peer-reviewed research Yes — sourced

2 PubMed papers (animal/pet filtered) list The Farmer's Dog in an author address; we checked 2 and 2 really name the company. A floor, not a total.

source
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These five checks come from WSAVA's guidelines on selecting pet foods — not our own opinion score. WSAVA does not approve or list brands. See how all 50 brands we track answer WSAVA's questions → · Our methodology →

The company

Who makes The Farmer's Dog

Ownership and history, each sourced independently — private-label and co-packed brands often hide the actual manufacturer behind the name on the bag.

Parent company

The Farmer's Dog (independent, venture-backed operating company; no corporate parent)

source
“The company launched in 2015 in a production kitchen for rent in New York City”
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Founded

2015

source
“The company launched in 2015 in a production kitchen for rent in New York City”
view source →

Headquarters

New York, NY

source
“Headquarters: New York, NY”
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The cost

What The Farmer's Dog costs, against everything else we have priced

None of the 4 The Farmer's Dog foods we have verified is currently price-matched to a live retail listing, so we will not state a cost per 1,000 kcal for this brand. The composition figures below are verified regardless.

What The Farmer's Dog actually puts in its food

The ingredients this brand reaches for most across its 4 verified foods, counted once per recipe. Each links to what the ingredient is, what the evidence says, and how common it is industry-wide.

The safety record

FDA recall history

From the FDA's Animal & Veterinary recall list, last checked 2026-10-19, plus older FDA notices we added by hand. The Farmer's Dog recall page →

We found no FDA recall for The Farmer's Dog on the FDA's recall list or in the older FDA notices we added by hand. That is not a guarantee; see the note below.

The FDA's online recall list is complete for recent years but leaves out many notices from before about 2023. We add older FDA recall notices by hand when we find them.

The labels

What we've verified from The Farmer's Dog's labels

Computed directly from the official-label data we've extracted for this brand — never estimated.

Foods verified

4

4 dog

Feeding-trial validated

0

of 4 (0%)

Formulated to meet

0

AAFCO paper calculation

Label transparency

28%

avg. fields disclosed

fresh 4 (100%)

The foods

Foods from The Farmer's Dog we've verified

Every one links to its own Verified Label — guaranteed analysis, AAFCO statement, and (where priced) cost per day.

FoodFormAAFCO
Chicken Recipe fresh Not yet verified Beef Recipe fresh Not yet verified Turkey Recipe fresh Not yet verified Pork Recipe fresh Not yet verified