Are you looking for a more ethical dog food choice for your pooch?
Good, you’re in the right place to find the most eco sustainable dog food alternatives out there.
Many dog owners like yourself now want to know how their pet’s food has been produced, where the raw ingredients have come from and if all this is having fa negative impact on the environment.
If you don’t want to go into that much detail, then you at least want to know the overall ethical rating for the company you’re buying dog food from.
So, let’s take a look at eco friendly dog food, what makes it ethical, and list out the 6 best sustainable dog food.
Please note this blog does contain a few affiliate links to ethical dog food suppliers. This means I may receive a small percentage for any subsequent purchases made. This comes at no cost to you and has not impacted the balanced and informational approach to this blog. Thank you.
What’s wrong with current dog food market?
Feeding your dog has come a long way since they lived off the leftover scraps from around the campfire.
The dog food market, and indeed pet food in general, has become a huge industry in the UK. There are roughly 12.5 million dogs in the UK, and they all need feeding at least twice a day. The latest reports now value the industry at £1.4 billion.
As you know, big growth often brings questionable and unsustainable production practices with it.
Many of the large, recognised dog food producers in the UK have poor ethical and environmental records. These aren’t particularly well-known to the everyday dog owner looking to buy pet food in the supermarket.
Until you start to think about it, the majority of people would probably assume that dog food is largely all the same. I know I did.
When we first got Murphy, although I realised this would add somewhat to our collective carbon emissions (which is why I offset Murphy’s footprint with Ecologi), it didn’t really cross my mind to source ethical dog food.
But with so much dog food needed to be produced to keep up with demand, you can start to imagine the negative impacts this could have on other animals, single use packaging and associated carbon emissions – your dog’s so called carbon pawprint.
Why buying sustainable dog food is important?
As more information and awareness comes to light, many people are now turning to ethical dog food that’s more eco-friendly and sustainably produced. It’s also important to use things like compostable dog poo bags, rather than plastic-based ones.
As you may have guessed, the vast majority of dog food contains meat. But have you ever thought about where this meat comes from?
Generally speaking, the meat for dog food was mainly sourced from the leftovers of the human food industry. Although this is making use of an existing resource, is it also promoting unsustainable, unethical and low-standard animal welfare practices.
Dog food also contains fillers to bulk it out.
Common fillers include wheat, corn and our sustainability’s biggest enemy, palm oil. Are these sustainably grown and organic or are they contributing to deforestation and habitat loss?
As more and more dog food is manufactured, it’s becoming ever more important to make eco-friendly and ethical choices otherwise we’re on a slippery slope to the bottom.
Quick list on where to buy eco friendly dog food
Before we head in to a little more detail, here’s a quick list of the most ethical dog food producers I’ve found in the UK. Some are available directly from site shops or from online eco shops too.
I’ve used my own research alongside that of Ethical Consumer, who do a superb job of investigating company ethics.
What makes dog food ethical?
Ultimately, ethical dog food is producing a high quality feed that doesn’t come at the expense of other animals via testing or factory farming. Ethical and eco friendly dog food also shouldn’t support unsustainable production and the companies behind the practices.
The Ethical Consumer magazine does a great job of listing what to look out for, and what not to look out for when buying ethical dog food.
Ethical dog food means:
- Organic ingredients – certified organic means that the produce has not been treated with artificial chemicals, which helps protect the environment, ecosystems and health. It also raises the standards where animals are involved.
- No factory farmed meat – if it’s not organic, there’s a chance the meat in your dog food may be factory farmed. This is a terrible practice that leads to animal suffering, cruelty and escalates climate emissions.
- Fish ingredients are MSC certified – fishing can be a highly damaging and unsustainable exercise. MSC is a label that should promote better standards (although if you’ve watched the Seaspiracy documentary you may beg to differ). You can read if line fishing is sustainable here.
- No palm oil – this may not be directly listed in the ingredients, but palm oil derivatives are often used in the form of vegetable glycerine, vegetable oil and fats.
- No animal testing – many dog food companies still use captive animals to test how the dog food tastes.
- Recyclable packaging – does your dog food come in plastic packaging? Are you going through a lot of packaging in the case of aluminium cans and tins? Paper-based, bulk bags with dry food may be your best choice, although this does depend on the type of food your dog eats.
There’s also an argument for vegan dog food, which obviously contains no animal products whatsoever. This is a controversial issue as, biologically speaking, dogs are omnivores and derive their nutrition from both plant and animal sources.
This is true but it’s is a whole new complicated area, so I will leave the vegan dog food debate there for now.
6 best eco friendly dog food brands
With all that said, let’s take a look at some of the best and most ethical dog food brands in the UK.
1) Benevo
Benevo are an independent UK company and have been producing ethical pet foods since 2005. They produce meat-free alternative food for dogs and have numerous certifications, including PETA Not Tested on Animals, Organic Food Federation, Vegetarian Society and Vegan Society.
They make a small range of veggie foods for dogs and also have an organic version. Despite being meat-free, their adult recipes contain at least 20% protein, mainly coming from soya, corn and white rice. All recipes have no artificial flavours or colours.
The Benevo website is very basic but you can buy their dog food from Ethical Superstore online shop*
2) Yarrah
Yarrah are a Dutch company that offer organic, healthy and sustainable dog food for the conscious pet owner. In fact, all the Yarrah pet food products are certified organic, which has numerous benefits for the health of your dog.
Yarrah use sustainably caught MSC fish, their food is not tested on animals and their relevant products are certified by the Vegan and Vegetarian Societies respectively.
Even better, Yarrah are a certified B Corporation, showing they truly care about the planet, environment and life within – very much an eco friendly dog food provider!
You can buy Yarrah from their website and also on Ethical Superstore online shop*
3) Beco
Based in London, Beco have been producing sustainable pet products since 2009.
Beco are a company who care about sourcing ethical and sustainable ingredients and materials. Included in Beco’s ingredient range include MSC caught fish, wild boar, free range chicken and turkey both from the UK. All the vegetables and other ingredients that are used are fully traceable.
As they are a pet company, Beco also supply other products, such as fully compostable poo bags, accessories and toys. The bulk bags for dry dog food are also compostable.
You can buy Beco from their website and also on Ethical Superstore online shop*
4) Yora
Alongside its all-natural food and fully recyclable packaging, Yora offering something a little different for your pooches – insect protein.
Yora’s founder, Tom Neish, created the company with the help of energy efficient farms producing edible grubs that offer the main protein component of their dog food. Insect protein is said to be one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable animal protein sources around.
Other common ingredients they include in their dog food are oats (grown next to their premises), potato, peas, seaweed and other vegetables.
You can buy Yora dog food from their website.
5) Burns
Burns are a family-owned dog food company founded by veterinary surgeon John Burns back in 1993 when the natural pet food movement was very much in its infancy.
Burns dog food aims to use well-sourced, ethical ingredients in their recipes, such as seasonal vegetables, free-range meat and from local producers. It’s worth saying that their ingredients and claims haven’t been independently verified.
As well as ethical dog food, Burns like to do their bit for the planet. They have put in place initiatives such as using sheep wool for insulation at their new buildings, growing their own vegetables and producing free-range eggs, they’ve installed solar panels and a biomass plant to provide heating and hot water. They also donate regularly to charity and take part in community schemes.
You can buy Burns dog food from their website.
6. Scrumbles
Based in London, Scrumbles are a good, ethical pet food company offering an eco choice for your pooch (and even cat!) As a family run business, they achieved the fantastic sustainable goal of becoming B Corp Certified in their first full year of operation.
All of their dog food recipes are created in the UK, where they use local and responsibly sourced ingredients where possible. For example, the fish they use is ASC or MSC certified and their chicken and turkey is British and cage-free. To keep their carbon emissions down, they stick to a pollo-pescatarian offering rather than red meat. It’s worth noting that 3 of their dog treat are fully plant-based.
The packaging Scrumbles use is either recyclable or even compostable packaging. The final obstacle they are working on here is the film used on the wet food.
Finally, Scrumbles donate 1% of their sales each year to environmental causes such as rewilding and animal rehoming charities.
Is Harringtons dog food ethical?
I personally, well Murphy, has used Harringtons Grain Free Range. I must say that Murphy loves it and it really helped his dodgy stomach out.
According to Ethical Consumer, Harringtons come around the middle of the road for their ethics.
I contacted Harringtons to ask about their policies and they told me that they don’t use palm oil in any of their products and that they don’t use captive animals for testing. They stated that ‘most of our tests are done by staff and voluntary customers’.
In answer to my question on where their meat is sourced from, Harringtons said they ‘use meats from butchers’ offcuts and slaughterhouses. We are unaware of the provenance of the meats, but these are declared fit for human consumption.’
Finally, they told me that they have no plans to release any organic ranges in the near future. This, to be honest, is a little disappointing.
Is your dog food sustainable?
There are lots of other dog food manufacturers that are hitting the middle ground in terms of their ethics.
Dog food makers including Simpsons, Acana and Wagg all come around middle of the road in terms of ethics.
These can be described as fairly eco friendly but not quite their yet.
There are certainly some unethical dog food providers who you should generally avoid if you want you and your dog to live more sustainably.
Dog food brands to avoid
It’s quite easy to be tricked when buying certain brands of dog food.
Two of the biggest suppliers of pet food to supermarkets in the UK are Nestle and Mars.
Although these companies aren’t generally associated with dog food, they have been quietly buying out popular brands over the last few decades to add under their ever-expanding umbrellas.
Avoid dog food brands such as:
- Pedigree
- Purina
- Winalot
- Bakers
- Lily’s Kitchen
All the brands above are now owned by either Nestle or Mars.
And you may (or may not) be surprised to find out that Nestle and Mars have very poor environmental and ethical records. The knock on effects on brands with previously good records, is to bring them down.
Scoring very poorly on ethics were Winalot, Purina, Bakers and Lily’s Kitchen who are all owned by Nestle.
Pedigree, Cesar, Chappie, Nutro and Royal Canin are all owned by Mars and also scored very poorly.
Also doing badly on the ethics were the supermarket branded dog food, including that from Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, M&S, Lidl and Aldi dog food. You can take a closer look at the ethical ratings on the Ethical Consumer website.
Wrap up on sustainable dog food
There’s no doubt it can be a bit of a minefield trying to source truly ethical products that benefit people, the planet and the companies that make them. But it is possible.
The top 6 sustainable dog food makers all demonstrate good ethics and eco friendly credentials that don’t cause unnecessary harm to other animals, don’t adversely impact the environment and have a good deal of sustainability behind them.
If there are any ethical dog food makers that you think deserve to be on the list, drop me a message and I’ll look into them.
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I’m the Creator and Editor of Tiny Eco Home Life. I write and publish information about living a more sustainable, environmentally friendly life. Away from the laptop, I love spending time in nature and with my young family (plus Murphy the dog!). I write and send out the Eco Life Newsletter.
