If you’re a typical Australian pet owner, you probably go to your local supermarket or pet store to pick up your dog's food. But have you ever thought about how your dog’s food got to that store? In supermarkets, why is pet food normally in the same aisle as cleaning or gardening products? What you probably don’t know is that typical pet food may take months, if not years, to get from raw ingredients to your dog’s bowl.
Typical pet food distribution goes something like this. Ingredients are sourced globally, to take advantage of price economies across geographies. For example, it may be cheaper to source some ingredients from China, than here in Australia. The ingredients are then processed in factories at high temperatures in order to remove moisture (dry food) or sterilise the packaging (canned food) and, hence, facilitate long shelf life. Once the food is manufactured, it is packaged up and moved to a distribution centre, or centres, depending on how far the final destination is. From there, the food is then shipped to the retail location, where it can stay on the shelves or fridge for weeks or months before you finally purchase the food and take it home.
While the pet food sits at distribution centres and store shelves, many of its naturally occurring vitamins and minerals are lost over time. This is why most shelf stable pet food is filled with artificial vitamins and minerals, which survive the extended shelf life.
With Lyka, on the other hand, things look a little (hint very) different. We source our produce fresh, from local farmers right here in Australia. Once the fresh ingredients arrive, they are prepared in a human grade kitchen, following human grade processes. The ingredients are cooked only at low temperatures so that natural nutrients are retained and there is no need to add artificial vitamins and minerals. The food is then packaged and shipped off directly to you. The time between us receiving the fresh ingredients and you receiving the food is between 2 – 4 days.
Natural, fresh dog food, delivered – that’s more like it! Why not build your very own Starter Box today?
