You love your pet. And, if you’re reading this blog, you probably choose to feed your pet foods that are USDA certified organic, not only because they’re the stringently regulated choice, but also because they’re generally more nutritious, safer, healthier, and more environmentally friendly than their conventional counterparts.

So, what’s all this about swimming in fecal soup? To be honest, until recently, I hadn’t heard much about this myself. On most industrial farms and their affiliated processing facilities, the bodies of slaughtered chickens and turkeys are moved through a bath filled with chilled water. While the birds are in the bath, the water accumulates residual fecal matter from their bodies.

The concentration of fecal matter in the bath depends on how frequently the water is changed. Some farms and processors change the bath water frequently—say, after a few birds. But, others might do this only once, at the end of the day! You can imagine that water that is frequently changed yields cleaner bird meat than water that has seen a day’s worth of carcasses. USDA certified organic or not, bird meat that has been washed in regularly changed baths is the safer bet!

Onesta Organics is determined to buy only from farmers who are committed to safe and hygienic processing methods. Rest assured that the bird meat we use in our pet food products is the safest available for your companion animal! We also take all possible precautions to reduce any bacterial contamination when when we make pet foods.