The Pet-Food Bag That Invites You to Look Closer

Key Sections

Key sections

• The traceability promise
• What the badges actually certify
• The reported plastic withdrawal
• What we still want to know
• What you can check yourself

That invitation is the most interesting part of Open Farm pet food. We followed it to see how much of the company's sourcing story a shopper can verify, what outside certifications actually cover, and where traceability stops.

The lot code gives shoppers a way to check some sourcing information. It cannot verify everything between the ingredient’s origin and the finished food. WatersEdge has no commercial relationship with Open Farm.

Let’s Begin with the Dog Behind the Idea

Let’s begin with the dog behind the idea

The company traces its beginning to a companion whose dinner mattered to the founders. Open Farm says Bella, a rescue dog adopted by co-founders Jacqueline Prehogan and Isaac Langleben, inspired the company. One was in law school; the other worked in finance. They wanted food that reflected their concerns about animal welfare and ingredient origins.

In Shantelle Canzanese’s Toronto Guardian interview, the founders said: "Caring for her made us realize how limited the options were for pet parents who wanted products that reflected their values." That helps explain why they made sourcing a central promise.

Open Farm launched in Canada in 2014 and entered the United States the next year. Ingredients came from farms in several countries, while manufacturing was contracted to facilities in the United States.

That distinction between sourcing ingredients and manufacturing the food becomes important when we look at safety.

By 2026, reporting placed the company in more than 8,500 pet stores. Tracking ingredient origins at that scale involves many recipes, suppliers and contracted manufacturing facilities. We wanted to see what shoppers could check themselves.

The Traceability Promise, in the Company's Words

The traceability promise, in the company's words

With that beginning in view, let’s look at the promise shoppers are invited to check. The company states on its own site that "100% of our meat ingredients meet our rigorous animal welfare standards and have 3rd party certification." It describes its philosophy as a view that "land, animals, and people (and pets!) are continuously linked. Doing Good for one, leads to good for the others," and summarizes the mission as "Do Some Good for Animals and the Planet."

The founders told the Toronto Guardian that "every ingredient can be traced back to its geographic source. Transparency isn't something we added along the way; it's one of the principles the company was founded on." Canzanese reported the company maintains that 100% of its meat ingredients carry third-party animal welfare certifications.

Those are the company’s claims about its own practices. Outside organizations have assessed some specific parts, with different limits on what each certification covers.

What the Badges Actually Certify

What the badges actually certify

B Corporation certification. B Lab’s public profile gives Open Farm a score of 102.8, above the certification threshold of 80. The assessment covers governance, workers, community, environment and customers. It assesses business practices, rather than testing food safety, nutrition or benefits for an animal.

Animal welfare and seafood certifications. Certified Humane and Global Animal Partnership assess farm-animal welfare against their standards; Ocean Wise assesses seafood sustainability. None certifies a food’s nutritional quality.

Entrepreneurship award. Prehogan and Langleben were named Canada's EY Entrepreneur of the Year for 2025.

Rachel Rodrigues, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Canada Program Director, is quoted: "Isaac and Jacqueline are proof that entrepreneurship can be a force for good. Their dedication to conscious business practices has transformed the pet food industry."

That is praise from the awarding organization, not an audit of food safety or nutrition.

The Reported Plastic Withdrawal

The reported plastic withdrawal

Ingredient origins and manufacturing controls answer different questions. The reported withdrawal of several Open Farm products makes that distinction especially relevant.

On January 2, 2025, Truth About Pet Food reported that Open Farm was withdrawing products because of plastic contamination, citing FDA Enforcement Report records. It named six products: Red Meat Fiesta Freeze Dried Meat Morsels, and Freeze-Dried Raw Lamb, Surf & Turf, Grass-Fed Beef, Homestead Turkey and Pork recipes. The report described roughly 80 lot codes with manufacturing dates between August and November 2024.

That report also stated the FDA website indicated no recall press release would be issued.

The underlying FDA enforcement record was not accessible during our research, so this account still rests on a pet-food-safety advocacy site that said it reviewed the record. A withdrawal is not the same as a recall, and we could not establish the FDA classification or what corrective action followed.

No illness or injury was reported in the source we consulted, and none should be inferred. Foreign-object withdrawals are a routine category of action across the whole food industry.

Knowing which farm supplied an ingredient cannot show whether plastic entered food during manufacturing. Moore reported in 2021 that Open Farm used contracted manufacturing facilities. The accessible withdrawal report did not establish where contamination occurred.

In other words, tracing an ingredient and checking the finished food are separate tasks. The lot-code lookup helps with the first; it cannot prove nothing unwanted entered during manufacturing.

What We Still Want to Know

What We Still Want To Know

Whether the traceability covers everything. The wording we found specifies meat ingredients. Whether the same standard applies to grains, vegetables, supplements and additives was not established independently.

What the 2025 withdrawal was classified as. FDA assigns classes to enforcement actions based on health risk. We could not access that record, and we could not establish what corrective actions followed.

How the B Corp score changes at recertification. B Lab confirms the current 102.8 figure; we would like to know what improves or changes in the next assessment.

Whether the sourcing standards translate into better nutrition. We found no independent nutritional assessment of Open Farm products. The certifications discussed here cover sourcing, animal welfare, sustainability and business practices; they do not tell us whether a particular recipe will nourish a dog or cat better.

What happens at the contract manufacturer. The supply chain is documented up to the point where ingredients become food. What happens inside the facilities is less visible; the accessible withdrawal reporting did not establish where the contamination occurred.

What You Can Check Yourself

What you can check yourself

Open Farm's claims are unusually checkable by the standards of pet food. That is the most interesting thing about the company. If you are considering it:

• Enter a lot code from a bag you own and see what the system returns for that batch. Check whether the information clearly identifies the ingredients and their origins.
• Read the certifications’ own standards and listings. Certified Humane, Global Animal Partnership, Ocean Wise and B Lab publish standards and, in most cases, searchable listings. That lets you check what a badge covers and decide how well its requirements match your concerns.
• Read what B Corp assesses: social and environmental performance, rather than food safety or nutrition.
• Check the nutritional adequacy statement on the specific product. That is the regulated indicator of whether a food is formulated as a complete diet for a given life stage, and it is entirely separate from sourcing ethics.
• Search FDA enforcement reports for any brand you are considering, this one included, rather than relying on whether a press release happened to be issued.

Questions for the Pack

We did not find an independent comparison showing whether sourcing certifications are linked to better nutrition across pet-food brands. The certifications discussed here assess sourcing and business practices; they do not answer that nutrition question.

For veterinary nutritionists who evaluate commercial diets: how much weight, if any, do sourcing certifications carry in your assessment, and what nutrition information do you look at?

Have you tried the lot-code lookup on a bag you own? We would like to hear what it showed and whether the information was clear. That helps us understand how useful the system is to shoppers; it does not establish the food’s nutritional quality.