Blue Buffalo is a famous dog food brand with many recipes tailored for optimal canine health. There are tons of options in recipes, treats, and other supplements. If you have any kitties—they even have quite a comprehensive cat food line.

But if you care about where your dog food company gets their ingredients, you might want to uncover the details. Blue Buffalo is in fact, proudly made in the USA. Let’s learn more about this pet food company.

Blue Buffalo: About the Company

Blue Buffalo came about the same way as most dog food companies, from a place of passion. Commercial dog food at the time Blue Buffalo was formed seemed to be slim pickin’ and stuffed with all sorts of preservatives and artificial additives.

The Bishop family had an Airedale Terrier named Blue. Blue was an innovator, moving pets away from pet foods that had harmful fillers and artificial ingredients to create a healthy eating experience. Blue paved the way toward better nutrition for dogs to live their entire lifespan.

Since then, the company has grown exponentially, sharing its recipes globally. While Blue Buffalo is ever-expanding, they have pet food lines in both wet food and dry kibble. There are no fresh or raw options at this time, although they are very innovative and go along well with the times.

In fact, Blue Buffalo recently tossed around the idea of adding more wet food options to satisfy the market. So, we expect to see them come out with innovative pet food as time passes.

Rise in Availability

Blue Buffalo has recently expanded their availability, filling up shelves in pet stores and department stores across several countries. They aim to make their recipes available to pet parents of any variety for convenience.

You might find Blue Buffalo at your local Walmart, where you never did before. This is to be expected now as Blue develops broader markets. It tries to cater to the convenience of every pet parent, claws and wags alike.

Blue Buffalo Facilities

General Mills bought Blue Buffalo in April of 2018. The company headquarters remains in Wilton, Connecticut, but it also has other facilities across the States. The manufacturing plant is based in Richmond, Indiana, though they opened another in Joplin, Missouri in 2018 to expand.

They have a few different facilities to speak of. According to the Blue Buffalo website, all of their recipes are made in the United States. However, Blue Buffalo globally sources their ingredients, which means they work with a series of farmers and suppliers to obtain the ingredients they use in the dog food outside the United States. Blue Buffalo seems to source their ingredients with few recalls and deal with complaints responsibly.

The General Mills Worry

Blue Buffalo started as a small company in Wilton. When General Mills took over, it left a lot of questions for consumers. Will this company now outsource labor? Will they start getting shady with recipes or source ingredients from untrusted facilities for cheap labor?

According to Blue’s website, not much has changed since the General Mills takeover, but people still watch carefully.

Globally Sourced, Locally Manufactured

But where do they get the ingredients they use in their dog food?

Well, Blue has been under scrutiny before. In 2014, they admitted to using chicken byproducts. They claimed it was a mislabeling issue from their supplier, Wilbur-Ellis, in Texas. Since then, the issue has been resolved.

However, Blue sources ingredients globally, meaning they have partners from other countries to obtain items for their formulas. Their main website does not specify which countries or facilities.

• See Also: 11 Best Dog Foods Made in the USA

In Conclusion

General Mills might have bought Blue Buffalo, but not a lot has changed.  Although the food is made in the United States, many of the ingredients are sourced globally. While you can only get a limited amount of information from the company’s actual website, you are encouraged to keep a watch.

We hope that Blue will keep its integrity and continue to add to its stellar reputation.

Featured Image Credit: bluebuffalo.com