Sniffing Out Food Waste

5pm. The dog finds its way to you. Sits down. Locks eyes with yours. Maybe in your house this evening eye contact comes at 8 PM, or 6:30, but when your canine companion commences the most intense eye contact known to dogkind, it can only mean one thing… it’s time to talk about the issue of food waste.

Just kidding, it means it’s dinnertime.  

When it’s dinnertime, most dogs scarf down their food the minute it hits the bowl. At human dinnertime, leaving a bit of food on the plate is way more common. Yes, this counts as food waste, but America’s massive food waste problem doesn’t stem from the burnt broccoli bits of your latest cooking endeavor. The most common source of food waste is actually grocery stores.

Almost half of the food grown in our country is thrown out because it can’t be sold. That adds up to 63 million tons of food per year. And most of this is due to strict grocery store cosmetic standards. These standards usually have to do with size, bruising, coloring, and other imperfections that don’t affect the taste or quality of the food. For example, many grocery stores won’t sell carrots that are too big, apples that are too small, or yams that look more like the eggplant emoji than a yam. Grocery stores often only purchase food that fits their narrow standards, leaving lots of perfectly good produce behind.

But where does this leave the farmers of these oddly shaped yams and funky colored carrots? In the dust. Farmers plan their crops to meet grocer demands, and then are left with surplus produce when grocers are only interested in the cream of the crop. That’s where Shameless Pets comes in. The ever-eager appetite of man’s best friend is the perfect match for these cosmetically challenged foods, and not just because dogs are colorblind.

Shameless Pets works directly with farmers to find sustainable solutions for the surplus goods created during agricultural production, harvesting, and food processing. Whether it’s leftover pumpkins after Halloween, or apple pulp from a cider press, Shameless Pets collects perfectly healthy food from various points in the supply chain and upcycles it into treats, dental sticks, and chews for your dog. Fruits and vegetables are the greatest contributors to food waste, so those are our biggest focus when creating delicious dog treats.

So whether your dog is into apple and peanut butter flavor, or pairs his begging for lobster treats with a fine whine, rest assured that when you give your dog Shameless Pets treats, you’re helping fight back against food waste. And nothing makes a dog’s tail wag like fighting food waste.

…What, you’re saying they just like the treats? That works too.