Who Really Makes Store-Brand Pet Food? Inside the World of Co-Packers
The Label Isn't the FactoryWalk down the pet food aisle and you'll see dozens of brands. Some are flashy, some are plain, some promise to be just like the expensive stuff for half the price. Here's the part most shoppers never think about: a huge number of those bags come out of the same handful of facilities.This isn't a scandal. It's just how packaged food works. A retailer or a brand owner decides they want a product. They don't necessarily build a factory for it. Instead, they hire a manufacturer who already has the equipment, the recipes, and the regulatory know-how to produce it for them. That manufacturer is called a co-packer, short for contract packager.Why Co-Packing Dominates Pet FoodBuilding a pet food plant is expensive. You need extrusion equipment…
