We’ve been crafting and perfecting our raw recipes for over 20 years to ensure that every bite is minimally processed, protein-packed, and never cooked to keep important nutrients intact. And we don’t sacrifice safety, either. We employ industry-leading safety protocols and processing techniques so you and your patients can trust every bite that goes in their bowl.
Do you want to know more about Instinct, our safety procedures, the science of raw, and our products?
Fill out the form below for immediate access to our comprehensive 2023 Product Guide and supporting raw research.
View the Product Guide and supporting raw research PDFs below.
At Instinct, we provide a variety of ways to add raw to a pet’s routine. That includes frozen raw meals, freeze-dried raw meals, a groundbreaking 20% freeze-dried raw meal blend, and more. This allows pet owners to reap our raw benefits with a range of convenient options.
We have a dedicated team of experts formulating and making our raw recipes, from food scientists to quality control specialists to our on-staff, board certified veterinary nutritionist® and vet technicians. Together, they have decades of experience in pet food.
Jason Meents
BSc
Vice President of Research & Development
Susan G. Wynn
DVM, DACVIM (Nutrition)
Senior Director of Scientific Affairs
Stephanie Striar
CVT
Veterinary Education & Training Manager
J.C. Cash
CVT
Veterinary Education & Training Associate
Susy Tejayadi
PhD
Instinct Consultant
Robbie Swanson
Senior Director of Production
The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) publishes guidelines to assist veterinarians like you in making the best dietary recommendations possible to pet owners. They focus on whether brands employ a PhD or DACVIM in Nutrition (we do!) and who formulates the diet (our staff has over 50 combined years of experience formulating products in the food industry). And that’s just the start. Tap the button below to learn more about how Instinct meets and exceeds the rest of the WSAVA guidelines.
View PDF
Formulators with over 50 years of combined experience in the food industry
Products developed in collaboration with DVM, DACVIM (Nutrition), Dr. Susan Wynn
Raw Longevity™ frozen formulas undergoing AAFCO feeding trials for growth and maintenance
Nutrient levels confirmed by a 3rd-party laboratory
Supplier/co-packer audits and regular nutritional analyses on finished products
Instinct® Raw Longevity™ is available in puppy, kitten, adult & adult 7+
Not all raw diets are created equal. We use High Pressure Processing (HPP) to create extreme cold pressure, killing pathogens like E. coli, salmonella, and listeria. No heat, chemicals, or preservatives needed.
Our HPP uses 5x more pressure than that of the ocean floor. Our HPP protocol has been validated in collaboration with independent university researchers.
HPP is a USDA-recognized pathogen reduction treatment, and Instinct has performed extensive research over the last 10+ years to validate our HPP protocols.
HPP maintains nutrient complexity without using heat, which creates AGEs and harms essential nutrients and bioactive compounds.
INSTINCT IS SQF CERTIFIED IN BOTH FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY.
SQF is a rigorous and credible food safety and quality audit with worldwide recognition. SQF certification is NOT a requirement in the pet food industry, but Instinct went the extra mile to earn a dual certification.
Once blended, our raw recipes are sent to a reputable 3rd-party SQF-certified company, where they go through a pathogen reduction step using extreme cold pressure called High Pressure Processing (also known as HPP).
After High Pressure Processing, we PCR test each batch of product a minimum of 3 times for pathogens.
In addition to High Pressure Processing, Instinct has validated using probiotics as an antimicrobial kill step for our raw chicken recipes for an added layer of safety.
We monitor and microbiologically test our raw ingredients.
Our finished frozen and freeze-dried raw recipes go through pathogen testing to ensure we achieve Zero Tolerance for target pathogens prior to distribution to the customers.
We perform metal detection testing to prevent foreign material contamination.
When packing our raw frozen recipes, we check for correct weights, clumping, product shape, color, temperature and water activity (for freeze-dried).
We check our facilities for cleanliness – both visually and using microbiological testing.
In our company-owned facilities, sanitation is performed every night and verified for efficacy. We maintain a culture of food safety with continuously updated and monitored GMPs, risk analysis with infrastructure and traffic design, and preventive controls from start to finish.
We have a training program in place to ensure employee competency.
Instinct is proud to have a multiyear research agreement with Dr. Anna Hielm-Björkman and the DogRisk independent research program at the University of Helsinki studying more than 16,000 dogs. Together, they are making groundbreaking discoveries to quantify the impact of raw pet food on dogs' health.
OUR PARTNERS ARE CURRENTLY PURSUING HOW A RAW DIET CAN POSITIVELY IMPACT THE FOLLOWING HEALTH ISSUES:
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