Motivated by a passion to give their dog a healthier life with less itching, brothers Ilya and Sasha Altshteyn set out to fill a gap they saw in the commercial cooked dog food market. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Ilya about their company, California Dog Kitchen. For an extended look at what we chatted about, you can find the longer version of this article here (8 min read), or check out the entire transcript here (13 min read).
After discovering how much their dog's health improved on a home cooked diet, Ilya began looking for a commercial option to save time. Unable to find what he was looking for, he and his brother set out to create it themselves.
We focused on what we wanted to update compared to what we saw existing out there already, such as more usable and better packaging options.
Started in 2020, California Dog Kitchen features two lines of frozen, gently-steamed, human grade dog food with three recipes each. Their packaging has evolved to now feature completely compostable bags and tubs.
The reason we did compostable and not recyclable is because recyclable is a little bit complicated when you have food waste on it. When there's fat on the container, people have to wash it properly to recycle it. When we had these other containers, they were recyclable. But we realized that people weren't going to rinse them. And even if they did, it wasn't clear that they would rinse enough of the fats off to not contaminate the recycling stream. Usually food containers with scraps on them will get filtered out before the recycling actually happens.
Compostable bags are a rare find in packaged pet food, particularly for frozen products. The bag containing the food cubes that California Dog Kitchen produces has three layers, all of which are plant-based and will break down with no microplastics in 180 days. The smaller bamboo tubs will also break down. Ilya recently shared a social media post showing how, in the span of a few short hours, the bamboo tubs can break down even in a countertop composter.
In addition to reducing waste through compostable packaging, California Dog Kitchen is also a part of the Good Food Guild. I wasn't familiar with the Good Food Guild and asked Ilya to explain:
[The Good Food Guild] is something like a cooperative or club for human food. Portland Pet Food Company is the other pet food company that's in it. Basically to join, they check that your sourcing complies with their standards. Those standards are all about sourcing either organic or the highest quality ingredients for whatever products you're making. They promote slow food and sustainability in the food production space.
Combining good for the planet and exceptional standards in sourcing, California Dog Kitchen was honored to be included in Susan Thixton's 2024 List of brands that she has vetted and recommends. The List is a great starting place for pet parents looking for premium quality and integrity in brands creating foods for pets. Ilya took me through the sourcing standards they use:
When it comes to produce, conventional doesn't cut it. We've switched all of our produce to organic except blueberries and apples. We cannot find a reasonably priced organic source for those right now. But the long term plan is to make those organic, too. All the rest of our produce is organic now, including our grains.
For the proteins, there are some sourcing differences depending on the line of food. To offer a lower-priced option, California Dog Kitchen has three formulas that utilize conventionally raised, human-grade proteins that are free from preservatives. These include Chicken & Rice, Beef & Quinoa, and Grain-Free Turkey.
The other line, which Ilya called their "Wild and Organic Line," uses proteins that are either wild-harvested or certified organic.
In that [line], we have the venison recipe which comes from Broken Arrow Ranch. They're the ones... actually hunting deer and carving them up in a field trailer. They're definitely our coolest sourcing story.
California Dog Kitchen's blog features a great article that has more information about the ranch and the benefits of wild proteins for both pet nutrition and the environment. The other wild-caught protein is a fish formula comprised of pollock and salmon skin. This formula is grain-free and can be an excellent option for pets with allergies.
The organic formula rounding out this premium line is the USDA certified Organic Chicken formula, sourced from Mary's Chicken nearby in California.
The cool thing about organic chicken is that it's actually the entire recipe that is certified organic. The USDA actually monitors our purchases... When a USDA organic inspector comes in... they check that we're buying organic for our organic recipe. They check that we're storing it properly such that they can't get mixed up with non-organic stuff, that we use chemicals that are organic compliant for cleaning and for other stuff. We actually just adopted all of the organic standards for everything in our production.
As California Dog Kitchen has grown, so has their production capacity. Just last year they acquired a new facility that previously housed a frozen pizza factory. When I asked Ilya how it felt to move into such a large space, he replied:
It's a little scary because we don't come from a food processing background... We had to make a lot of things up, work with consultants to understand better how to do stuff, and learn a lot... And we're so much better at it than we were. I'm hoping in a year I can say that again.
After speaking with Ilya, it's clear that the team at California Dog Kitchen is on a path to excellence through continuous improvement. From sourcing, to packaging and beyond, they are pushing the envelope in the pet food industry and setting an example for others to follow.
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