Sourcing + Sustainability
Through your purchase of Nugget’s Healthy Eats products, you are voting with your dollars for better animal welfare and sustainable environmental practices. Thank you for your ongoing support!
Our Commitment to Animal Welfare & Sustainability
Farm Animal Welfare
The compassionate treatment of farm animals is incredibly important to us. By sourcing responsibly and being transparent in our ingredients, we know we are providing our customers & their pets the best ingredients possible. It is also important to us that we align with farms and suppliers that are making investments in sustainability in order to protect the environment.
We work with the ASPCA to source all Chicken & Turkey for our Bone Brew, Bone Broth Jerky & Gut Goodies products from farms that have been Animal Welfare Certified by Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.). More specifically, the Chicken & Turkey sourced for our products had plenty of space to move around, were never given any hormones or antibiotics, and were fed an all-vegetarian diet.
G.A.P. is part of the ASPCA® Shop With Your Heart program.
Our Chicken & Turkey products have earned the G.A.P. seal. G.A.P. is one of the largest animal welfare standards and labeling organizations in North America. They develop comprehensive animal welfare standards for 8 farm animal species, and use Third-Party Certifiers to audit every farm to ensure the standards are being met.
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At the end of 2020, we committed to the Better Chicken Commitment, a policy supported by multiple animal welfare organizations for its importance to chickens used for meat. We are happy to share that our chicken supplier is currently G.A.P. Step 2, and is 100% fully aligned on multiple elements of the Better Chicken Commitment including: housing (litter, lighting, enrichments , and space allowance) and using a higher welfare method of processing. Moving forward, we will work on the remaining element of the Better Chicken Commitment: the use of higher welfare breeds in order to meet our commitment to our consumers, and animals, by 2024.
By 2023, we have committed to sourcing our Beef products from G.A.P. Certified farms.
By 2024, we are committing to Version 1 of the Better Chicken Commitment, which includes using slower-growing breeds and a multi-step CAS processing system that is considered much more humane. If you would like to learn more, explore the current study being completed by G.A.P. here. This project strives to improve the raising and processing of poultry in a humane way, as well as standards around breed and genetics. Nugget’s Chicken & Turkey products are certified humane by GAP2+ and appear on the ASPCA®'s list of certified farms/products.
Click here to see the ASPCA list of companies like Nugget’s that are committed to improving animal welfare.
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The family-run farm where we source our Chicken opened a new plant in December, 2021. The facility was named in 2022 “Food Plant of the Year” by Food Engineering for its innovations, automations and high scores in all categories, including team member welfare, animal welfare, product safety & quality, and sustainability.
In the design and build of this facility, sustainability was a high priority.
For example, 41% of site water will be reused daily; 100% Air Chill processing saves millions of gallons of water each year versus traditional water chilling; and the new facility will be powered with 55% waste heat to reduce carbon emissions by 55%.
In addition, the company houses containers throughout their facilities to recycle plastic, paper, glass and aluminum items. All other waste is turned into clean, renewable energy at an Energy-from-Waste facility so that none of it ends up as trash in a landfill.
Their #1 PETE recyclable packaging is BPA-free, freezer-safe and vacuum-sealed for freshness. And they have eliminated the waxed cartons used by other poultry producers. All of their master cases are made from 100% recyclable material, and they recycle more than 20 tons of corrugated cardboard every month.