AS THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE NIGHT SKY, THE DOG STAR IS THE SYMBOL AND NAME OF OUR NEWEST KITCHEN. KNOWN IN ANCIENT CULTURES AS ‘HEAVENLY WOLF’, THE DOG STAR REPRESENTS STEADFASTNESS OF PURPOSE, A BEACON OF INSPIRATION, REFLECTING OUR COMMITMENT TO PET LOVERS EVERYWHERE.
Located on 85 acres of lush farmland in Auburn, Kentucky and custom-built from the ground up to advance our Biologically Appropriate and Fresh Regional Ingredient mission, our DogStar Kitchen has won significant awards in the pet food industry.
DogStar beat organizations in both human and animal food industries to win the inaugural 2017 Global Markets Award from the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). This recognition is one of the highest food safety achievements in the world.
Our state-of-the-art DogStar Kitchen also won a prestigious Design-Build Institute of America Award – the first pet food facility in the world ever to receive such an accolade.
Put simply, we are committed to making the world’s best food in the world’s best kitchen. That means advancing our award-winning dog and cat foods with more fresh meat inclusions than any other dog or cat foods anywhere.
And you can rest assured that we only prepare ACANA and ORIJEN – we do not produce other brands or private label. We wouldn’t have it any other way and we believe you wouldn’t either.
OUR KITCHEN PRINCIPLES
We believe that the food you choose for your dog or cat is one of the most important decisions you can make which is why we kept these 6 principles in mind as we purpose-built the world’s best kitchens:
A NEW WAY OF PREPARING FOODS FOR DOGS AND CATS, ACCORDING TO THEIR EVOLUTIONARY DIETS.
That’s why we designed every aspect of our kitchens to enhance our Biologically Appropriate capabilities. From freeze-dryers and plate freezers, to innovative fresh meat handling capabilities, we custom-fit and purpose-built our DogStar Kitchen to bring ORIJEN foods ever closer to the natural diets of dogs and cats.
KNOWING WHERE OUR INGREDIENTS COME FROM, MEANS EVERYTHING TO US.
That’s why we partnered with Kentucky’s rich, vibrant agricultural community as our main source of Fresh Regional Ingredients. Kentucky farmers, ranchers and fishermen have a deep-rooted heritage and connection to the land and way of life, as well as willingness to embrace our unique and stringent ingredient requirements.
NO ONE MAKES FOODS LIKE WE DO.
We’re passionate about our foods, ingredients, and kitchen, and we have a quarter century of experience in preparing award-winning foods our own way.
That’s why we never outsource — we don’t make foods for anyone else and we don’t allow anyone else to make our foods either. No other North American pet food brand makes this commitment.
At DogStar, we’ve taken Never Outsourced even further by integrating every step of the cooking process — from Cuddon freeze-dryers that make our own palatants, to specialized processing capabilities to prepare our authentically Fresh Regional Ingredients.
TRUST IS HARD EARNED AND EASILY LOST.
Dedicated to earning the trust of Pet Lovers everywhere, we built our DogStar Kitchen to reach beyond pet food standards or, for that matter, beyond any other pet food maker on earth.
OUR FOODS AREN’T MADE IN AN INDUSTRIAL PARK.
We built our kitchen in the Kentucky countryside, away from the road and amongst the trees; far away from industrial parks and integrated into the farmlands, where we can feel inspired.
OUR KITCHEN ISN’T THE BIGGEST. BUT IT IS THE BEST.
We assembled an international team of the best designers, engineers, and food processing experts from New Zealand, Europe, and North America, and tasked them with a single purpose: to create DogStar, the world’s best pet food kitchen. The collaborative environment resulted in an innovative, award-winning kitchen that has received a coveted 2016 Design-Build Institute of America Award in the Industrial, Process and/or Research Facilities category.
