Does Purina get ingredients from China

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated November 18, 2024

Contributions sourced from

Is Purina Dog Food Made in China? + List of Brands To Avoid! (2024)

Most people consider their dogs as part of the family and want to feed them a nutritious diet. Proper nutrition will help ensure your dog lives a longer and healthier life.

Where your dogs food is made and the ingredients used in it play a big role in your dogs nutrition.

Many dog foods are made or have ingredients sourced in China, where the quality control and food safety standards are not very high.

If you want to ensure your dog is only eating high-quality ingredients that are manufactured safely, its a good idea to know where your dog food comes from.

Is Purina dog food made in China? Purina dog food is not made in China. Purina has multiple factories in the United States where their dog food is made and they source all dog food ingredients from the United States. Although Purina dog food is not made in China, some Purina treats are.

If you are worried about the ingredients or manufacturing process of your dog food, read on to learn more about how and where Purina dog food is made.

Where and How Purina Dog Food Is Made

If you feed your dog Purina dog food or are considering the brands overall quality standards, its a good idea to learn more about how and where it is manufactured.

Where Is Purina Dog Food Made?

Purina dog food is made in the United States. There are multiple manufacturing facilities across the country. Purina also owns and operates all of its U.S. factories and facilities.

How Is Purina Dog Food Made?

Purina dog food is made in factories across America. The company does not offer details about the manufacturing process.

In general, the ingredients are all mixed together in a large grinder and then extruded. The food is then cut into the correct portion sizes and left to dry before being bagged and labeled.

Purina Dog Food Ingredients

Purina sources its dog food ingredients from the United States and claims to only use ingredients that are high quality.

Different lines of Purina dog food use different ingredients, but the primary ingredients used for most products are:

Beef
Chicken
Cornmeal
Fish meal
Lamb
Liver
Glycerin
Ocean white fish
Rice
Salmon
Turkey
Barley
Whole grain corn
Whole grain wheat
Whole grain oats

Are Dog Food Companies Required To State Country of Origin?

Yes, dog food companies in the United States are required to state the country of origin on their labels.

However, if the food is made in the USA but the ingredients are sourced elsewhere, the company may still add Made In The USA to the label.

List of Dog Food Made 100% in the USA

If you want to feed your dog food that has been made in the USA, consider choosing a brand from this list:

Be sure to check with our Guide to the Best Dog Food and Treats to learn what exactly to look for.

List of Dog Food Made in China

If you want to avoid feeding your dog food that has been made in China or has ingredients sourced in China, you may want to avoid these dog food brands:

Artemis Company
Costco
Dick Van Pattens Natural Balance Pet Foods Inc.
Mars Petcare U.S. Inc.
Nestle
Petsmart Label Brand
Triumph Pet Industries Inc.
Wellpet LLC

Conclusion

Understanding where your favorite dog food brand is made and where the ingredients come from is essential to ensuring your dog is only eating a healthy diet.

Dog foods that are made in China or have ingredients sourced from China or other countries may be harmful to your dog.

Choosing a dog food brand that is made in the United States will ensure you are feeding your dog a healthy option.

Where is Purina Dog Food Made?2024 Overview

An established and beloved dog food for over 80 years, Purinas quality puts it consistently within the top three dog food brands. They remain there year in and year out because of the quality of their dog food made from top-notch ingredients. With that in mind, you may wonder where they make Purina dog food hoping to support companies in the USA.

If you would like to learn more about where they make Purina dog food, keep reading because we will cover the manufacturing facilities of Purina and what you might want to know about them in order to make a sound and safe decision for your pups meals!

99% of Purina dog food is made in the United States. The company sources most of its ingredients from the USA as well. They have 22 manufacturing facilities globally, with one in Fairburn, Georgia, and a new one in Eden, North Carolina.

Purina has manufacturing facilities in five states and new facilities located in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

Some of the locations where you will find manufacturing plants in the USA include:

Flagstaff, Arizona
St. Joseph, Missouri
Fort Dodge, Iowa
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Hartwell, Georgia

While we said that they have 22 manufacturing facilities, the ones outlined deal directly with dog food. Some of the other ones may make cat food or kitty litter. Purina makes a variety of pet food and pet care products. They are a brand with a great reputation.

Purinas Roots in America

Most of the ingredients sourced from Purina will come from a U.S.-based source to ensure the maximum nutrition for your dog. Purina says that 100 percent of its beef and 99 percent of its poultry comes from U.S. sources. Most of the beef includes rice for brain and vision development in puppies. Because it contains real beef, your dog receives 23 essential vitamins and minerals to promote health.

American-raised chickens have become a staple in dry dog food products, and while not always the healthiest, it provides a source of protein. When we say chicken or beef, we often refer to the byproducts of the animal when talking about dog foods. For example, the byproducts used for dog foods include the lungs, the spleens, the livers, and the kidneys. Purina doesnt add unhealthy things like intestinal products, feathers, hair, or hide as you might find with other dog foods. As long as the byproducts follow strict criteria, it is, in fact, healthy for your dog.

Lets have a look at how much of each ingredient comes from American sources:

Purina Ingredient	USA-Sourced Percentage
Beef	100 percent
Soy	100 percent
Grain	96 percent
Poultry	99 percent
Fish	76 percent
Other Meats (Turkey and Lamb)	91 percent

Purina Dog Food makes all its own dog foods under the Purina brand. They dont use third parties to make their dog food. Most of the dog foods in the USA will come from sources within the country at their own manufacturing facilities.

Recently, Purina has gotten into another source of dog food, which uses insects as part of the dogs diet. You can learn more about that here and how it may help to fight climate change.

Check out this quick message from Purina about their manufacturing processes below.

Are Purina Dog Treats Made in China?

While most of the Purina brand sold in the United States comes from US sources, you do have an exception. Some of the dog food treats come from Chinese sources. For example, Nestle Purinas Waggin Train treats were recalled because they were being made in China, and they learned how they contained unregulated antibiotics. Because of these dog treats, one dog was dying per day, and six dogs were suffering from kidney disease.

At the end of the scandal, over 500 dogs died because of dog treats, which you can learn more about here. Generally speaking, we would advise that you dont buy foreign-made dog foods because of how the regulations in countries like China remain lax in comparison to the USA. At the same time, you support jobs in America.

To ensure that you buy USA-made products, check the packaging. All products coming from foreign sources like China must disclose this information on the packaging to customs under U.S. law. Because of that, you can tell what was made in the USA and what wasnt. Be aware of how some products will only be made in the USA, but the ingredients may come from foreign sources. In some cases, brands will try to hide this information.

Some of the dog treats from China are made there for good reasons. For example, China considers the breast meat of the chicken a byproduct since they find that it lacks flavor, which Purina seizes the competitive advantage for better affordability to U.S. consumers for high-quality meat.

While this doesnt relate to China, you should also be aware of how the Busy Bones treats were made in Colombia.

Purina Investment in Manufacturing Facilities in the USA

Most of the Purina dog foods sold in the USA have been made there. They even recently poured $320 million into opening a manufacturing plant in Fairburn, Georgia. This manufacturing plant sits 130 miles to the southwest of Hartwell, Georgia, another plant where they employ 200 employees and hope to employ 230 by 2023.

The $320 million investment marks the biggest investment that the company has made in its North American or South American pet food manufacturing plants within the last ten years.

At the same time, this is the first new plant that Purina has made in the last 20 years in the United States. Why would they put so much cash into a new facility if they werent going to use it? That information shows you how Purina largely remains a USA-based company.

You see some people who have accused the brand of greed and not making its products in the USA, but it doesnt line up when you look at the money that it put into its U.S. manufacturing plants. Investing in a manufacturing facility is a long-term investment, and every company that makes that investment plans on seeing a return.

At the plant in Fairburn, Georgia, Purina hopes to employ 350 new workers. Not only will the new plant in Georgia give jobs to hard-working Americans, but it will use the best environmental practices like water conservation and treatment methods.

Along with this new plant, Purina has been expanding its USA imprint with a new manufacturing plant in Bloomfield, Missouri, which will cost $115 million, and another plant that they made in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where they will employ 800 workers. Purina also announced a $550 million investment in Williamsburg Township, Ohio, where they will build another factory.

Purina Investing More in Other Countries?

You do see Purina putting manufacturing plants up in other countries, like putting an additional $111 million into its pet food facility in Tianjin, China. However, this was done largely to sell to the Chinese market, which has an increasing demand for high-quality pet foods.

Purina also invested $160 million at its plant in Silao, Mexico, which may be marketed more toward the Mexican market. In fact, Purina has been in Mexico for almost 90 years, so this doesnt mark a new development. Most of the Purina dog food bought in the USA comes from sources in the United States, not elsewhere.

Purina is a global brand, and its operations span across North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. As a global brand, this is why they have its operations in so many countries. They first became a global brand in 1957 when Ralston Purina began selling to overseas markets. It has been that way ever since.

This also isnt a case where you see a corporation slowly and quietly moving its manufacturing jobs out of the United States because you can see new manufacturing plants going into the United States. You also havent seen them close down any manufacturing plants within the USA. They did close down a plant in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, back in 2018, but they have done a good job at keeping up their current facilities and giving jobs to American workers.

Who Owns Purina?

In December 2001, Nestle acquired Purina for $10.3 billion and merged it with the Nestle pet food business. William H Danforth started the company in 1894 under the name Robinson-Danforth Commission Company where it sold cereals known as Ralston Whole Wheat Cereal. It wasnt until 1921 that the company first entered pelletized animal feeds.

Heres where it may look confusing because while the house pet food portion of Purina is owned by Nestle, the Purina Mills side, the side for farm animals, is owned by Land O Lakes, a Minnesota-based company. Years ago, both sides of the company fell under a single brand known as Ralston Purina. They split the divisions, however, and that was how Land O Lakes wound up with Purina Mills and Nestle wound up with Nestle Purina.

Currently, Nestle owns the rights to Purina pet foods like dog foods and cat foods. If you see packaging that falls under farm animals, this refers to Land OLakes, rather than Nestle Purina. They also have different logos to tell the difference between them. The easiest way to tell the difference is that Nestle Purina manufactures pet foods for house pets. Meanwhile, Purina Mills was intended as farm animal feed. If youre buying feed for your horse, that is Land O Lakes.

Other Pet Food Brands That Nestle Purina Owns

When Nestle bought Purina, the brand joined a collection of other brands that fell under the label. You may be familiar with many of these pet food brands like:

Dog Chow
Fancy Feast
Friskies
Beneful
Alpo
Tidy Cats
Muse
Beyond

Wrap Up:

Purina is a company we really like here at All American Made. We find their food to be very high quality, but just like any product, check the packing to ensure the food youre getting is, in fact, American-made.

That does it for this article. Let us know if you have any further questions regarding where Purina dog food is made in the comments below.

Hi, my name is Kevin and Im from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Choosing products made in America is important to me because it supports local economies, creates jobs, helps the environment, and ensures ethical labor practices. I also find that American made products are usually of higher quality so although theyre a little more expensive, you save money in the long run. Before starting this website I was in the USMC infantry and nowadays I work on this website as a hobby.