Premium pet food maker BIXBI Pet has become the first company in the industry to earn Clean Label Project Certification for dog kibble products, with 13 items across its portfolio now carrying the designation. The certification requires comprehensive, independent testing for industrial and environmental contaminants — including heavy metals, pesticides and plasticizers — against health-based benchmarks that often exceed minimum federal requirements.
Why the Certification Matters
No federal regulation currently mandates disclosure of environmental contaminants that can enter the food supply chain long before ingredients reach a manufacturing facility. That regulatory gap has made third-party verification programs like Clean Label Project increasingly important to retailers and distributors positioning premium pet nutrition alongside human-grade food standards. For buyers and category managers, the certification provides a verifiable, externally audited quality signal beyond what any ingredient panel can communicate.
"Third-party certifications like Clean Label Project validate the standards we hold ourselves to every day as we deliver nutritious recipes for pets," said Rachel D'Agostino, CEO of BIXBI Pet. Molly Hamilton, executive director of Clean Label Project, noted that the certification "reflects BIXBI Pet's commitment to accountability and to raising industry standards for pets."
New Product Launch Tied to Certification
The certification milestone arrives alongside BIXBI's launch of ProteinBlend™, a new product line whose Beef and Chicken recipes have also cleared the Clean Label Project standard. ProteinBlend builds on the brand's existing Rawbble freeze-dried-coated kibble by adding two functional layers: air-dried jerky bites formulated to support skin and coat health, and freeze-dried pieces designed to boost high-quality protein content. The dual-texture format reflects a broader trend in the premium pet food category toward human-food-inspired product architecture — a direction that parallels innovation patterns tracked across food and beverage industry analysis.
BIXBI said it is currently testing its cat kibble line for Clean Label Project Certification as well, with the goal of extending third-party-verified purity across its full kibble portfolio. For foodservice-adjacent retailers and specialty pet channels, that pipeline could expand the certified SKU count significantly in the near term.
What It Means for the Category
The premium pet food segment has long borrowed cues from human food trends — clean labels, minimal processing, transparent sourcing — and this certification represents the next logical step: adopting the same independent verification infrastructure that consumers increasingly expect from food and beverage brands. As ingredient transparency becomes a purchase driver across categories, retailers stocking premium pet lines will likely face more pressure to differentiate on verified quality rather than label claims alone. This mirrors dynamics already reshaping beverage industry analysis, where third-party certifications have become standard merchandising tools. BIXBI, founded in 2009 and independently owned, positions the certification as a structural commitment rather than a one-time marketing event — a stance that resonates with specialty and natural-channel buyers who treat pet food with the same scrutiny as human nutrition.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
