Headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut, Blue Buffalo was founded in 2003 by Bill Bishop, who had one simple mission: to make natural, healthy food for dogs and cats. They make pet food of pretty much any style (wet, dry, treats) and for every life stage of dogs and cats, and have grown tremendously since starting. In 2017, they did well over $1 billion in sales. That caught the attention of the giant General Mills, which bought them in early 2018 for about $8 billion. With all that growth, we wanted to see if Blue Buffalo was cutting any corners in their production process. They started local – are they still made that way?
Additionally, pet food manufacturers are historically vague about the ingredients in their recipes. So, where is Blue Buffalo made? We dug in to get the answers – our verdict is below.
Verdict: Is Blue Buffalo Pet Food Made in the USA?
For major ingredients and the production of its recipes, Blue Buffalo sources and produces everything from its own facilities or from partners across the United States. It often outsources the production of its recipes to other U.S. manufacturers, which include Ainsworth, ANI/Vita-Line, CJ Foods, Triple T Foods, and Tuffy’s.
Most of their proteins are sourced from US suppliers. The only exceptions are their lamb, which comes from suppliers in New Zealand, Australia, and the US, and their fish, which is sourced all over the world, including Asian countries.
For smaller ingredients in their recipes, Blue Buffalo is vague about their specific location of origin. There are minimal details on their website and in their product packaging, and we even tried calling them. The several representatives we spoke to could not provide a detailed breakdown of the sources of their micro ingredients. So, we cannot say for sure which of their products are 100% made in the USA. Below, we’ve listed some of the popular products we know are sourced from their primary ingredients and production process in the United States.
Popular Blue Buffalo Products
- BLUE Life Protection Formula
- BLUE for Cats
- BLUE Freedom
- BLUE Basics
Safety
On the safety side, Blue Buffalo has had some trouble in the past with ingredient mislabeling. In 2014, they were sued by Purina, which claimed they used chicken by-products in their recipes instead of a more wholesome chicken meal. This claim turned out to be true, leading Blue to quickly correct their mistake and blame it on a supplier that “mislabeled” some ingredients. If you’re ever curious about what one of their ingredients means, they keep a complete glossary of them here.
Blue Buffalo has also had three major recalls in its history. The most recent recall was voluntary in March 2017—their BLUE Wilderness Rocky Mountain Recipe Red Meat Dinner Wet Food for Adult Dogs had elevated levels of beef thyroid hormones, which caused adverse (non-lethal) side effects in dogs. The other recalls were in October 2010 for elevated levels of Vitamin D in their products, causing dogs to get sick, and the last recall was in April 2007 for a rice protein they used being contaminated with melamine.
So, Blue Buffalo doesn’t really have the best track record when it comes to the safety of its products. Even though they produce all of their recipes in the U.S., there are tons of better options for your dog or cat. We’ve done a bunch of research around American made pet foods – you can find our recommendations below.
