Many consumers, and probably many retailers as well, depend on the approval ratings of the Whole Dog Journal (WDJ) when determining what pet food to buy. I suppose, in some ways, these approvals are helpful. But now the WDJ has gone a step to far by determining which are the “best” foods in a number of […]

COVID-19 has created havoc around the world; not to mention all the death and illness in its wake. At GDM, we are very fortunate that we have all remained healthy and the pandemic has had no negative effect on sales. Our manufacturing partners have had relatively few production delays although they have seen manufacturing costs […]

Yes.  There is plastic in pet food.  It is unavoidable.  It happens from time-to-time with every brand and with every manufacturing facility.  Fortunately, all the plastic that enters a pet food facility is US FDA Food Grade plastic.  That means should a dog or a cat ingest the plastic, there is no risk to the […]

So far, COVID-19 has proven to be nothing but a great inconvenience to all of us at GDM.  We hope it remains nothing more than a great inconvenience to us and to all of you. We are fortunate to be very flexible in our work so that both Junior and Laura can work from home.  […]

Almost every day we receive a complaint about some foreign matter in a piece of kibble.  No matter the brand.  No matter the manufacturer.  No matter the country of origin.  Consumers are finding foreign matter in the kibble. All pet food manufacturers and all pet food brands are aware that foreign matter will be found […]

I thought I was inoculated.  I am cynical.  I speak Chinese.  I know the China market.  It would never happen to me. But, it did.  China is a huge potential market.  But, China does not want any foreign brands, not produced in China with Chinese materials, to succeed in their market.  It does not matter […]

I think we are now past the point where there are too many communications platforms. We can dispense with fax. When was the last time you received a fax? But, in addition to the telephone, email, and texts; I now receive messages through (in no particular order) Skype, WeChat, WhatsApp, Slack (thank you, Lonnie!), FaceTime, […]

At GDM, we spend a lot of time patting ourselves on the back as we think we are pretty good at what we do.  However, as good as we are, we cannot sell a product until we have pricing.  It is always frustrating for us when we find a new brand that we feel will […]

A special guest peeve from Travis Golladay of Ohio Pet Foods expressing his (our shared) frustration over an emphasis on kibble appearance rather than kibble quality.     Over the years, Ohio Pet Foods has received many questions concerning the variation in our kibble size and shape.  Our initial reaction is why does kibble have […]

Often, we find ourselves reviewing email correspondence for any number of reasons: recreating an email conversation; finding a claim or complaint; looking for a file; etc.  It makes our work much easier when the subject line of the email reflects the content of the email.  We try to do this ourselves (although I know we […]