Pet food and pet supplement brands often discover something frustrating when they start calling contract packagers: many co-packers that handle human food will not take on pet products at all. The reason is not the filling equipment. It is licensing.
Pet food is regulated separately from human food
Being set up to package food for people does not automatically qualify a facility to package food for animals. Pet food and pet supplements fall under their own federal and state requirements, so a co-packer has to take on a separate set of registrations, plans, and inspections before it can run them.
The federal side: FDA registration and animal food rules
Facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold animal food for consumption in the United States must register with the FDA. Under the Food Safety Modernization Act, the FDA’s Preventive Controls for Animal Food rule also requires covered facilities to follow current good manufacturing practices for animal food and to maintain a written food safety plan built around hazard analysis and preventive controls.
The state side: California’s separate pet food licensing
California regulates processed pet food (such as kibble, treats, and pet supplements) under its own law, separate from the registrations that cover human food. Processed pet food is licensed by the California Department of Public Health, Food and Drug Branch, while raw meat pet food falls under the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Licensing involves submitting product labels and ingredient information for review. Importantly for brands, California does not allow processed pet food to be distributed in the state unless the facility that makes or packs it holds the required state license or registration. That obligation sits with your co-packer, which makes choosing a properly licensed one essential.
Why so few co-packers offer it
Adding pet products means another layer of licensing, documentation, and compliance on top of a facility’s human-food programs. For a co-packer focused on large human-food runs, that extra work is often not worth it, so pet brands get turned away or pointed elsewhere. For emerging pet brands, especially those that want small runs, a licensed co-packer can be genuinely hard to find.
Pet food and supplement co-packing at Minimus Products
Minimus Products is registered with the FDA and the California Department of Public Health to package pet food and pet supplements, alongside our human food, supplement, and personal-care work. Pet projects benefit from the same programs as the rest of our facility: a third-party cGMP audit from Eurofins, a written food safety plan and HACCP plan, lot coding on every run, and testing through a licensed third-party lab. We fill powders, particulates, and liquids into jars, bags, pouches, bottles, sachets, and more, with a general project minimum of $2,500.
If you are launching or growing a pet food, treat, or supplement brand, tell us about your product, see our pet food and pet supplement co-packing page, or read our co-packing FAQ.
Work with Minimus Products. We are an entrepreneurial contract packaging and co-packing partner in Newbury Park, California, specializing in low-minimum production runs for emerging food, beverage, supplement, pet, and personal-care brands. Request a quote and tell us about your product.
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