Quality and Safety at Leading Raw

Quality you can trust

One of the most common questions we hear is “is raw food safe for my pet?”.  The answer is yes, raw pet food is healthy and safe if it is manufactured, stored and handled correctly, as with any food. Leading Raw is proudly made by Big Dog Australia, founded in 2000 feeding many happy, healthy pets for over 25 years.

Our commitment to quality and safety 

We have a dedicated team of QA (Quality Assurance) professionals who oversee our food safety policies and procedures. This is to ensure that our product quality consistently meets our high standards that pet parents rely on. 

A purpose-built production facility 

Our manufacturing facility is purpose-built and temperature-controlled throughout to streamline our process and make our quality assurance more efficient. 

Our facility meets the same strict standards required for human-consumption meat production and operates under HACCP certification. 

Great recipes start with quality ingredients  

We source fresh Australian ingredients through the human food supply chain and partner with trusted suppliers who share our commitment to quality. Some of these relationships have spanned more than 25 years.

Every delivery is inspected before being accepted into our facility. We check temperature, appearance and freshness to ensure only ingredients that meet our standards are used in our recipes.

Working with natural ingredients 

Leading Raw is made from fresh, natural ingredients, which means some variation between batches is completely normal.

Differences in seasonality and natural variations in meat can affect colour and texture from batch to batch. While we work hard to maintain consistency, slight variations are simply part of producing a minimally processed, natural food.

Our QA team monitors the colour, consistency and smell of our product throughout the stages of manufacturing.

Consistent nutrition in every meal

While natural ingredients may vary in appearance, the nutritional composition of our recipes does not.

Every ingredient is carefully measured and controlled to ensure each meal delivers the balanced nutrition outlined in our Typical Analysis, providing consistent nutrition in every serve.  

Temperature control through the entire process 

Raw food naturally contains bacteria, and our dogs’ digestive systems are designed for this. Even so, we carefully monitor bacteria levels and temperature throughout production to ensure they remain within safe limits

Temperature control is essential to a safe, raw food diet, with our production facility temperature below 5^oC and regular temperature checks conducted by our QA team.

All incoming ingredients are temperature checked on arrival. Any ingredients that do not meet our specifications are rejected.

We freeze our finished product down at -40^oC for 23 hours and a then -18^oC for a minimum of 3 days. This process helps maintain product quality naturally, without the need for artificial preservatives.

We check, and we check again 

We freeze a sample of each product overnight and then thaw for assessment in our QA lab. Only batches that get the tick of approval continue freezing down for distribution to retailers.  

Cleaning and safety  

Every stage of production is supported by strict cleaning and maintenance protocols, including protein swabs on food-contact surfaces to verify hygiene and consistency in our cleaning procedures. Alongside the multiple quality checkpoints mentioned throughout this article, we also include metal detection systems to ensure product safety. 

Third party audits

We are audited annually by Safe Foods QLD for compliance against their standards, which is the same standards for human-consumption meat production, as well as HACCP audits for our certification.

Because we manufacture pet food for sale in corporate retail stores, our customers also require their auditors to thoroughly review our processes and manufacturing for compliance

Keeping the product safe at home 

	Store frozen Be sure to keep raw food frozen until ready for thawing. Thaw before feeding, avoid re-freezing.
	Defrost Properly To thaw, place portion in a container and allow to thaw in the fridge. To accelerate the thawing process, place in sink of lukewarm water for 15 - 30 minutes, ensuring not to cook.
	Storage and Safety This is an all-natural product with no preservatives; once thawed it must be used within 2-3 days. Keep thawed portions in a sealed, airtight container in your refrigerator. It is important to discard any thawed product that no longer look or smells fresh.
	Wash Well Thoroughly wash all utensils, work areas and hands with warm soapy water after contacting raw food.

If you have any questions about Leading Raw’s quality and safety, get in touch via our contact page.