PET Food Processing - March 2021 - 14

Wet Noses' Wag
Soups are readyto-serve and packaged in resealable
jars. They can be
fed as treats, toppers for kibble or
used to rehydrate
dehydrated foods.

cool and then taking finished products off of the sheet pans. "
With a used tunnel oven and an
array of used restaurant equipment, Wet Noses continued to
grow its baked treat business featuring human-grade and organic
ingredients. By 2012, the company
had expanded into a 30,000-squarefoot space and added a second baking line. At the same time that the Food
Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was
ramping up, Wet Noses was pursuing its
first SQF certification. Galligan was
all for this increased focus on food
safety in the pet industry.
" The larger, national customers
I was serving started requiring the
food safety audits for SQF, BRC
and GFSI (Global Food Safety
Initiative), " Galligan recalled. " That
was another big turning point for
us. That changed everything, honestly, for the better. Addressing the whole
process for food safety actually helped us
become much more efficient. Having batch
sheets, testing critical control points every 15 minutes, being able to trace ingredients - food safety is a whole
way of thinking and that fit really well with quality being
our number one focus. "
Galligan described the early years as a blur but said
she and the company were like a locomotive that just
kept moving forward.
" It was challenging and stressful at times but if the decisions I had to make were for better quality, better consistency, better experience for our customers and better
nutrition for dogs, then I was all for it, " Galligan said.

PET FOOD PROCESSING | March 2021 | www.petfoodprocessing.net

Led by Chief Executive Officer Johnni Rodgers (wearing the white
t-shirt), the wet noses management team plans to continue developing innovative new product formats. Pictured from left: Andrew
Choisser, maintenance manager; Don Worthen, shipping and
receiving manager; Kim Murrell, frozen manager; Johnni Rodgers;
Tim Stanton, director regulatory affairs; Robert Prystash, vice
president operations; Michael-Paul Cummings, baking manager;
Misty Barnett, director of operations; Karianne Ryder, research and
development manager.

Beyond baked

In the early years, Wet Noses was also making frozen
food patties, but had to park that product line off to the
side in 2005 due to space constraints. It was too challenging to make baked products and frozen products in
a 4,000-square-foot space. Those two formats worked
against each other in a small area.
Today, Wet Noses manufactures product in an
87,000-square-foot facility, where 70 employees produce
nearly 10 different formats of pet food and treats including the previously sidelined frozen dog food patties.
The company's big jump into new formats came in 2014
when they introduced six new products at Global Pet
Expo. Some of the new products launched in 2014 included: Wag Soup, a gently cooked shelf-stable stew sold
in glass jars as a topper for traditional kibble; dehydrated
dog food patties that rehydrate almost immediately; and
jerky-style treats.
The company's current offerings under the Wet
Noses brand include wet food for dogs, dehydrated
food for dogs, wet dog food toppers, crunchy dog
treats, big bones dog treats, dog jerky, CBD treats for
dogs, and wet food for cats. Doggy Delirious branded
offerings include two varieties of big bones - peanut
butter and cranberry carrot - and seven varieties of
baked dog bones - apple cinnamon, cheesy, cranberry carrot, pumpkin, sweet potato, peanut butter

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PET Food Processing - March 2021

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