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Bravo Pet Foods is based in the northeast US in Manchester, Connecticut. Bravo began as a family-owned company with a history of processing meats for restaurants and institutions since the 1940s. The company entered the world of pet food manufacturing in 2002.
Bravo produces limited ingredient dog foods and doesn’t use GMO ingredients, grains, fillers, meals, additives, preservatives, artificial flavors or colors. The majority of ingredients are sourced in the US. Bravo uses lamb and venison from New Zealand. The company states that it doesn’t source ingredients from China.
Bravo operates its own processing plant but it uses selected outside suppliers for some products. The Bravo line of foods includes raw frozen chubs and burgers and freeze dried and dry roasted foods.
In the fall of 2022, Brightpet Nutrition Group acquired Bravo Pet Foods. It joins Brightpet’s portfolio of brands including Stewart, Blackwood, Adirondack, By Nature, Miracle Care and Hamilton. BrightPet offers branded, private label and contract manufactured pet food products in the US and 30 other countries, with about $50 million in sales in 2021. BrightPet is a portfolio company of A&M Capital Partners (AMCP), a middle-market private equity investment fund.
Bravo has 2 lines of dog foods that include 6 foods. Both lines are lightly processed and that contributes to them being considered low risk foods.
Both lines score very well for safety and quality. However, both lose quality points for including excessive amounts of added vitamins and minerals rather than relying on the ingredients for nutrients. When vitamins come from whole food sources, they include the full spectrum of cofactors, which makes them safe and bioavailable. While a couple of added vitamins are acceptable, five or more implies the food is of poor nutritional value.
Bravo Raw Balance has a negligible amount of carbs. Homestyle is Bravo’s line of freeze dried food. It has a higher carbohydrate content of 25%. Bravo doesn’t use added grains but some foods contain sweet potatoes and squash that can raise the carb content. Chickpeas also contribute to the carb content and they’re also a concern due to known higher pesticide residue.
On the ingredient safety side, the foods score well although some points are lost for high pesticide/herbicide in a few ingredients. Bravo doesn’t use GMO ingredients but that doesn’t mean the foods are pesticide-free. The company says when possible, it attempts to use organic ingredients which would be pesticide-free, and they’ll state it on their labels.
It’s worth noting that Bravo doesn’t provide the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. They are certainly not the only brand omitting this information, but it’s our hope that more brands will pay more attention to these fats since omega-6 fats are inflammatory and AAFCO allows a very high ratio of 30:1.
Bravo uses high pressure pasteurization (HPP) as a kill step. This doesn’t affect their product score but it’s definitely worth noting.
The average score of Bravo foods is listed below. Click on any food to view the individual food scores.
Bravo Homestyle Complete is a freeze-dried dog food that’s considered low risk. Three recipes have an average protein content of 38%, which is on the low side for a freeze dried food. However, these foods have a moderate carbohydrate average of 25%. The ingredient quality score is a bit lower because of the excessive amounts of vitamins and minerals added. The safety score is less because chickpeas are in the top 5 ingredients and these are crops with high pesticide/herbicide residues. Additionally, the omega-6:omega-3 ratio isn’t listed.
Bravo has experienced several dog food recalls over the past decade or so.
Dec. 10, 2015: Voluntary recall after the salmonella contamination was detected by routine testing by the Colorado State Department of Agriculture.
July 23, 2015: Voluntary recall
Sept. 26, 2014: Voluntary recall after routine testing by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture revealed the presence of salmonella in two lots of products.
May 14, 2014: Voluntary recall for products that have the potential to be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. The FDA reported an independent lab detected the bacteria in a sample during a review.
April 3, 2013: Voluntary recall because products had the potential for salmonella contamination as they were run during the period another product tested positive for pathogens. That product was 100% contained and was not subject to this recall.
March 13, 2013: Voluntary recall because products had the potential to be contaminated with salmonella.
June 3, 2011: Voluntary recall because products had the potential to be contaminated with salmonella.
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