Joanna Bacon – Marketing Pack Leader. My daily mission involves supporting our superstar marketing team to reach more pet parents with our feel good pet food revolution, and helping to achieve our aim of being the world’s most sustainable pet food company.

At Edgard & Cooper we’re on a mission to do things differently in the pet food industry. That’s why our founders, Louis, Koen & Jürgen, set out to create our Feel Good food – pet food that you, your pets and our planet can feel good about.

Our company began its mission back in 2016, when Koen one of our co-founders, realised that the pet food he was buying Edgard (a French Bulldog) wasn’t making him very happy or healthy. His pal from university Louis and his dog Cooper (a Cocker Spaniel) was also a picky eater and not enjoying his food either, so they both decided to take a closer look at the world of dog food and were shocked by what they found. Over-processed and poor-quality meat ingredients such as dried meat meal, which can often be harder for pets to digest, coupled with a lot of fillers and hard-to-read ingredients labels – plus the majority of what they found all came wrapped in plastic packaging! Pet food is estimated to be responsible for a quarter of the environmental impacts of meat production in terms of the use of land, water, fossil fuels, phosphates and pesticides.[1] Our Founders knew there was another way that we could make tasty pet food that’s good for our pets, while treading as lightly on our planet as we can!

What’s the secret to Feel Good food?

We make our food with lots of fresh meat, nutritious offal and natural, tasty extras like fruit & veg. Our fresh meat is sourced by a mechanical deboning process using only the parts from the human chain that are no longer used. This ensures a high-quality protein-source while helping to be efficient in our use of meat ingredients. We also use offal in our wet food which is highly nutritious for our furry friends and not used in large quantities for human consumption – so another win for responsible meat usage.

We were originally told it couldn’t be done, given the status quo in the pet food industry is centred on meat meal and not using real fresh meat as its main ingredient. But we partnered with university experts for support and two and a half years later, we finally found the right combination of ingredients and partners to make it happen…and so Edgard & Cooper was born!

We now offer a range of grain & gluten free pet food, made with fresh meat, nutritious offal and all-natural ingredients. Although we’re not against grains, some four-legged friends do have intolerances to them, and often they’re used a filler in other pet food brands. You’ll always find easy to read ingredients labels on our products with a few simple ingredients that you can understand.

We also have a range for Puppies and Seniors, and a tasty organic range of wet and dry food too for both dogs and cats. Our organic range ensures that the ingredients only come from organic certified farms, and we’ve ensured we’ve got a great variety of fish and meat options in both wet and dry. We’re proud to be able to offer the highest standards in our Organic range, as well as ensuring it still delivers on our tasty food brand promise! In particular, our Fresh Organic Turkey & Chicken kibble is a real hit with our pack – scoring over 5 stars on Trustpilot, as is our Organic Beef cup.

Our mission doesn’t stop at tasty food though!

There are hundreds of millions dogs and cats on this planet and we have, as a pet owner, a huge impact on the environment which increasingly under threat due to the climate crisis. That’s why we knew from the start we needed to do things differently. All of our dry food & treats packaging is made from plants – 100% biodegradable materials – and our tins & cups are made from endlessly recyclable metals. We also have a range of tasty dog treats made from just a few simple ingredients all packed in bags made from plants. Earlier this year we also launched a dental stick for dogs which is entirely plant based. Dogs are omnivores and so lots of fruit and veg works well in their diets – plus for us dental sticks are important for our dog’s wellbeing therefore we want to keep them healthy and low calorie – which we can do just fine with plant-only ingredients!

We’ve got big ambitions to do more!

We’re working hard to further improve our sustainability efforts which is why in September 2020 we launched our Zero Pawprint Plan which sets out three ambitious targets for us to achieve in the next 5 years: zero carbon, fully sustainable packaging & 100% ethical sourcing. By tackling these issues we have big aims to become the most sustainable pet food brand in the world. You can find more out about our plans here.

We’re also a company that really cares about the animals we reach with our food and those who are in need of our help in other ways. That’s why we’re proud that as a business we also have a charitable giving mission at the heart of the company committing 1% of our sales annually to The Edgard & Cooper Foundation. Today, around the world, too many dogs and cats live difficult, lonely and unnecessarily short lives. That’s why our foundation was set up with the aim to improve the lives of dogs and cats today and avoid harm tomorrow. Our biggest project to date has been a donation of over £93,000 to the Dog Care Clinic in Sri Lanka where we’ve been able to provide support in building a new clinic and providing medical supplies to help combat the country’s overwhelming stray dog population.

We’re now a company of just over 100 passionate purpose-driven pet people across Europe, with a rapidly growing team of 9 here in the UK kennels. We’re proud that earlier this year we secured a top 100 rating by the Ethical Shopping Guide, and so we couldn’t be happier to be partnering with Better Food to help reach more passionate pet parents in search of natural tasty food that both the pet and the pet parent can feel good about.