Low Toxic Living Doesnโt Stop With Our Human Family Members
What the latest heavy metals report revealed about dog food and what thoughtful pet parents can do next.
What the Recent Investigation Reported
In February 2026, CNN covered findings from Clean Label Project showing elevated levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and other toxins in certain commercial dog foods.
Dry dog food tested highest on average. Fresh and frozen foods tested lowest. Healthy Dogma would have helped the Dehydrated / Freeze Dried space compete with Fresh and Frozen.
Heavy metals are environmental contaminants. They are not intentionally added. The real question becomes how to reduce cumulative exposure over time.
It is important to note that the report did not name specific brands. However we know that Healthy Dogma was not part of this study, so we took the opportunity to check ourselves against our competition but more importantly against our core mission.
How Do Heavy Metals Enter the Bowl?
Heavy metals shouldn't be added, instead they are realities of the soil and processing.
Environmental Sources
Processing
Meal in the Bowl Matters
Organic vs Inorganic Matters
Where Healthy Dogma Fits
Kitchen-quality ingredients.
Minimal processing.
Transparent testing.
Why Healthy Dogma Meals Tend to Test Lower
Heavy metals are naturally present in the environment.
They move through soil, water, crops, and animals long before food ever reaches a kitchen or a processing facility.
That means the goal is not elimination.
The goal is minimization, transparency, and smart formulation.
Healthy Dogma PetMix recipes are designed to behave much closer to a fresh meal than a heavily processed food.
Several factors contribute to the lower levels we see in our testing, including ingredient sourcing, gentle drying methods, and the way meals are prepared before feeding.
At the same time, PetMix offers many of the benefits of fresh feeding while solving some of the real world challenges that come with fresh diets.
Fresh meals require refrigeration, can spoil quickly, and often demand time to cook and balance properly for canine nutrition.
PetMix provides a different approach.
You simply add water (or in some PetMix Base recipes your own fresh protein) to rehydrate the mix, creating a complete meal in minutes. This allows families to prepare meals that resemble fresh feeding without needing to cook, formulate recipes, or store large volumes of refrigerated food.
There are practical benefits as well.
Shipping fresh food means transporting large amounts of water, which increases cost, weight, and environmental impact. PetMix removes that water during drying and lets you add it back at home during preparation.
The result is a meal that behaves much closer to fresh food while remaining shelf stable, convenient, and more efficient to ship and store.
