Change is hard! We’ve all been there: You have your daily routine down to a T—no hard thinking is necessary.
Suddenly BOOM! Something changes and now you must figure out a whole new routine, possibly causing you stress and frustration—ugh! We completely understand and know that our new packaging changes may be difficult to get used to for some of our long-time customers. After all, we haven’t changed our packaging (other than aesthetically) for almost 20 years!
Our intention behind these changes was to make feeding time easier for all pet parents. However, your initial feelings about the new packaging may not be positive or you’re finding it difficult to adapt your routine. If that is the case, all we can ask is that you give it a chance and continue to provide feedback about the things that aren’t working.
We are a small company with a small team, all of whom are pet lovers, and like you, we want what is best for our pets, our family, and the planet! This has been a big change for us as well, and we are still learning and dedicated to improving our processes with our new packaging equipment. Our ultimate goal remains the same: Making raw food more accessible and easy to feed for all pet parents.
In this blog, we hope to give you answers to your burning questions, and share tips from the team’s testing! First, let’s tackle to question of why we decided this big change was necessary.
FAQ's
Why Did We Change Our Packaging?
Customer Feedback
Not only was our old packaging producing tons of non-recyclable plastic waste across Canada, but they were also cumbersome to open and a mess to serve. Not to mention the large amounts of food waste because of the remaining food bits clinging to the sides of the bag!
Cost Savings for Pet Parents
In today’s climate, we’re all used to rising costs on… well, almost everything! Because of this, we wanted to avoid price increases related to raw materials as much as possible. This is how we got to thermoform trays since they are a more cost-effective material to produce. Therefore, we have been able to keep price increases to a minimum.
For the Planet
As an ethical company, we knew we had to make some major changes to reduce our plastic consumption. The new thermoform trays are a recycle-ready material that has allowed us to reduce plastic waste by up to 50% and reduce our carbon footprint by 35%.
Mindfulness Towards Our Manufacturing Team
Our old packaging required a manual, very labour-intensive process. Unfortunately, there was no way to make the process easier on our amazing production team’s bodies without investing in increased automation. We didn’t want to add more automation, especially because this
could endanger jobs, and we love our team!
Instead, we put our heads together (and asked for feedback from stores and customers) to come up with another solution. We needed to change our backend processes, but we also took this as an opportunity to improve the experience for our end users.
Before you make your final judgment, we ask that you work with us to make this change a win for everyone. Take a read through this quick guide and cheat sheet that will hopefully help you create a new, more convenient routine!
Haven’t told us what you thought yet? Fill out our packaging survey now. All participants will be entered to win a $50 RDBK coupon.
What’s the Best Way to Use RDBK’s New Packaging?
We’ve got all the answers in our easy-to-follow demonstration video. This is a must-watch that will give you new ways to use our packaging for an easier-to-open, easier-to-portion, and easier-on-the-planet mealtime.
What Sizes Are Available?
When deciding on our new sizing options, we tried to consider the needs of pets of many different sizes and situations. The following sizes are available in the new packaging:
Foundations Raw for Cat
4 x ¼ LB Tray (6 LB per box) — purchase as single trays or an entire box
1 LB Tray (8 LB per box) — purchase as single trays or an entire box
Foundations Raw for Dog
4 x ¼ LB Tray (6 LB per box) — purchase as single trays or an entire box
1 LB Tray (8 LB per box) — purchase as single trays or an entire box
Everyday Raw for Dogs
4 x ¼ LB Tray (6 LB per box) — purchase as single trays or an entire box
1 LB Tray (8 LB per box) — purchase as single trays or an entire box
2 LB Tray (12 LB per box, variety) — purchase an entire variety box
If you’re trying to decide which of the new tray sizes may be comparable to the meals you used to use in our own packaging, check out the table below. Keep in mind that everyone uses packaging differently and you may need to try out different size formats before you find one that makes your new routine perfect!
Old Packaging | New Packaging | Explanation | Use Situations for New Packaging |
Cat ¼ LB or ½ LB Cat 1 LB Dog ½ LB Dog 1 LB | 4 x ¼ LB tray sold individually or in boxes of 6 (6 LB box) | In the new packaging, you’ll get 4 cubes of ¼ LB attached together! This means you can open ¼ LB, ½ LB, ¾ LB, or even 1 LB separately—talk about versatile! |
|
Cat ½ LB Cat 1 LB Dog ½ LB Dog 1 LB Dog 2 LB | 1 LB tray sold individually or in boxes of 8 (8 LB box) | Very similar to our old packaging, but made easier with an easy-peel tab! Although a bit thicker, it is more narrow and designed to fit into a standard large food container. |
|
Dog 1 LB Dog 2 LB | 2 LB tray sold in boxes of 6 (12 LB box) | |
|
How Do I Make Even Smaller Portions Than ¼ LB?
Step 1: Splitting Up the ¼ LB Trays
Looking for an easy way to keep meals fresh? We didn’t add perforation between the cubes because it would have made the packages harder to handle and pack. However, all you need to do is use scissors to cut along the lines between the cubes. Once detached each cube will stay sealed and you can choose how many cubes to put in the fridge or the freezer!
Step 2: Cutting the ¼ LB Cubes Into Smaller Portions
Portioning while frozen: Use the easy peel tab to swiftly open the tray, pop the cube out of its tray while frozen, and use a sharp, serrated knife to cut the cube into smaller portions. Return the remaining portions to the freezer in a sealed glass or stainless steel container.
Portioning while thawed: Allow the ¼ LB cube to thaw in the fridge for 6-8 hours (timing depends on fridge temperature). Once semi-thawed or fully thawed use the easy peel tab to open the lid and use a serrated knife to cut the cube into smaller portions.
Alternative: Cutting the 1 LB into ⅕ LB
If you’re looking to portion the food into different portion sizes (aside from ¼ LB and ½ LB), try purchasing our 1 LB and use the same options as outlined above to cut.
Help! The Portions Are Too Big… How Do I Store Leftovers?
We have had a lot of feedback about people having trouble using our new packaging because their pet eats less the ¼ LB per day or per meal. If you haven’t watched our video above, we recommend giving it a look—specifically the end where our CEO, Inna, demonstrates how she portions out the new ¼ LB cubes easily!
You should also keep in mind that our recipes do stay good past 24 hours! Especially if you are storing them properly in an air-tight food container. Here’s what we recommend about storing different thawed proteins in the fridge:
Once thawed, poultry can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 days
Once thawed, red meat and fish are good in the fridge for 3 days
How Do I Work With the Thicker 1 LB Trays?
Take Into Account New Thawing Times
One of the most common comments we get is that because of the thickness of the new trays, they take longer to thaw. Therefore, people who used to throw them in the freezer the night before are taking out these packages and finding them still frozen!
We have some suggestions. After testing, the new trays take as little as 12 hours and as long as 24 hours to thaw in the fridge (depending on the temp of your specific fridge). If you’re finding it hard to find the perfect balance, here are some of our ideas:
If you used to take out our old packaging at the start of the day, try transferring it from the freezer to the fridge the night before
Make sure that you don’t stack multiple frozen meals (or other items) together
Try putting it in your fridge door or closer to the front; basically avoid the back since things become much colder
Keep in Mind: You Can Still Handle Partially Frozen!
Although these new 1 LB trays are thicker, it is still easy to throw them in the fridge, let them thaw for half a day, and start breaking them apart while they’re still frozen! If you’re looking to save a bit of money by using our 1 LB trays vs. our 4 x ¼ LB trays, you can easily use a sharp, serrated knife to portion the 1 LB block of food in half or quarters.
If your dog or cat’s stomach can handle partially frozen food, go ahead and feed it to them right away. If not, place it back into a sealed food container and wait for the food to completely thaw.
Store in a Sealed Food Container
Our old 1 LB bags did not easily fit into standard plastic, glass, or stainless steel food containers. Since we want to make your lives easier (and safer), we thought it was important to make them the right dimensions—that’s why they’re narrower! This makes it easy to store and make sure any unusual leaking isn’t happening in your fridge… and all over your other food.
How Long Does It Take to Thaw the New Sizes?
We recommend thawing our meals. regardless of size. in your fridge in a food-safe container the night before feeding. If you forget to thaw your meals the night before, the below thaw times can be used as an estimate. These estimated thaw times will vary based on the temperature of your fridge!
4 x ½ LB Trays: Thaws in 6 - 8 hours
1 LB Trays: Thaws in 12 - 24 hours
2 LB Trays: Thaws in 24+ hours
To speed up the above thaw times, place RDBK meals into a stainless steel or glass food container, fill with cold water and let sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour at room temperature.
How Do I Store RDBK Raw Meals In My Freezer?
Our new thermoform trays can be easily stacked in your freezer just like our old bags. Because these meals are thicker and as a result, less uniform in shape, they are best stacked with one meal on top of the other as pictured below.
How Am I Saving Money?
As we mentioned, prices are rising no matter where you look. So, although we need to increase prices to ensure we are able to cover rising raw materials costs, we managed to minimize the increase!
We were able to reduce the pricing of our newly packaged products (ie. what you’re paying) by up to 6%! If we didn’t make these changes, some of our prices could have increased by more than 10%.
Why Should I Buy the 12 LB Bulk Boxes?
The new 12 LB bulk boxes replaced our old 2 LB single packs. This switch was done mainly to avoid price increases (again due to raw material costs). Instead, we reduced your cost by an average of 5% from the old 2 LB sizing!
The new packaging is designed to be narrower so that the tray can fit into a standard large food container. This will make it easier to thaw in your fridge.
As far as what makes the 12 LB bulk boxes great for the environment… First, we were able to use recycle-ready plastic that has a 30% lower carbon footprint. Additionally, we were able to achieve a 40% reduction in plastic compared to our old vacuum bags.
Why Did You Discontinue the 24 LB Bulk Box?
For the pet parents who love their bulk boxes, specifically our Everyday Raw Variety Box, you may have been surprised to see us switch from 24 LB to 12 LB.
One of the reasons we reduced bulk box from 24 lb to 12 lb is so that even pet parents with smaller freezer can fit a couple of bulk varieties into that smaller space. Just like we mentioned before these 12 LB bulk box formats allowed us to create a more environmentally-friendly product as well!
One of the reasons we reduced our bulk box from 24 lb to 12 lb is so that even pet parents with smaller freezers can fit a couple of bulk varieties into that smaller space. Just like we mentioned