Meet Jeremy Petersen of Identity Pet Nutrition (identitypet.com)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Petersen.

Hi Jeremy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in a family of pet food pioneers — my grandfather and father built two of the earliest specialty pet distribution businesses in the country in the 1980s and 1990s. At 23, in 2012 I helped launched my first pet food company, and by 26 I helped start another brand. In 2018, at 29 years old I started my first pet food company that I actually owned – not someone else – with my brother. I’ve spent most of my life challenging the norms of the pet food industry — pushing for better sourcing, cleaner labels, better quality ingredients and more honest marketing.

Identity (identitypet.com) was born from the belief that our pets deserve real human-grade food — not just what’s legal or cheap to manufacture. After seeing too many brands cut corners, compromise on ingredients, or get acquired by private equity, I wanted to build something truly different. Family-owned. Transparent. Relentlessly focused on quality. No gimmicks, no fillers, no shortcuts.

Today, Identity makes gently cooked and canned recipes that are 95% real meat, poultry, or fish — always human-grade, sourced from trusted farmers and ranchers primarily in Canada, and crafted in small batches. We’re proud to remain independent, and we measure success not just in revenue but in the trust we earn from pet parents who expect more.

Our primary growth has come organically — word of mouth, referrals, and passionate customers who’ve seen the difference our food makes. And that’s exactly how we plan to keep it.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all — and I don’t think any meaningful journey ever is.

In 2020, COVID completely upended our business. We were 100% focused on brick-and-mortar retail at the time, and almost overnight we had to pivot and build a direct-to-consumer operation from scratch. It was a crash course in e-commerce, logistics, and digital marketing – and while it was hard, it also made us more agile and customer-focused. Today 60% of our business is direct to consumer and only 40% retail. This change brings its own set of challenges too.

Since 2020, each year has brought new challenges. We’ve essentially built Identity in a post-COVID world — with shifting consumer expectations, labor shortages, inadequate access to capital for small businesses and supply chain instability. And now in 2025, we’re facing tariff-related pressures because we make our products in Canada. We chose that manufacturing path intentionally — to ensure we could access high-quality, non-rendered, human-grade ingredients that most U.S. pet food manufacturing facilities simply refuse to use. This brings added complexity, cost, and regulatory uncertainty. We’ve done our best to overcome this challenge by bringing advocacy towards what tariffs really are and how they hurt small businesses. Additionally, we have used it as an opportunity to double down on our marketing and really shoot for significant growth this year, identifying that tariffs can really only be overcome through scale.

Still, those challenges have pushed us to stay lean, stay creative, and stay committed to what matters: making truly exceptional pet food with integrity. We’ve never taken shortcuts — and we won’t start now.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Identity Pet Nutrition (identitypet.com)?
At Identity, we believe your pet’s food should be as real and trustworthy as your own. We specialize in gently cooked and canned pet food made from 95% real meat, poultry, or fish — no fillers, no rendered ingredients, no compromises. Everything we produce is crafted in small batches using human-grade ingredients sourced from ethical farms and ranches, with recipes developed to nourish pets the way nature intended.

What sets us apart isn’t just what we include — it’s what we refuse to allow. We offer products that are hormone & antibiotic free, GMO free, and even glyphosate (Round-Up) free. No seed oils. No mystery meat. No by-products or mass-market shortcuts. No MDM or MSM (mechanical meat). Unlike most of the industry, we do not use rendered ingredients. That’s why we manufacture in Canada — one of the only places where we can source the fresh, non-rendered muscle meat our recipes are built around.

We started as a family business rooted in agriculture, and we’ve stayed that way — independent, values-driven, and focused on quality over scale. I’m proud to be a third-generation family member in this business. Our journey has taken us from working exclusively with neighborhood pet stores to building a thriving direct-to-consumer model that allows us to serve pet parents nationwide.

What we’re most proud of is staying true to our vision while growing sustainably — even when the easier road would’ve meant selling out to venture capital/private equity or cutting corners. Every Identity product is a reflection of our belief that pets are family, and that they deserve real food, made with care and integrity.

We’re not here to be the biggest brand in pet food. We’re here to be the one people trust the most.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.identitypet.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/identitypetnutrition/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/identitypet
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerjpete/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@identitypet

Image Credits
Gary Bainter