The scores
Northwest Naturals Freeze-Dried Raw Chicken Nuggets: A (90/100) — Chicken, Ground Chicken Bone, Chicken Liver, Chicken Gizzard, Cantaloupe.
Open Farm Harvest Chicken Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food: A (90/100) — Humanely Raised Chicken, Chicken Liver, Chicken Heart, Chicken Gizzards, Organic Pumpkin.
How the ingredients compare
The top-five ingredients reveal the formulation split between these two products:
Northwest Naturals: Chicken, Ground Chicken Bone, Chicken Liver, Chicken Gizzard, Cantaloupe
Open Farm: Humanely Raised Chicken, Chicken Liver, Chicken Heart, Chicken Gizzards, Organic Pumpkin
Both products earn effectively the same v15 score, but the ingredient lineups tell different stories about how they got there — that is where the actual pick decision lives.
Where Northwest Naturals pulls ahead
USDA-inspected meat-sourcing standard: Northwest Naturals explicitly markets USDA-inspected meat sourcing as a brand standard — the USDA inspection mark verifies federal hygiene and safety standards at slaughter and primary processing. Open Farm uses third-party humanely-raised certification (Certified Humane, G.A.P. Animal Welfare) which is a different transparency dimension — humane animal welfare standards rather than slaughterhouse hygiene verification. Both are real transparency signals; they verify different things. Shop on Amazon →
Pacific Northwest regional small-batch production: Northwest Naturals operates from Portland, Oregon, with regional Pacific Northwest poultry, beef, and game sourcing. The regional model means tighter farm-to-bag traceability than larger-scale operations. Open Farm operates at larger scale with North American supplier sourcing across multiple regions; the brand’s sourcing transparency is delivered through a traceable-supplier-database lookup tool rather than regional-concentration sourcing.
Shorter ingredient panel (27 vs 40+) and lower synthetic-supplement load: Northwest Naturals carries a 27-ingredient panel with a short supplement section (chelated trace minerals plus vitamin E and D). Open Farm Harvest Chicken Freeze-Dried Raw carries a longer ~40-ingredient panel including a more conventional vitamin / mineral premix block. For owners specifically prioritizing minimal supplement load and whole-food-derived nutrition, Northwest Naturals is the structurally tighter pick.
Where Open Farm holds its own
Humanely-Raised third-party certification + ocean-friendly seafood sourcing: Open Farm sources chicken, turkey, beef, and lamb from third-party-certified humanely-raised producers (Certified Humane, Global Animal Partnership Step 2-4, Whole Foods Animal Welfare-tier). Seafood ingredients (when present) are Ocean Wise or Seafood Watch Best Choice certified for sustainability. This is an animal-welfare-and-sustainability transparency dimension Northwest Naturals doesn’t address at the same explicit certification level. Shop on Amazon →
Traceable-supplier-database lookup tool: Open Farm publishes an online supplier-database tool that lets buyers enter their bag’s lot code and see the specific farms that supplied each ingredient. This is industry-leading sourcing-transparency UX — no other raw pet food brand at this scale offers ingredient-level supplier traceability through a customer-facing database. For owners specifically wanting to verify supplier sourcing or document their dog’s feeding chain for compliance reasons (show dog handlers, working dog handlers with insurance audits), this is uniquely valuable.
No current FDA recall history: Open Farm carries no current recall entries in the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine recall database. Northwest Naturals carries a 2024 H5N1 voluntary recall of one Feline Turkey lot (the dog chicken nuggets reviewed here were not affected, but the brand-level recall is in the public record). For owners specifically prioritizing zero-recall-history sourcing as a risk-management signal, Open Farm has the cleaner record. Per RISK_REGISTER R9, the v15 rubric doesn’t formally deduct for recall history; this difference is surfaced for honest reader awareness rather than score impact.
The bottom line
Tied at A/90 on the v15 rubric — structurally similar freeze-dried raw chicken recipes from independent Pacific-coast brands. Pick on the trade-off you weight more heavily. Northwest Naturals delivers USDA-inspected meat-sourcing standard, Pacific Northwest small-batch regional production, and a shorter 27-ingredient panel with lower synthetic-supplement load. Open Farm delivers third-party humanely-raised animal-welfare certification, ocean-friendly seafood sustainability sourcing, customer-facing traceable-supplier-database UX, and no current FDA recall history. For owners specifically prioritizing slaughterhouse hygiene verification or regional small-batch sourcing, Northwest Naturals. For owners prioritizing animal-welfare certification or supplier-traceability tooling, Open Farm.