The scores
Tender & True Antibiotic-Free Chicken & Brown Rice: B (78/100) — Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Tapioca Starch, Potato Starch.
Open Farm RawMix: A (90/100) — Chicken, Chicken Meal, Ocean Whitefish Meal, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato.
How the ingredients compare
The top-five ingredients reveal the formulation split between these two brands:
Tender & True: Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Tapioca Starch, Potato Starch
Open Farm: Chicken, Chicken Meal, Ocean Whitefish Meal, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato
The 12-point gap (Open Farm wins by 12 points) shows where the v15 rubric weights ingredient breadth, protein density, and supplement depth differently.
Where Tender & True pulls ahead
G.A.P. (Global Animal Partnership) certification: Tender & True’s chicken is certified to G.A.P. welfare standards — the framework Whole Foods uses for its meat program. Open Farm uses Certified Humane (a different framework with similar third-party-audit credibility). Both are legitimate; G.A.P. is the more accessible price point. Shop on Amazon →
Marine omega-3 from two sources: Tender & True carries both whitefish meal (#7) and menhaden fish oil (#11) — two directly-usable EPA/DHA sources. Open Farm relies on ocean whitefish meal alone for marine omega-3 contribution.
Lower price tier: Tender & True typically prices 25–35% below Open Farm RawMix per pound. For owners who want humane chicken sourcing without paying for Open Farm’s traceability platform overhead, this is the more accessible entry point to the humane-sourced segment.
Where Open Farm holds its own
Ocean whitefish meal at #3: Open Farm fronts marine omega-3 within its lead ingredient block — the #3 position means whitefish is a primary protein contributor, not a supplement-tier addition. This is structurally different from Tender & True’s whitefish meal at #7. Shop on Amazon →
Per-batch ingredient traceability: Open Farm publishes a lot-code lookup mapping every bag to the specific farms its ingredients were sourced from. Tender & True relies on supplier-level certification but doesn’t offer per-batch farm-level traceability. For owners who want to audit their dog’s supply chain at the bag level, this is the differentiator.
Whole-food carbohydrate base: Open Farm RawMix uses pumpkin at #4 and sweet potato at #5 — whole vegetables rather than refined starches. Tender & True’s tapioca starch at #4 and potato starch at #5 are refined-starch fragments with minimal micronutrient breadth.
The bottom line
Open Farm RawMix and Tender & True both lead with humanely-sourced chicken but take different paths to the humane-credential category. Open Farm earns A/90 with Certified Humane chicken, per-batch ingredient traceability, ocean whitefish meal in a primary protein position, and whole-vegetable carbohydrate base. Tender & True earns B/78 with G.A.P. chicken certification, marine omega-3 from two sources, and a more accessible price point. For owners who want farm-level supply-chain visibility, Open Farm. For owners who want the humane-sourcing credential at mass-retail pricing, Tender & True.