Trust brand launched in August

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• Historic Fort York David Spittal courtesy murmur.com
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When the tainted pet food scandal came to light in early 2007, many people wondered if the food they were giving their beloved pets was killing them.

One of those people was Leaside resident Karen Fraser, an entrepreneur and cat owner, who decided it was not enough to sit on the sidelines.

"I came so close to killing them and we had already lost so many cats over the years to cancer," she said.

One of those pets died only a few months before the scandal was announced. So Fraser decided to channel her outrage by combining her passion for animals and entrepreneurial spirit into a new business venture.

She and partner Ron Smith launched a website called Petitionz.org to see what other people thought. The response made her realize there were enough people concerned to launch Canada's only personal chef for pets, Trust Pet Cuisine, this past August.

Fraser partnered with caterer Tabitha Chapman and Chef Jorge, to create and deliver fresh and organic meals for cats and dogs. She said the service is ideal for those who are weary of the store-bought food.

"The pets enjoy the meals and you enjoy the peace of mind," she said.

If you have ever decided to make food for your pet yourself, then you'd know there are several opinions about what's good or bad for your animal to consume. They created their menus after consulting several pet professionals, including a pet nutritionist.

"We decided it will be the best ingredients we can get, with the opinions of the best authorities we can get, prepared perfectly by an international chef and as much organic we can manage and infused with the best vitamins," she said. With meals like Chicken Cacciatore or Quiche-on-a-Leash, each dish is created with human level ingredients and is available fresh or frozen, in a premium or organic line, which is a bit more expensive.

Toronto resident Norman Leach and his wife Mary Heron decided to start their standard poodle Roxy on Trust pet food once they became more aware of the details of the pet food recalls.

Previously, Leach said they never thought twice about feeding Roxy store-bought food along with meat and chicken, because they never heard anything about tainted food.

"After the scare with all the food and the melamine that was going into it and the recalls, that created a huge awareness factor and now we're very careful to only feed her certain types of food," he said.

At 10 years old, Roxy is a playful and energetic dog, Leach said, and hopefully feeding her fresh, healthy food will maintain those characteritics as she gets older.

"She is our pet, she's very special to us that we should try to give her the best we can without being stupid about it," he said

Leach said they are pleased by the results. It only took a few days for Roxy to get used to the change, but Leach said that was because it contained new foods and different textures of things she had never had before.

"Now she's enjoying it," he said. "I think she's getting used to the texture and we've now totally taken her off the other food and we've been really surprised," he said.

Fraser said the idea is that your pet gradually switches to the Trust food.

"We give you a seven-day switch kit so the first day you put 20 per cent of Trust to top of the regular diet so by the end of the week you're on 100 per cent Trust food," she said.

Initially, each client has a consultation about what will be cooked for your pet; and the portion size is determined by their weight and individual needs. For example, if they have a health issue like diabetes, chef will prepare a custom meal for them.

The menus will change monthly, said Fraser, and include seasonal ingredients, and delivered to homes or workplaces within the GTA. The food is available fresh or frozen, twice a week with enough meals for three and a half days. For people living outside the GTA, it is delivered fresh frozen every two weeks.

"It doesn't take a year or two from Chef Jorge to the bowl in front of your pet, it takes a few hours to your pet," she said.

They also arrive in compostable containers and are delivered by the Green Team, who use bikes, walking and the subway for delivery, while out of town deliveries are done with hybrid cars.

Their unique service is the only one of its kind in Canada according to Fraser, and for people who say this is over-the-top, she said the alternative of spending hundreds or thousands on a sick animal, this route is cheap in comparison.

"It sounds like consumerism over the top, but is it over-the-top to actually get what you're paying for with safe and delicious food for your pet delivered at a price that's affordable?" she said.

Each meal roughly works out to about $2.50 per meal, the equivalent of an expensive can of pet food, she said.

Fraser said future goals for their team are to use some of their profit to do independent research to regularly test commercial pet food.

For more information on Pet Trust Cuisine, call 416-955-1551 or visit www.trustpetcuisine.com