Viva Raw

21/03/2025

✍️ Look mom, we’re bloggers now! https://vivarawpets.com/blogs/fresh-takes

Learning and sharing has always been a part of who we are and we’ve mostly done that through social media videos so far. This has a few downsides though - for certain topics, it can get pretty difficult to fit enough details into just 30-90 seconds and it’s also hard for people to find or reference what was posted after a couple of days. We wanted to create a place where we can go in depth on topics we find interesting, document what we’re learning, and share with you guys!

We hope you guys find these first few posts interesting and if there’s any feedback or suggestions for topics, leave a comment and we’re all ears!

28/12/2024

An update on concerns with raw foods and Avian Influenza

We also wanted to share a few videos from our duck & chicken farm that we visited over the past few years to help demonstrate some of the measures in place as Avian Influenza was already a concern. At this point, these non-essentials visits would not be permitted to prevent disease spread. We actually weren’t able to see any of the operations on our turkey farm a year ago for this exact reason.

All of this info can also be found on our website at https://vivarawpets.com/pages/avian-influenza-faq which we’ll be updating with any developments.

Reference Links
1 - https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/commercial-backyard-flocks
2 - https://www.usda.gov/article/updates-h5n1-beef-safety-studies

20/12/2024

Not gonna lie, this year has been one of the toughest years for us personally and as a business.

But I truly believe that everything we worked through this year has made us grow & learn about the industry, regulators, food science, our community, our team, and most importantly who we are and what’s important to us faster than anyone could’ve imagined.

We’re truly grateful to everyone who’s stuck with us along this journey. We’re grateful for our team that puts 110% of themselves into what they do each and every day and for you guys cheering us on in your own ways. Seriously, we have a company chat where we share the nice messages you guys send us and it makes such a big impact 🥹

2024 has been such a defining year for us — the good and the bad — and we can’t wait to see what 2025 brings! We hope everyone has a holiday season full of good food, snuggles, and rest ❄️

04/12/2024

While this may seem like a lot to spend, and it undeniably is, we don’t hesitate to invest in our quality practices. The way we spend in this area has changed a lot throughout the years and also changes each month depending on what projects we’re looking at!

A lot of these items really aren’t the first things you think of when you think about what it takes to make a good food but to us, this is what makes the difference between just a food that anyone can make and a quality food. It’s not just about the final product but every step of the process that goes into what we make.

12/11/2024

Did you get a better score than anyone on the team?

Being fully remote, we’re so grateful our team got to meet up in person for an amazing weekend together. This is the group that truly makes Viva what it is and we would not be here without their passion to better the lives of all pets :) If you recognize anyone you’ve talked to when you reached out to us, give them a shout out 😁

23/08/2024

Here are some things that we learned about HPP during our evaluation of all sorts of different food safety technologies. At the end of the day—it comes down to the way in which any manufacturer tests & applies any technology in order to be confident in its efficacy. The information does get a little technical so bear with us, but we think this is important to share and help educate the larger community.

Our goal from day 1 has always been to share the information that we as pet parents ourselves would want to know about the industry & decisions that are made behind the scenes. We hope this keeps the dialogue open about all food safety technologies and empowers you guys to always be able to make the best choices for your own pets!

21/08/2024

When we first started learning about probiotic technology for food safety - I’ll admit, we were skeptical. We knew of probiotics as something that boosted your gut health and immune system but it didn’t make sense how it could be as targeted & effective against pathogens as other technologies we were more familiar with.

But, we wanted to be open to what the science was showing. As we started learning more, we realized that there were decades of papers & research on this topic. Researchers have studied & selected specific probiotic strains for their ability to eliminate pathogens in food and it’s important to understand that these are not the same store-bought probiotics you’d take for gut health. These probiotics work through a variety of ways such as making antimicrobial compounds, “hijacking” receptors on pathogen cell walls, and overall outcompeting the bad bacteria.

Still, we wanted to know that it would work in our products & our processes so we invested in conducting validation studies within microbiology labs. After numerous tests, the data came back confirming that the probiotics were not only effective at eliminating pathogens in our product, but also would be able to successfully eliminate 100x the normal pathogen load that we would expect in any raw materials. The science & the data all pointed to the same conclusion and that gave us the confidence to move forward. We’ve refined how we applied it in our products and we’re thrilled to now be sharing what we’ve learned with not only you guys, but with the community. Our goal has always been to better our own product with every batch we make, but in many ways—we hope that the conversations started around these topics persist & help to better the industry as a whole.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28696370/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30794461/

05/07/2024

01/07/2024

Please visit the dedicated page on our website: vivarawpets.com/pages/lot-21244-recall for FAQs & additional information.

You can always reach us with additional questions at [email protected] or at 919-371-8882, Monday - Friday 9am-5pm EST

01/07/2024

08/05/2024

Hope this clarifies a couple of things for you guys!

02/05/2024

At Viva, our company goal has always been to “make the next meal better than the last,” and our sourcing & animal husbandry requirements are no exception.

28/01/2024

Please click through for information