The inter-species family that eats together stays together.

During our annual Lucky Bag Roundup, our Japanese reporter Udonko purchased one from a company called Hanabatake Farm, which specializes in dairy products. Inside was a delightful array of cream-filled buns and creamy gratin dishes.

But, while shopping for this bag, Udonko also noticed that Hanabatake Farm sells dog food. This isn’t just any old dog food either but dog food that meets the standards for human consumption, making it possible for dogs and their humans to eat together.

We’ve seen foods that bridge the human-dog gap before but they’re still few and far between, so Udonko decided to seize this rare opportunity to try some Homemade Goat’s Milk Cheese Cookies, labeled as “Human-grade Pet Food.”

Naturally, she was curious about the ingredients of such a product and checked the label. It was a list of things normally found in human foods; flour, milk, natural camembert and goat cheeses, and shortening.

Udonko poured some out onto a plate and they looked like ordinary bite-sized cookie squares. They seemed like they could even pass for a breakfast cereal.

When she picked one up and brought it to her nose, a faint sweetness entered her nostrils. That, combined with the sight of them on a dish, made it feel like she was eating ordinary cookies rather than dog treats.

Full of her own preconceptions about these snacks, Udonko winced as she popped one in her mouth. However, the only surprising thing about these cookies was just how bland they were. She would even go as far as saying they were tasteless and wondered why dogs go for this kind of stuff.

It was only after the first cookie went down the hatch that she began to detect a faint aftertaste of wheat and cheese. She was surprised because she thought goat’s milk had a more pungent taste but ended up bracing herself for nothing. That being said, it went down easy and felt nice as a light snack in that regard.

Udonko wasn’t blown away by it, but the product is intended for dogs so she decided to find her own to act as the ultimate arbiter of taste here. Normally Udonko’s dog stays sound asleep when she approaches him, but he seemed to have smelled her snacks coming and sprung right up.

He clearly loved them and devoured her handful so vigorously that some of them fell off her hand due to the impact of the pooch’s snout.

Sharing food with her dog like this was an eye-opening experience for Udonko. It showed that while it is sometimes tempting to give dogs people food because of its perceived higher quality, canines have more sensitive senses of smell and taste than humans. Much of the food we eat that’s generally considered safe for dogs, like certain meat, is often heavily seasoned to a degree far more than what a dog ought to be subjected to, so caution should be paid when sharing our food with them.

So, even though Hanabatake Farm’s human-grade pet food probably won’t get many human fans, it’s nice that it’s both safe enough for humans and subtly flavored enough for dogs.

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[ Read in Japanese ]