Whole Foods has partnered with vendor American Tuna to create a new sustainable petfood line from red meat tuna portions.
American Tuna’s brand, also called American Tuna, is a line of sustainably fished tuna for human consumption and is sold in Whole Foods Markets. "Whole Foods wanted zero-food waste,” said Natalie Webster, a member of one of six fishing families that founded American Tuna, "so we came up with Deck Hand [cat food] and Whole Foods thought it was a great idea.” Deck Hand uses the red meat portion of the company's albacore and skipjack tunas left over from the processing of the human food Pole & Line brand.
In addition, any leftover tuna parts, not used for cat or human-grade food, become fish and bone meal for animal feed and no food waste is generated, as per Whole Foods’ wishes. Whole Foods began carrying Deck Hand Premium Cat Food and the human line Pole & Line in May 2014. Deck Hand comes in single 3- and 5-ounce cans and in a 3-ounce can three-pack running US$1.99. Singly, 3-ounce cans are US$0.69 and the 5-ounce cans are US$0.89.
