A process for making pet food treats including a meat base, the treats themselves and a processing system for making the treats. The meat base is ground to obtain a ground meat base. The ground meat base is mixed with one or more ingredients to obtain a meat mixture. Slugs of the meat mixture are formed. The slugs of meat mixture are cooked to obtain cooked slugs of meat mixture. The cooked slugs of meat mixture are chilled. The cooked slugs of meat mixture are packaged while reducing the amount of oxygen in the package.