We don't make pet bowls. We make food containers for people, and we're not going to pretend otherwise to catch a search.
But the question underneath this one is a fair question, and it's the same question we spend all day on: does the material your food sits in matter? So here's the honest answer, with nothing to sell you at the end of it.
Steel is a reasonable choice. So is glass. So is ceramic.
A bowl your pet eats from twice a day gets scratched. Scratches hold food residue and moisture, and residue and moisture hold bacteria. A smooth, non-porous surface is easier to clean than a scratched one. That's the whole argument, and it applies to stainless steel, glass and glazed ceramic more or less equally.
Steel has one advantage over the other two: it doesn't shatter. A dog bowl gets pushed across a floor. That's a real difference, and it's the same reason our own containers are steel.
That's as far as the argument goes. It isn't a big claim.
What we couldn't verify
You'll read that the American Veterinary Medical Association recommends stainless steel bowls. We went looking for that position. It doesn't appear to exist. The AVMA's own site returns nothing on bowl materials.
Plenty of individual veterinary practices do recommend stainless steel, and they may well be right. But a clinic's advice page is advice, not a standard, and the two get quoted as if they're the same thing. We've written about how often "food grade" gets used this way.
Worth knowing: EU food-contact law is written for food intended for people. Feed for animals sits outside that definition. So "food grade" on a pet bowl is promising you even less than it promises on a human container.
Steel does not kill bacteria
This one gets repeated constantly and it's backwards. Stainless steel is not antibacterial. In food-science research it's used as the reference surface for studying how biofilms form — because they form on it perfectly well. Its oxide layer can even help some bacteria stick.
What steel does is stay smooth, so washing actually works. The bowl still has to be washed. Every day. No material does that part for you.
The cat acne thing, honestly
Plastic bowls are commonly linked to chin acne in cats, and there is a real association in the veterinary literature — the suspected mechanism being the scratches, again, and bacteria in them. Some cats also appear to react to the bowl itself.
Here's the part that usually gets left out: switching bowls does not reliably fix it. Feline acne is multifactorial, hygiene is only one of the factors, and swapping to steel or glass helps some cats and does nothing for others. If your cat has it, the bowl is worth changing and it is not a cure. That's a vet's question, not ours.
What we'd look for, if we made one
A single piece of steel with no coating and nothing bonded to the underside. Heavy enough not to skate. A rubber or silicone base ring that comes off, so the part that traps water can be cleaned. No paint on the inside.
We don't make this. If we ever do, it'll be on this page.
What we do make
Containers, not bowls. The one place they overlap: dry food. Kibble sits in a cupboard in the bag it came in, or in a plastic tub that gets refilled for years and never quite washed. A steel container with a steel lid closes that, and it's the same object whether the food inside is yours or the dog's.
Two materials, both named: 304 stainless steel and one food-grade silicone seal. That's the whole list — you can read exactly what touches your food, and our containers are the same steel all the way to the lid.
Not the bowl. The cupboard.
Food should be stored without doubt.