CENTRAL GARDEN & PET CO

Central Garden & Pet Company’s management, under the supervision of Central’s Principal Executive Officer and Principal Financial Officer, is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) or 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act). Management evaluated the effectiveness of Central’s internal control over financial reporting based on the framework in Internal Control –Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (“COSO”) of the Treadway Commission. The scope of management's assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting included all of our consolidated operations except for the operations of TDBBS, LLC, which we acquired in November 2023 and whose financial statements constitute 1% and 2% of the consolidated total assets and net sales, respectively, as of and for the fiscal year ended September 28, 2024. This exclusion is in accordance with the SEC's general guidance that an assessment of a recently acquired business may be omitted from our scope in the year of acquisition. Based upon this assessment, such officers concluded the Company maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of September 28, 2024.

Our independent registered public accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche LLP, has issued a report on our internal control over financial reporting, which appears on page F-5 of this Form 10-K.

Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the possibility of collusion or improper management override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls may become ineffective because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.