Trends in meal toppers for dogs and cats

Sue Delegan grew up watching her grandmother make bone broth for the family, promising that it would make them healthy and strong. So when she adopted her dog, Brutus, before she had children of her own, it seemed only natural that she would follow the family tradition and make bone broth for her ‘fur baby’. As Brutus got older, friends, family and even the dog’s veterinarian began to ask what Delegan was doing to keep her elderly dog so healthy. The interest in her bone broth recipe inspired her to launch Brutus Broth in 2018, and demand for the product has continued to rise ever since.

Bridge the gap

Like Delegan, a growing number of young adults have found themselves at the intersection of two related trends. Consumers increasingly regard their pets as members of the household and, as such, they want their pets’ diets to resemble their own. But while the pandemic triggered a rise in interest in home-prepared meals for pets, a completely raw diet remains out of reach for most consumers. Meal toppers help to bridge this gap.

“Meal toppers are an easy, cost-effective way for people to be able to add nutritional benefit to their dog’s existing diet, so they don’t have to switch from a $20 (€17.50) bag of kibble to a $150 (€132) raw diet,” says Delegan, co-founder and CEO of Brutus Broth.

Current trends in meal toppers

Customers who purchase meal topper products tend to view mealtimes as an opportunity to bond with their pet, according to Carmen Velasquez. She is vice president of marketing for The Honest Kitchen, which produces an array of topper products for both dogs and cats. According to her, owners tend to look for ways to add variety to their pet’s diet by introducing new flavors and ingredients.

This means meal toppers can take any number of forms – from broth pour-overs, gravies and even dehydrated flavor enhancers to more raw-food types of products. While the flavors can also vary, they tend to follow certain themes. Kathleen McCarron, founder of Portland Pet Food Company, indicates that chicken and beef are popular throughout the year, whereas flavors like turkey and even pumpkin tend to make an appearance around festive holidays as consumers seek to include their pets in family traditions. “There is definitely a humanization trend, in terms of pet owners wanting to feed their dogs and cats in line with what they themselves eat,” McCarron says.

Focus on healthiness

And just as consumers are interested in the healthiness of their own food, they tend to keep an eye on the quality of meal topper ingredients for their pets too. Products that add moisture or that include humangrade ingredients seem to be particularly appealing, according to McCarron. “People are starting to question what’s really in kibble. There is a growing aversion to rendered meats and cooking processes that destroy natural ingredients so they have to be added back in,” she continues. “Today’s consumer is looking for a more natural, pure product.”

However, this interest in meal toppers as a health supplement hasn’t always resulted in products that are nutritionally sound, Delegan says. She explains that some products are essentially “potato chips in a box,” with excess sodium and artificial flavorings. In that sense, the pet food market is similar to the human food market.

New toppers for cats

While meal toppers have conventionally focused on canines, options for cats are quickly proliferating. The Honest Kitchen launched a toppers line for cats in 2021, and Portland Pet Food Company plans to come out with several toppers for cats in 2022. “Cats are very finicky, so a lot of people who own cats actually already feed them a mixture of kibble, wet and raw,” McCarron comments. “It may not be as novel, but I think what they’re searching for now is good ingredients.”

Mirroring human food trends

Echoing the trends in the human culinary sphere, demand for local, vegan and sustainable meal toppers for pets is also growing. “We see a lot of vegans who want to feed their dogs great food. As someone who is personally active in the raw space, I see a lot of raw feeders who are vegan and who appreciate the sustainable vegan protein that is coming out for pets,” states Delegan.

Demand for environmentally sustainable products has created an interesting challenge for pet food manufacturers, according to McCarron. She regards the use of upcycled ingredients as a feature that would appeal to environmentally conscious consumers. “Using upcycled ingredients is important right now because that seems to be what the consumer would like to see, and it’s great for the environment,” she says.

Meanwhile, in Velasquez’s opinion, demand for human-grade ingredients seems likely to dominate the meal toppers market. “We believe that customers will continue to seek pet food options that mirror human food trends and align with their values,” she comments. “As more people include wholesome and thoughtfully sourced foods into their diet, they’re likely to add these foods into their pets’ meals as well. We believe products that are minimally processed and humangrade will continue to be at the forefront of innovation in the meal topper space.”