The importance of vegetable ingredients in pet food
A long and healthy life is what everyone tries to achieve for their pets. Well-balanced and high-quality nutrition with health benefits is where it all begins and a balanced, nutritious diet contains vegetable ingredients.
Vitamins and minerals
Vegetable ingredients are a good source of fibre, minerals and vitamins. Vitamins keep the pet’s skin and coat healthy, strengthen bones and teeth, and give them the overall energy that they need to function. In addition, vitamins also contribute to the body’s ability to resist disease.
Research has been done to see what role different vitamins play in dog and cat food. Vitamin A, for example, is a fat-soluble vitamin that mainly occurs in the liver. Dogs are able to produce vitamin A from carotenoids, but cats are unable to convert β-carotene or other carotenoids into vitamin A. Every type of vitamin B is necessary for dogs and cats to convert carbohydrates into energy. But it varies in which way it needs to be added to the specific pet food.
Natural ingredients
In addition to healthy ingredients, pet food manufacturers are also looking to add ingredients which are natural. Given the present trends in humanisation and clean label, consumers are looking for natural ingredients in their pet’s food, preferably sustainably sourced and produced. Vegetables can be the answer.
Sustainability is key
When choosing vegetable ingredients to use in pet food formulas, it is important to consider sustainability. Duynie Ingredients uses plant-based co-products released during the production of food for human consumption to produce sustainable ingredients for pet food.
By using co-products for pet food, the company enables maximal resource use and therefore helps prevent food loss. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) proves that the environmental impact of these ingredients is lower, because they have a lower impact on land use and have a lower carbon footprint than alternatives in the market. By using these ingredients, pet food manufacturers can improve their corporate sustainability goals.
New factory
In the Netherlands, a new factory has been built to process potato and vegetable ingredients for pet food manufacturing. The wet incoming products are dried with renewable energy, which means residual heat and green electricity, instead of fossil energy. The residual heat is generated by a bio-energy power station, burning wood chips sourced naturally by environmental pruning.
Dried ingredients are easy to handle and manage and can be ground or cut to the right consistency for use in pet food or muesli. Carrot (granulate, flakes, cubes), bean granulate, spinach powder, pumpkin flakes and sweet potato flakes are some of the ingredients produced in this new factory, which is the largest in Europe, producing sustainable plant-based ingredients.