The latest trends in pet food ingredients
The first dog food
The first industrially produced dog food was marketed around the year 1900, soon followed by the production of the first dog food in livestock feed mills. This was one type of food for all dogs of all ages and sizes, which was still better than table scraps. The idea that pets are family members started taking root thereafter and thus the demand of pet food started growing. No longer
were efficiency in breeding and sports the drivers, but rather the idea that everyone should be optimally nourished in the family, including and especially pets, which are dependent on their owners.
Professional industry
Lifecycle products were the first step to getting better at meeting the needs of pets. This was followed by special products for pets with a food sensitivity or allergies, skin and coat problems, among other things. This aroused the expectations of consumers, and the industry was ready to fulfil the demand by creating a series of special products. The pet food industry has come a long way in the past century, and it is still developing and innovating rapidly. Many trends from the human food industry eventually enter the pet industry. Pet food manufacturers are now not only dealing with the needs
Human food trends influenced the pet industry and human-grade pet products were produced.
What remains is the drive for new, extravagant, special raw materials and additives to achieve particular effects through diets. One limiting factor is the increasingly problematic situation to source natural raw materials in sufficient quantity, required quality and desired features. Animal, vegetable and mineral ingredients are the basis. Additives are subject to legal approval and are, for various reasons, only to be used in small quantities.
Development of new products
If one sets this in relation to the overflowing number of sophisticated claims, it is clear that the development of new products has reached its limits, if the nutritionists will not break into new ground in the field of composition of pet food. In the human food industry, haute cuisine has already gone this route, not for health reasons or the development of new sources of raw materials, but for tickling people’s palates. The molecular kitchen dismantles ingredients and purposely reassembles them to produce the final kick in taste. Today, this is not desired for pet food, but from a nutritional-physiological point of view, this may be a future possibility in the pet food industry. This may protect the resources for human food, so that even the most demanding claims can be realized.
An organism does not care if it gets fed meat
or grain, animal or vegetable fats, et cetera. The balance of amino acids, fatty acids, the composition of minerals, trace elements and vitamins is of relevance as well as digestibility is relevant to the organism. The origin is initially irrelevant. Of importance, of course, is the acceptance by, for example, dog owners and palatability for the dog. Both are of equal importance to obtain a good product.
The future of pet food
The future of pet food will be determined by three factors:
- Permanently hogher demands made regarding the performance of products An optimal coverage of nutritional claims is a prerequisite. Next, satisfying specific requirements, such as good for skin and coat, low allergy potential, promoting digestion, age-appropriate characteristics, promoting vitality, meeting the demand for nutrients and active substances even with not type-specific composition of raw materials (for example vegan dog food), becomes relevant.
- Restrictions on se of resources for human food With increasing problems in the global food supply, the pet sector may no longer rely on resources of raw materials used for human food.
- Demand for sustainable and environmentally-friendly pet products. All three requirements are met when the above-introduced concept of the use of parts of natural resources, such as hydrolysed protein or only the truly required active ingredient, and not the entire raw material, is consistently pursued.
Protein hydrolyzate can be derived from natural ingredients which are unsuitable for human consumption. Active ingredients such as chondroitin and glucosamine can be incorporated into the food as the pure substance without the need of large amounts of green-lipped mussels.
Unfortunately, certain developments and methods for acquiring alternative protein sources are being delayed by the slowness of legislative bodies. For example, insect protein is forbidden for livestock food because insects are classified as ‘livestock’, and there is a legal ban on feeding ‘livestock’ to ‘livestock’.