The US legislation paving the way for immune health benefit claims

Although primarily concerned with livestock, the Innovative Feed Enhancement and Economic Development (FEED) Act could open new doors for the pet supplement industry in the US, according to proponents.

Introduced on 18 March this year, the act would allow probiotic makers to make broader health benefit claims – claims previously limited to prescription drugs – if the supplement acts solely within the animal’s gastrointestinal tract.

Inspiring innovation

Advocates of the pet supplement industry say this proposed legislation could spur innovation and a spate of new products to match the growth in demand that has followed the COVID-19 pandemic.

It might also address the lack of scientific research driven by slim commercialization prospects for new pet immune booster supplements, according to Dana Brooks, President and CEO of the Pet Food Institute (PFI).

“If it takes years and millions of dollars to get a single ingredient to market… it will prohibit research if [manufacturers] don’t feel like there is an opportunity to take it to market as well,” she states.

The timing of this development is favorable, particularly in tandem with the second Trump administration’s broader Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign. Preventing chronic disease through healthier lifestyle choices is the primary aim of the MAHA movement.

Growing consumer interest

What seems clear is that consumer interest in immune-support supplements is soaring – including for their pets. “What are humans doing now? We are doing a lot of supplements in our diets. So consumers are like: ‘If it’s good for me, it’s good for my pet,’” explains Brooks.

Animal supplements as a whole now bring in $2.5 billion (€2.15B) annually in the US, which remains by far the largest market, according to Bill Bookout, President of the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC). He adds that other countries also show signs of growing consumer interest in animal supplements.

While joint health and calming supplements remain the bestselling categories in the pet supplement sector, immune health saw sales grow by around 20% during the pandemic, Bookout says.

Immune-support supplements aren’t growing at quite the same rate as during the pandemic, he notes, but sales have yet to return to their pre-COVID levels.

Instead, he says the category has settled into a more sustainable 1-3% growth rate, as specific categories – ranging from probiotics to functional mushrooms – continue to gain ground.

Regulation is holding back growth

Both Brooks and Bookout identify regulation as a key factor holding back the growth of pet health supplements.

In the US, animal supplements are regulated at state and federal level, creating a patchwork of rules for companies introducing new products.

The situation is much the same on the international level, with rules varying widely from one country to the next.

“A national industry cannot operate in an environment of inconsistency, where one label or claim is OK in some states but not in others,” comments Bookout. “A national industry doesn’t make products differently for different regions. You have to have consistency.”

The Pet Food Uniform Regulatory Reform (PURR) Act of 2024 is designed to correct this, at least within the US.

It authorizes the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set nationwide standards for dog and cat food and related products such as treats, replacing the outdated and inconsistent state-by-state approach currently used for ingredient and label approval.

The PFI hopes it will also put pressure on regulators to approve ingredients in a more timely fashion.

Limited research

As the market opportunity for new immune-health ingredients expands, there’s also a need to ensure that the research is keeping pace with consumer trends.

And while Brooks believes that clearing the regulatory roadblocks will increase funding for new research, the science on animal supplements is currently lagging, according to Ana Rita Cabrita, an Associate Professor of Animal Nutrition at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Porto, Portugal.

According to Bookout, dog owners currently buy 70-75% of pet supplements sold in the US. Bookout suspects that this is because dogs are more likely to accept a treat-like soft chew than cats, which tend to be more finicky about new food items.

However, Rita Cabrita explains that few studies have focused on the effects of immune-health supplements in dogs. “Most available research has been conducted on rodents or humans, offering limited insights applicable to companion animals,” she states.

The studies that have been conducted in dogs have been relatively short, so the long-term effects of these supplements “remain largely unknown”, she adds.

Room for new developments

But there is research underway. Rita Cabrita’s group in Portugal has been investigating shrimp and insect hydrolysates, and is now looking at the potential of byproducts from the human food chain such as tomato pomace, which has a high fiber content and contains lycopene, which is known to have strong antioxidant properties.

They’re also looking at the performance of omega-3s from fish and microalgal sources. All these represent potential immune-health supplements that can also tout the ‘natural’ origins that appeal to today’s consumers, Rita Cabrita says.

With developments on the regulatory and research fronts and a growing market opportunity, “there is a lot of room for … expansion, growth and continued innovation in animal supplements”, Bookout concludes. “Trends you see developing on the human side will rapidly take hold on the animal side.”