Ensuring Food Safety And Brand Protection For Pet Food Products

By Yuanjun Chloe Lu, Application Specialist, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Pet food represents a lucrative, growing market opportunity for food producers. Per Frost & Sullivan, the global pet food ingredients market is expected to grow from $818.9 million in 2020 to $1.2 billion in 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.6%, due to increasing consumer spending on pet food products.

Increased pet adoption in high-spending economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with pet owners’ consciousness towards pets’ health, further bolsters this opportunity. In addition to traditional kibble and canned foods, treats and supplements that contribute to pets’ immune, digestive, and joint heath all are competing for market share.

Product quality sits at the heart of this competition, challenging small pet food manufacturers, emerging companies, and multinational food producers’ pet divisions. Pet owners’ general view of their animal companions as members of the family drives decision-making based on the same high standards of quality applied to human family members’ diets. Accordingly, pet food producers cognizant of both the need for pet safety and protection of their brand reputation strive to meet or exceed world-class food inspection standards.

To do so, producers must use the right equipment for each food type — dry, moist, liquid fill, and everything in between — but also packaging type. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.