One post-pandemic trend in the food industry is a shift in preference toward higher quality pet food. As the industry hurries to provide human-grade pet food options, pet parents have a greater range of options at the store to select from than ever before. Now, food processors are seeking process knowledge and guidance for equipment solutions to satisfy these new desires of pet parents across the country.
Trends in Pet Parenthood and Pet Food
Perhaps spurred in part by the global pandemic, many families now have a pet at home. According to the American Pet Products Association, 70% of people in the United States (approximately 90.5 million homes in the U.S.) have at least one pet, with many of those pets being a cat or a dog. In addition, how people view pets at home has also changed in recent years. According to a 2015 Nielsen report, 95% of people with pets at home considered them to be part of the family, and this is a 7% increase from 2007. This has led to a rise in the humanization of pets, as well as people identifying as ‘pet parents’ rather than ‘pet owners.’
With this shift in understanding the relationship between humans and non-human animals in the home, it comes as no surprise that shoppers are beginning to demand more premium products for their ‘fur babies.’ Shoppers are looking for pet food with higher quality ingredients, greater nutritional content, and cleaner labels. And it seems that consumers are willing to pay a premium to make sure their fur babies have this high-quality, human-grade pet food.
This has resulted in an industry-wide increase in pet food sales that is expected to continue. Pet food and treat sales in the U.S. increased by 9.7% in 2020, and recent estimates show that the pet food market has reached $30+ Billion. The US market is also expected to have a cost-adjusted growth rate of 5.2% between 2021 and 2026.
With how large the pet space has become, and how quickly the pet space continues to grow, pet food manufacturers need solutions to meet the increasing demand for high-quality pet food that pet parents are willing to spend money on.
Equipment Solutions and Guidance for Pet Food Processors
Marlen’s size reduction specialists and batch and continuous thermal product line specialists are well-informed to recommend an ideal pet food product solution, especially to those manufacturers that produce pet food made of human-grade meat and plant-based meat substitutes, as well as other specialty pet treats. As the pet space continues to evolve, Marlen has been a true process partner working alongside customers to deliver unique solutions to process innovative pet foods and treats.
The Marlen Jet Knife is an attachment using in line with vacuum pumps to deliver a precise, clean cut with a consistent particle definition without smear for pet food crumbles. The single cut design of the Jet Knife results in decreased drying times and increased shelf life of extruded pet food products, and the design of the knife can be configured to have holes of any single size—or even various sizes. Product change-over and clean-up are facilitated by Marlen’s design engineers who have taken time to understand the needs of the production environment.
Human-grade pet food is commonly stored in refrigerators—in most cases, they are the same refrigerators that pet parents use to store the rest of their household’s food. There is a food safety concern given the proximity and resemblance of human-grade pet food to human food. For these reasons, pasteurization is needed for petfood. Furthermore, since pets are being treated more like humans, the quality of their food is being scrutinized along with the growing trend in maintaining natural ingredients in clean label recipes. So, food processors need equipment solutions and guidance to ensure that a contaminant kill step successfully eliminates foodborne pathogens. Marlen’s Spiral Ovens provide continuous pasteurization, which ensures that pet food products can reduce or eliminate the need for preservatives while maintaining the product’s shelf life. Pet food processors need pre-package and post-package solutions for pasteurization that ensure both lethality for food safety reasons and an extension in shelf-life to maximize the sale opportunity across larger markets.
Marlen also manufactures Industrial Dehydrators which are custom designed to provide precise, uniform results for various pet treats. The Smart Balance design uses fans, ducts, and dampers working together to deliver uniform process conditions and enhanced airflow that no other thermal system can match. Pet treats will have faster drying cycles with the rapid moisture removal process of the Dehydrator. Every design element is aimed at producing repeatable and consistent results in terms of temperature, color, and yield.
With guidance and process knowledge from Marlen’s product line specialists, pet food manufacturers will find a solution for their pet food product needs. Together as partners, Marlen and pet food manufacturers will meet the increased market demand for human-grade, high-quality pet food.
