The pet food industry continues to grow and expand with new offerings arriving with every season. With this new product growth, the industry has a demand for formulators to help build the recipes. There is a need for people that understand and can manage the interplay between ingredients, processes, and new food forms to produce nutritionally balanced and tasty foods that pet owners and their companions love.
“Pet Food Formulation for Commercial Production” will be offered June 14–18, 2021. Participants can expect to cover numerous topics including an overview of ingredients, processes, and software necessary to create new products; revising existing formulas; navigating the balance between dreams and reality in new product development, gaining a perspective for companion animal nutrition and dietary needs, and learning how the process interacts with the ingredients to make nutritionally complete pet food.
The course will be coordinated by Greg Aldrich, Ph.D. Research Professor and Pet Food Program Coordinator in the Department of Grain Science and Industry. Dr. Aldrich will provide instruction on companion animal nutrition, regulations that pertain to labeling and product claims, and help participants develop skills in the formulation of modern pet foods across a wide array of food forms. He will be joined by other K-State faculty and graduate students with expertise in processing, ingredients, and palatability/sensory analysis.
“The biggest thing participants will walk away with is a baseline understanding of how to formulate and bring the key elements of ingredients, nutrition, and process together to produce an effective pet food product,” Aldrich says.
Given that this year’s travel and in-person instruction has been restricted the course will be offered via a virtual online format. Instruction will be delivered live through video-conference software in two segments for a daily total of five hours. All segments will be recorded for later review, and lecture materials will be complemented with, videotaped demonstrations, and interactive formulation exercises. Enrollment is limited to 25 participants. Formulation exercises will be supported by former students with formulation experience in small-group break-out rooms and by the lead instructor. All lecture content and reference information will be provided in digital format and each participant will have access to the formulation software for 60 days to practice following the course.
In addition to feed manufacturing and grain quality management, the IGP Institute also offers courses in the areas of flour milling and grain processing, and grain marketing and risk management. To learn more about these other training opportunities, visit the IGP Institute website at www.grains.ksu.edu/igp.
