In the January 2023 issue of Petfood Industry magazine, nutrition came out as one of the top pet food trend to pay attention to in 2023. But nutrition covers a lot of ground these days when it comes to pet owner wants: All manner of specialty diets, functional ingredients, and customized health and wellness solutions are currently on the table, not to mention the other macro trends that are affecting the areas of nutrition (sustainability, for example). Below, we’ll take a look at the top two trends within nutrition that pet food experts are seeing and aiming to answer.
“Gut health, or more specifically microbiome management, is a leading trend that is not new but is gaining momentum,” said Jeff Alix, global business development and marketing manager, pet health and wellness for DSM, which provides (among other things) nutritional and functional ingredients for companion animal food, treats and supplements. “Many pet food producers are launching brands making gut health claims and they are asking their nutritional ingredient suppliers to come with better solutions to the traditional prebiotics (e.g., chicory root) and probiotics (e.g., lactobacillus). Postbiotics are the latest buzz in the marketplace. These are probiotics grown on a prebiotic media that is less dependent on these ingredients being fermented in the gut but bring a similar but more consistent benefit to the pet. These nutritional solutions promise that the benefits are less dependent on the individual animal and their diets.”
