Petfood Forum has released its program of pet food topics and speakers for 2017, including a new track providing an in-depth look at several hot topics affecting the pet food market. These include the science behind the rise of biologically appropriate pet foods, using omics technology to advance pet nutrition, dealing with distraught pet owners and the challenges of introducing new and novel ingredients into pet food formulations.

In addition to this track, Petfood Forum 2017 will also feature tracks on:

• Specific novel ingredients such as miscanthus grass, sorghum and beans;
• Nutrition topics like the impact of diet composition on shelf life, the benefits of essential nutrients on brain health in aging dogs and the use of beta-glucans to help address canine obesity;
• The pet food market, including marketing to Millennials, how social media can drive online and offline sales, and the near-future ingredients market and what it means for pet food manufacturing capacity;
• Pet food processing, packaging and safety, with topics such as extruding dry pet food with fresh meat, accelerating shelf life testing and packaging design with modeling software and managing contamination, recall and litigation risks under the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The conference portion of Petfood Forum 2017 will kick off on April 4 with an opening keynote by Randi Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media and former marketing executive with Facebook, and conclude with a closing keynote on April 5 by Temple Grandin, PhD, a designer of livestock handling facilities and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Other sessions during the conference include an update on the US pet food specialty market by Maria Lange, business group director for GfK, and a town hall discussion on the need for more shared research on pet food.

Petfood Forum 2017 takes place April 3-5 at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Before the opening reception on April 3, Petfood Innovation Workshop: Taste of Pet Food’s Future will offer an interactive, in-depth seminar on sensory analysis, pet food palatability and consumer insights. A full schedule is available, as is registration for both events.