Two acronyms, DCM and COVID-19, dominated the attention of the global pet food industry in 2020, as measured by the amount of reader attention to Petfood Industry news, feature articles, blogs and other reporting.

From pet food trends like e-commerce and sustainability, to the DCM and grain-free pet food investigation, there are many issues to continue to track.

By not considering digestibility or the sustainability impact of their pet foods, companies marketing ancient grain products may be repeating past mistakes.

It’s important to know AAFCO pet food ingredient definitions and nuances; otherwise inaccurate conclusions can result, such as with the DCM investigation.

To avoid DCM and future problems, pet food formulators may need to reevaluate what humanization means in terms of ingredient diversity.

After near silence on the DCM and grain-free pet food investigation and no real updates for a year, FDA has issued statements that raise more questions.

In October 2020, Petfood Industry’s editors and columnists wrote 14 blogs or feature articles, which covered AAFCO, apples, ownership trends and dilated cardiomyopathy.

Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine released several documents and statements about the agency’s investigation into correlations between specific dog foods and cases of canine dilated cardiomyopathy.

FDA’s recent, very quiet update on its grain-free pet food-DCM investigation showed that, no surprise, it’s a complex issue that can’t be pinned to one cause.

Scientists continue searching for the ultimate cause of the DCM cases that the FDA is investigating.