A comprehensive assessment of nine alternative pet food ingredients reveals that while ingredients like algal oil and yeast protein show promise, most face significant barriers including limited consumer acceptance, insufficient research and regulatory hurdles that slow their path to market success.
- Only two of nine ingredients — algal oil and yeast protein — received prioritization recommendations from the Centre for Feed Innovation and Pet Sustainability Coalition.
- Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) received a "monitor development" rating despite regulatory approval, due to consumer concerns about safety and an "ick factor."
- Research gaps are significant, particularly for cats, with most novel proteins lacking comprehensive dietary studies needed to validate nutritional claims.
- Sustainability benefits are mixed — only bacterial protein compares favorably to animal byproducts and chicken meat across greenhouse emissions, land use and freshwater consumption.
An assessment of nine alternative pet food ingredients, including eight protein options, shows each at different stages of commercial development, regulatory approval and nutritional validation. The one thing they all have in common? Unfamiliarity with consumers, which in one case borders on concern.
The report, “Alternative Ingredients in Pet Food: A guide to emerging proteins and oils in dog and cat food,” comes from the Centre for Feed Innovation (CFI), a nonprofit based in the U.K., working in collaboration with the Pet Sustainability Coalition (PSC). Overall, it highlights the yin and yang of opportunities combined with challenges inherent with these novel ingredients.
Comprehensive assessment
CFI and PSC evaluated the nine ingredients — algal oil, algal protein, bacterial protein, black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), brown seaweed, cultivated meat, mycoprotein, red seaweed and yeast protein — on four criteria:
- Supply, rated by product maturity, annual global production, price, regulatory status and current use in the U.S. market (including whether the ingredient is used by at least one of the top 10 pet food companies by revenue, according to the Top Pet Food Companies database);
- Sustainability, comparing eight of the ingredients to animal byproducts and chicken meat in terms of greenhouse emissions, land use and freshwater use; for algal oil, the comparison was to fish oil;
- Nutritional and health outcomes, measured by research (if available) on tested dietary inclusion, food intake and acceptability, nutrient digestibility and utilization, gastrointestinal outcomes, and body and physiological condition;
- Consumer acceptance from two perspectives, potential appeal and main barriers, summed up by a consumer signal.
Then, analyzing all these variables, CFI and PSC gave each ingredient a recommendation aimed at pet food brands: prioritize for evaluation, evaluate selectively or monitor progress.
Interesting outcomes
The report handily captured all the above factors in a convenient table that I encourage you to peruse, so I won’t cover all the elements here. My own perusal yielded some interesting points and observations:
- CFI and PSC recommended only two of the nine ingredients, algal oil and yeast protein, for prioritization. Unsurprisingly, both already have a relatively high level of usage in the U.S., at 3.4% and 19.5%, respectively. That 19.5% for yeast protein is by far the highest level among all nine ingredients; brown seaweed comes in second at 14.6%. (That is somewhat of a surprise to me.)
- Both algal oil and yeast protein are both also used by at least one of the top 10 pet food companies, as is BSFL — which otherwise has only a 0.2% usage rate in the U.S.
- BSFL is the only one of the nine that has a “mixed negative” consumer acceptance signal, mainly due to its barriers of an “ick” factor and safety concerns (for antioxidant, immune and blood serum effects reported for cats), according to the report. Yet it also has global regulatory approval (as do algal oil, brown seaweed, red seaweed and yeast protein) and has been studied in cats nearly as comprehensively as in dogs (along with red seaweed and yeast protein). Still, the positives aren’t enough to outweigh the negatives; it received a “monitor development” recommendation.
- The report called out that none of the nine ingredients has been researched extensively in either dogs or cats, and especially not in cats — with the one exception of cultivated meat being studied somewhat in cats but not at all in dogs, curiously.
- Also curious: In the one area often named as a key benefit of many of these ingredients, sustainability, their comparisons to animal byproducts and chicken (or fish oil in the case of algal oil), are a mixed bag. Only bacterial protein compares favorably in terms of all three factors: greenhouse emissions, land use and freshwater use.
Held back by the unknown?
This thorough appraisal of the nine ingredients offers a lot of food for thought for pet food brands, especially those pursuing or considering product development based on any of these alternatives. It also helps explain why some ingredients currently on the market are experiencing ups and downs. BSFL immediately comes to mind, given the hype around it several years ago, now tempered by those low usage and acceptance rates and the business woes of various suppliers or pet food companies that built their strategies on insect protein.
Mostly, the report points out how much we still don’t know about these ingredients in terms of pet food; their nutrition and health aspects particularly need much more research. And during periods of economic uncertainty, investing in such research or taking a flyer on a somewhat unknown entity just may not be on their short-term horizons.
