“Functional,” according to Oxford Languages, means “of or having a special activity, purpose or task” or “designed to be practical and useful.” When it comes to pet food formulations, with all their complexity and need to provide a complete and balanced diet, you could argue that every single ingredient present is functional.
Yet, following for years on the trend in human food (where many of the foods we eat are far from practical, useful or, for that matter, healthy), functional pet food ingredients typically denote those that deliver a specific nutrient or health-related benefit. Do pet owners perceive them in that vein, the same way they view functional ingredients in their own diets?
In 2024, 74% of U.S. pet owners surveyed by Packaged Facts said they were willing to spend more on pet foods with health and wellness benefits. Among those buying functional pet foods, conditions such as digestive health, oral health, and skin and coat ranked highest.
Those rankings align with ones from Nextin Research. Among 572 U.S. dog owners surveyed in 2024 about the “need states” motivating their dog food purchases, the top five were skin and coat (30%), joint health (27%), daily wellness (24%), digestion (22%) and gut health (19%). (Respondents could choose more than one.) For cat food, the top need states were digestion (22%), skin and coat (20%), daily wellness (19%), urinary and kidney (16%) and joint health (15%).
Actually, the top choice among the 426 cat owners surveyed was “none of the above” at 24%. That’s interesting, as are the daily wellness data points for both cat and dog owners. In Packaged Facts’ list of top conditions for functional foods, “general health” also ranked relatively high at 17% for both cat and dog owners.
That seems to mesh with the concept that every ingredient in a complete and balanced pet food has a specific function and purpose. I’m not sure most pet owners understand that (especially those who have been encouraged by online “experts” to believe that many pet foods are full of “fillers”). But there’s this: 80% of owners surveyed by Packaged Facts see pet food as the most important type of product to deliver health and wellness — far more than the second product category (flea/tick prevention medications at 54%).
That tells me owners do understand the critical role nutrition plays in their pets’ overall health, however they might view ingredients.
