If you have been watching the pet food market recently, you might think it has gone nuts. Mergers, IPOs, acquisitions, lawsuits and recalls are only the half of it. New food formats including an array of freeze-dried and dehydrated entries, treats made from antlers and horns, and dried skin from fish and jerky from bison, just to name a few, are hitting the shelves. So while we seem to be going nuts, why aren’t we actually feeding nuts to our pets?
There are quite a few food items with ground nuts or peanuts in their mix and name; these peanut butter-flavored treats and cookies are nothing really new. But what about tree nuts like almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts (filberts), pecans, pistachios and walnuts? What about adding them as an ingredient in pet food? Might there be some opportunities in this day of new, novel, exotic and exceptional, and are there any issues of which we should be aware?
