INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
- Younger, educated pet owners treating pets like family are driving demand for gut health solutions — and Native Microbials sees the microbiome as the pet's operating system and the industry's next frontier
- Native Microbials is the only company sourcing microbes from healthy dogs to build targeted pre- and postbiotic products, with identified pathways to specific disease states
- The "sea of sameness" in the probiotic space is giving way to strain-specific, indication-level customization — and the technology to deliver it is finally here
- The next decade will bring increasingly personalized pet health solutions, a stronger focus on longevity and continued growth in prescription diets
Interview with Native Microbials' Jeff Henkes and Jason Benater
Petfood Forum Chat: This is a special report from Petfood Forum 2026.
I'm Jackie Roembke, editor-in-chief of Watt Global Media's Feed Brands, and I'm the guest host of Petfood Forum Chats.
I sat down with industry leaders and innovators to get their take on the trends shaping the global pet food industry.
From ingredients and processing to sustainability and the future of pet nutrition, take a minute to listen in on those conversations.
Jeff Henkes, head of business development, Native Microbials: Thank you for having us. I'm Jeff Henkes, head of business development for Native Microbials. I've been with the company for five years. I've spent most of my career on the advertising and marketing side, and this is my first foray into the animal health space — which has been eye-opening. I love animals, I have a dog, and our company is doing some really incredible things in this space.
Jason Benater, CEO, Native Microbials: Hi, I'm Jason Benater, the new CEO at Native Microbials. I've spent the last 25 years moving between the animal health space and human pharma. I spent most of my career at Boehringer Ingelheim in a variety of commercial roles. One of the reasons I came to Native Microbials is the science — and the journey Native has been on over the last 11 years. I believe we are in the right place at the right moment with our offerings around truly unique and novel microbes.
Petfood Forum Chat: If you caught the keynote presentation yesterday, microbiome was clearly a hot topic. Looking at broader industry and consumer trends, which ones do you think are most important or beneficial to the pet food space?
Benater: The opening keynote speaker put it well — he called it Microbiome 2.0, describing the microbiome as the pet's operating system. A lot of the trends tie back to that. When you look at younger pet owners especially — people who are having pets instead of children and treating them accordingly — you see that same interest in gut health that's been growing on the human side now translating to companion animals. A lot of need states are being addressed through probiotics and postbiotics. And frankly, there's a lot of sameness in the market right now — not a lot of true differentiation in the types of microbes being used.
Henkes: Another trend that's been building for a while is the search for value. Pet owners are willing to spend, but they want to know they're getting results. Premiumization is real, but so is consumer skepticism — people aren't making knee-jerk decisions anymore. I read recently that when it comes to health-based nutritional products for pets, consumers consult an average of 2.8 sources. They go to a pet store, read reviews online, ask friends, consult AI. They're trained to seek value and make informed decisions — and as digital tools get more sophisticated, that's only going to intensify.
Petfood Forum Chat: Are there any new technologies or solutions that have really piqued your interest?
Henkes: One area generating real buzz is genetics — using individual dogs' genetic markers to match targeted solutions to their specific biology. I'm curious to see how far that goes. My beagle has this marker, so here's the solution designed for that. It gets very niche, very customized. It won't be one-size-fits-all, and I think that's an interesting space to watch.
Benater: There's also a clear trend toward fresh food for pets — more competitors entering that space, more consumer demand for real, recognizable ingredients. And coming back to gut health: there's a lot of innovation and conversation around how microbiome science can differentiate a product. Companies are also starting to map individual dogs' microbiomes, which ties everything back to that idea of the gut as the pet's operating system.
Petfood Forum Chat: How does Native Microbials' approach fit into these trends?
Henkes: At a high level, what we do is identify microbial strains within the animal that perform unique biochemistries, which we then commercialize and feed back to the animal. The core hypothesis is that the body — human or animal — is a finely tuned machine shaped by millions of years of evolution. It knows how to operate; sometimes it gets out of balance. Our offerings — probiotics, postbiotics, synbiotic blends — are built around strains we know provide specific, measurable benefits. We understand the mechanism of action: how a strain will support digestion, or address the biological pathways involved in allergies, for example.
The key differentiator is that these are native strains — not foreign ingredients that flush through the system. When our products are fed to a dog, those microbes colonize. They stay and perform. That's customized biology at the indication level, not a uniform approach.
Benater: I'll add: Native Microbials is the only company that sources healthy microbes from healthy dogs and builds products — pre- and postbiotics — designed to go back into dogs. Beyond that, we've targeted specific disease states by identifying microbes with direct biological pathways to those conditions. For customers here at Pet Food Forum who are looking to differentiate their product, the story resonates: these microbes didn't come from yeast, beer or yogurt — they came from healthy dogs. That's a meaningful distinction, and it's a big part of why we're starting to gain traction.
Petfood Forum Chat: Looking ahead, what are your predictions for the pet food industry five to 10 years from now?
Henkes: I think we finally have the technology to create truly precise solutions for animals — and that changes everything. There are no more excuses for the sea of sameness. Science can lead the way now. Over the next 10 years, I expect to see increasingly customized solutions at the individual animal level. The question I'm curious about is how granular that customization will get — and how companies will prove it works.
Benater: Beyond customization, I think you'll see a heavy focus on longevity — products specifically designed to support lifespan and healthspan, much like what's happening on the human side through functional medicine and social media. You'll also see continued growth in prescription diets: specialized foods for the educated pet owner who is as deliberate about what goes into their pet's body as what goes into their own. Younger pet owners especially — the ones delaying children and raising pets as family — are driving that shift, and the industry will increasingly build products to serve them.
Petfood Forum Chat: The 2026 edition of Petfood Forum was held April 26th through 28th in Kansas City, Missouri. For more Petfood Forum news and in-depth event coverage, please visit petfoodindustry.com.
