Pet Food Ingredients: Page 109

Pet Food Market

Petfood ingredient purchasing strategies in a volatile market

If you are responsible for procuring and purchasing commodity ingredients for your company's petfoods -- or you formulate with such ingredients -- you probably are already aware that 2013 is shaping up to be another challenging year. (The same is true for meat ingredients, since that meat often comes from animals that eat commodity grains.) But do you know where specific challenges lie and how to prevent or handle them?

Pet Food Market

Surveys confirm that pet owners need pet nutrition education

Surveys conducted by the pet care website petMD.com show that many pet owners are confused about pet nutrition, petfood labels and ingredients and, more importantly, their own pets' nutrition needs. While the overall results may not surprise anyone in our industry, some of the individual survey findings might provide beneficial insights on how to address the problem.

Pet Food Market

Learn how commodity grain prices are trending for 2013

At the start of trading today (January 9) on the Chicago Board of Trade, a bushel of corn was going for US$6.88, while wheat was at US$7.52 a bushel and soybeans, US$13.85 a bushel, according to Agriculture.com. While these prices have moderated somewhat from last fall's all-time highs, they still present challenges for the food industry and for petfood producers looking to obtain the ingredients they need at prices their budgets can accommodate.

WATTAgNet hosts webinar for 2013 grains, wheat, oilseed commodity outlook

WATTAgNet will present the webinar “2013 Feed Grains, Wheatand Oilseeds Commodity Outlook,” January 22 at 10 a.m. CST. The webinar will cover information on the 2013 crop outlook based on the USDA’s January 11 crop reports.

Pet Food Ingredients

Van Drunen Farms drum-dried pear

Van Drunen Farms

Petfood Forum and Workshop offer learning, networking

Get up to speed on the latest research and knowledge on pet nutrition and ingredients, petfood safety,processing, marketing, packaging and much more by attending Petfood Forum 2013 and Petfood Workshop: World of Ingredients. Both conferences also offer a unique opportunity to interact with your peers, because this is the one time of year when the petfood industry comes together all in one place.

Pet Food Market

Purrs and growls for petfood in 2012, opportunities for 2013

I know, at this time of year, everyone does one of these blog posts or columns trying to sum up the year for an industry or assign accolades and criticisms to entities within the industry. But as cliché as they may be, people tend to read such posts or columns, so I'll jump on the bandwagon and issue my "purrs and growls" for the petfood industry for 2012 and look ahead to opportunities for the coming year.

Pet Food Product Database

Van Drunen Farms Individually Quick Frozen ginger

Van Drunen Farms

US, China extend agreement for animal feed safety

The US Food and Drug Administration renewed an agreement with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China to further cooperation between the US and China on food and animal feed safety. Originally signed in November 2008, the US and China have extended the agreement for five more years.

Key nutrients in a pet's diet may boost immune system effectiveness

In a recent blog on petMD.com, Jennifer Coates, DVM, shares her knowledge in the field of immunonutrition, which deals with supplementing a pet’s diet with certain nutrients’ to boost the immune system’s effectiveness. The veterinarian says that the gastrointestinal tract is home to more than 65 percent of the body’s immune cells, which means optimal nutrition and a well-functioning immune system are important.

AFIA hosts seminar on petfood ingredient trade requirements

The American Feed Industry Association recently hosted its Import/Export Seminar, in Arlington, Virginia, USA, which provides opportunity for discussion and education on trade requirements for feed, petfood and ingredients. Key speaker Suzanne Heinen, administrator of the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service, delivered an overview of the Foreign Agricultural Service, whose strategy, according to Heinen, is comprised of four criteria: trade policy, market development and export assistance, market intelligence and analysis, and international development.

Nutrition focus: Combating pet obesity

Obesity is an important disease with a growing incidence in the companion animal population. In the past decade, petfood companies have been formulating diets that are low-carb, high fiber, all protein, lean protein or calorie conscious, in hopes of wooing pet parents struggling to help their pets shed those extra pounds.

Dogs who lost weight in a recent study proved that their quality of life improved as their weight dropped. Animals experienced increased vitality and decreased emotional disturbance and pain.

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