Nutrition: Page 322

Pet Food News

Kaytee Products chooses recyclable packaging for natural petfood line

When Kaytee Products Inc. launched Nature’s Benefits, a natural petfood line for birds and small animals, the company used vibrant graphics and sustainable packaging to make the products stand out. Kaytee’s design agency, Directions Inc., came up with the concept of using the emotional bond consumers and their pets have to market the petfood line on store shelves, through cartoon artwork with natural colors and muted tones.

Pet Food Ingredients

Nourishing nutrition for pet skin and coat health

Functional petfoods continue to gain popularity with pet parents because of a simple fact: Food and treats that promise improved health for their animals appeal to consumers. Skin and coat health seem to be particularly important to dog and cat owners.

Market Trends and Reports

Why you should read 'Feed Your Pet Right'

I met Drs. Marion Nestle and Malden C. Nesheim, the authors of Feed Your Pet Right (Free Press, 2010), at Petfood Forum 2010. Admittedly, prior to their presentation, I was quite skeptical about what I was going to hear, as both authors were self-proclaimed outsiders to the petfood arena.

Pet Food Palatability

Satiety in dogs and cats

Satiety is a complex process that involves both neuronal and hormonal signals to the brain. Through this complicated system, our bodies relay to our brain long-term signals (i.e., how often to eat) and short-term signals (i.e., when to stop eating a meal).

Pet Food Ingredients

The GRAS process for petfood ingredients

The implementation of a “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) notification process for animal feed ingredients has been eagerly awaited for years. It is not surprising, then, that the announcement by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) of its intent to start accepting notifications this past summer was met with great enthusiasm by the petfood industry.

Pet Food Regulations

What the future holds for petfood and supplements

The pet market continues to grow as a result of a constant stream of new and innovative products, a steadily growing aging animal population and the expanding role that pets play as family members. Further, the "humanization" of pets is exaggerating consumer demand for products and services that are as good (and sometimes better) as those available for people themselves.

Natural/Organic Pet Food

Small animal and bird products roundup

Very often the small animal and bird sector of petfood is overshadowed by the rapidly growing and ever-adapting-to-the-human-food-market that is dog and cat food. Although these tinier creatures have smaller mouths to feed, their pet parent’s appetites for innovative, healthy and fun products for their hamsters, gerbils, ferrets, chinchillas, rabbits and birds continues to be ravenous.

Nutrition

David A. Dzanis, DVM, Ph.D., DACVN.

Nutrition

Greg Aldrich, Ph.D.

Pet Food Market

Fromm Family Foods

PO Box 365

Mequon 53092

Market Trends and Reports

Market update: natural and organic petfood

US retail sales of natural pet products had been growing at teen double-digit rates since 2002, but during 2007 sales leapt 43%, according to the Packaged Facts Natural, Organic and Eco-Friendly Pet Products in the US report. As major marketers of petfood stormed mass channels with line extensions and new brands, including Iams with Healthy Naturals and Mars with Goodlife Recipe, mass-market sales of petfood surged more than 500%, while sales in the pet specialty channel (where the large majority of natural petfood sales still occur) rose 15% as new and existing brands continued to trend toward natural.

Pet Food Palatability

Update: measuring petfood palatability

Palatability has become as important to petfood formulation as the core ingredients. After all, those ingredients can’t provide nutritional benefits if pets won’t eat the food or, perhaps more importantly, their owners don’t perceive the pets are enjoying the food. Thus, leading organizations invest heavily in research and work to ensure they can accurately measure the palatability of various formulations and flavor enhancers.

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