PET Food Processing - March 2020 - 14

TRENDS

The humanization
trend also encourages transparency
when it comes to
ingredient sourcing
and processing
methods, which appeals to observant
pet owners.

rendering industry as a nutritionally viable, palatable
and sustainable solution for pet foods.
"When rendered products are used, the material
is diverted from entering landfills, incinerators or
compost heaps where their decomposition could result in harmful emissions and a growth of pathogens,"
Thomas says. "By repurposing this material, we reduce its carbon footprint while providing a nutritious,
tasty and desirable ingredient for pets."

Spot Farms

Innovative approaches
To quell conflict between these two trends, pet food
and treat startups are developing cutting-edge solutions rooted in humanization and eco-consciousness.
Two of these young companies, Shameless Pets LLC
and Bond Pet Foods, Inc., are confronting concerns
about wasted food ingredients, protein scarcity and
pet food quality in ways which they believe address
both trends at the same time.
Shameless Pets is rescuing food from waste streams
by partnering with food processors and farmers to
upcycle their "food waste" into nutritious and sustainable ingredients for dog treats. "We recover egg
and lobster shell byproducts and add them to our
Break an Egg treats for natural sources of calcium to
support bone health. We also rescue ugly beets from
farmers that aid in digestion for our Duck Duck Beet
treats," Bello adds.
The company also collects "ugly" produce that
doesn't sell at grocery stores and would otherwise be
thrown out as waste.
Since its founding in 2018, the company has saved

PET FOOD PROCESSING | March 2020 | www.petfoodprocessing.net

25,000 lbs. of food ingredients from waste
streams and is on track
to save 200,000 lbs. by
the end of this year. "The
more food we can rescue, the better for the environment, but also the
better for our pups, as these ingredients offer added nutrition. In
that sense, we view our product as
both sustainable and humanizing,"
Bello adds.
Consumer demands are also fueling
the development of technologies that offer
new perspectives on pet food production and formulation, Kelleman adds. "Advances in food science, sourcing and technology will accelerate over
the next decade, giving pet food companies and pet
parents a breadth of new high-quality ingredient options that are demonstrably more responsible and
sustainable," he says.
Founded in 2017, Bond Pet Foods has been on a
mission to create lab-cultured, animal-free proteins
for pet food. "We're working with biotechnology to
make wholly more sustainable pet food from microbial proteins (like yeast and fungi), as well as from
meat proteins like chicken, turkey and fish that are
harvested without the animal," Kelleman explains.
The startup's approach addresses sustainability
demands from an animal-welfare perspective and is
undoubtedly humanizing, as more and more protein
alternatives pop up across the pet and human food
markets alike.
Several other sustainable solutions are in the works
when it comes to pet food proteins. Alternative sources such as nutritional yeast, insect proteins and the
utilization of animals from invasive or overpopulated
species are being embraced by the industry to take
some pressure off the global protein supply chain.
"We're trying to do our part to actually expand the
pet food supply chain to include more rescued food,
not just for our company, but for other human and
pet food makers out there," Bello says.
As the demand for premium pet food grows and
pet owners become more attentive to ingredients,
sourcing practices and manufacturing methods, the
bottom line is this: processors must be thoughtful
and transparent about the ramifications their products may have on both pet nutrition and the environment. One trend does not have to come at the cost
of the other, but the potential domino effect of these
consumer demands is nothing to bark at.
PFP

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PET Food Processing - March 2020

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