How Petfood Industry Leaders use Texture Analysis to get ahead of their competition

How Mars measures the textural characteristics of petfood chews and dental products

Dental health is a growing and diverse sector in the pet industry with many new product lines in foods, dental hygiene, toys and accessories, particularly for dogs. Many oral care pet chew products are based on hard textures that require repeated chewing for efficacy. While such products may offer teeth cleaning functions, in many cases they pose risks to dogs either from physical injury such as gum injury, teeth fracture, or blockage of the digestive system.

Texture Analysis update in the Petfood World

The very best in nutrition for our animal friends. 

Four out of five pet owners consider their pet a member of the family and with 79% saying the quality of their pet’s food is as important as their own, it is not surprising that the premium sector accounts for 40% of the $26 billion US pet food market. 

Physical Properties of Wet Pet Food

There are obvious differences between the processes of quality control in the human and pet food industries, the main one being the lack of feedback from the pet sensory panel. 

However, quick rejection of undesirable food provides enough motivation for pet owners and pet food manufacturers alike to provide animals with the correct food.

Wet foods make up the majority of products sold in pet shops, consisting of meat and liver with a range of other ingredients. The textures are solid, puréed, shredded, cuts, cubes and blends of human food ingredients. These are much more palatable than dry foods to most cats and dogs - neither dogs nor cats are drawn to sticky foods but both show a preference for wet food rather than dry.

Physical Properties of Dry Pet Food

Dry pet food makes up a large share of the ever expanding pet care market, and manufacturers are keeping up with this trend by sinking more of their R&D budget into quality control and physical testing.

For a manufacturer to turn a profit, safe products that pet owners want to buy must be made and sold at a price they are willing to pay. Pet food production must be cost-effective, sustainable, meet food safety requirements and produce appetising, nutritious products for owners to feed their pets. 

High levels of physical quality are important down through the whole supply chain – manufacturer, retailer, pet owner and pet all benefit from careful texture analysis. Texture analysis is important for process control, quality control and product development as well as process efficiency (reducing extruder power consumption).

Pet Accessories: Ensuring High Quality

Pet owners always want the best for their animals and are willing to spend a lot of money buying brands that make pets more comfortable or give the owner an easier job while looking after them. 

There are many quality control procedures that can be used to assess the quality of pet accessories.

When buying a new dog lead, you may see that a lot of brands are now including a tensile strength rating on the packaging. Some dogs love to pull as hard as possible, and this can be bad news if a strong dog sees a squirrel running up a tree and goes for the chase.

People and Pets go more gourmet...

With four out of five pet owners considering their pet a member of the family and 79% saying the quality of their pet’s food is as important as their own, it’s not surprising that the premium sector accounts for 40% of the $26 billion US pet food market (whilst super-premium accounted for 10%). Globally the pet care products market is worth almost $100 billion.

Adding excitement to a pet’s diet via flavours, gravies, look-a-like human recipes, daypart foods (e.g. breakfast food/eggs or appetisers) is a top driver of the best-selling new pet foods. Pet foods are also touting more exotic meats (e.g. wild game, boar, venison, pheasant) and fillets of fish. The majority of “pet parents” are looking for “all natural” and “real meat” whilst eliminating grains, gluten, hormones/antibiotics and artificial colours are other significant trends along with the requirement for “human grade” and “indoor formulations are fast-growing market niches.