Ways to boost innovation in the pet food industry

With premium-type food products playing a leading role in the industry due to the trend of transferring people's consumption habits to pets, the only thing to do is to look for ways to improve the production chain. This way, we can reduce costs, be more efficient and offer better quality products. All this, hand in hand with innovation and technology.

We have selected 4 aspects in which to work to promote innovation: 2 areas of the production process and 2 ways of working within companies.

2 areas of innovation in the pet food industry

Selective extrusion

We can work on specifically innovating the extrusion process using, of course, innovative technologies. How? Looking for selective extrusion. That means looking for only food starches to undergo the extrusion process. In this way, all the other ingredients are added in later stages through cold processes. With this elaboration process, food quality can be guaranteed, as ingredient transformation is carried out without altering their nutritional characteristics, preserving all the organoleptic and nutritional properties.

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Rendering in pet food: a path towards sustainability

María Candelaria Carbajo

Sustainability is the only way to create a future

Consumer demand, hand in hand with human trends, drives innovation towards the search for more comfortable but above all, sustainable packaging. When we talk about product packaging of premium pet food, the one booming in the industry, we must say that its consumers are increasingly taking into account how environmentally responsible the packaging and information it provides is.

One of the essential areas of innovation in this direction is to seek improvements in printing, both in quality and in costs and production process (with a sustainable approach, of course).

The truth is that packaging is the first impression when selling a product. Years ago, it was a 100% physical experience, but now the online world has also been added. And either in one of the two formats, we must seek to offer what is expected of these products: convenient packaging with high-definition printing, such as a resealable opening, or materials that prolong food conservation.

Today, sustainability innovation grows around packaging trends on recyclability and renewable resins. And as better technologies become available, we can improve recycling streams and costs.

Many companies are considering post-consumer resin to build new packaging types or launching proposals to encourage consumption with the least possible impact, such as, for example, product pickup in stores.

Two approaches to foster innovation

Innovation can come from anyone, anywhere

When we talk about promoting innovation in a company, we are not only talking about leaders looking for great ideas but about implementing an innovation culture that penetrates all areas and hierarchies. Innovation can happen and come from any level. We will never know how talented our employees are if we don't give them a chance to prove it!

Innovation can come from anywhere if, as company owners or leaders, we are willing to consider someone else's ideas and learn from what they tell us and then... get ready to take action!

Launch, learn, and improve

This is how start-ups work: launching fast and then seeking constant improvement is their philosophy. But we do not need to be a technology start-up to implement this methodology. If we see the first result of an innovative idea as a sample from which to collect market information and improve it later, we are already doing it. It is there, in the feedback, where you get products that stand out in a market!

It doesn't matter what we're working on. If we assume that the first version will never be good enough, we open the door to keep on working on new versions: more efficient, more precise, and more suitable for its possible consumers.

Conclusion

If there is something we must be clear about it in order to improve with innovation is that all company areas must participate to achieve success.

Working with a focus on putting innovation at the service of the industry, we will obtain truly healthy food, tailored to the different pet needs without putting the planet we live on at risk.

We remember, finally, that innovation does not have to be monumental; even the smallest things you seek to innovate on can have an incredibly significant impact down the road!

Source: All Pet Food