The pet food industry faces major challenges

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SPF is a major player in the field of palatability enhancers for pet food and part of the international group Diana-Ingredients. The Brittany based company, which employs 450 people and operates eleven facilities all over the world, offers a broad range of liquid and powder palatability enhancers to provide the pet food industry with the newest products corresponding to the needs of the market.
Update on palatability
At the symposium in Nuremberg, a couple of SPF experts and vets from SPF cooperation partners provided the visitors with an update on palatability research and palatability measurement. Following a short welcoming address by SPF president Jean-Pierre Rivery, SPF R&D project manager Kamel El Khaloui spoke about the options for linking wet pet food texture to palatability performance. He explained that 2007 wet product launch figures highlighted a heavy tendency towards the cat market, accounting for 62 per cent of new references. Chunk-based products, gathering chunks in jelly, in gravy, and fillet type products, accounted for 65 per cent of the wet cat food market launches last year. In his opinion the palatability of wet pet food is very often considered only from the point of view of its flavouring. However, as with dry pet food, the palatability of a finished product also results from a combination of several parameters (ingredients, formulation, application etc.). In his speech he stressed as an example the significance of jelly texture for the palatability of canned pet food products and reported on the latest studies, which show that wet products palatability improvement results from a comprehensive formulation approach in the combination of texturizers and palatability enhancers.
Christelle Tobie, communication manager at Panelis, spoke about palatability measurement in treats. Panelis, the expert centre in palatability measurement and feeding behaviour studies on dogs and cats, operates as a tool for the pet food industry and as a supplier of reliable and precise data concerning pets’ preferences and feeding behaviour. In her talk she highlighted the significance of the treats market. As an example she quoted the launch of 796 dog treat products worldwide in 2007, compared with just 109 treat products for cats. The very high diversity of treat products is the main driver to develop specific protocols according to types and functionalities. Loïc Bramoullé, Aplicalis…