Healthy, Natural, Human Grade Pet Food
It’s no surprise that the education and awareness of healthy eating for humans has spread into the pet food market. More and more pet owners treat their dogs and cats like family and want to give them only the best available. Pet owners know that many of the top brands we’ve all known for decades, while economical, produce a very non-nutritious product and any pennies saved on food costs often comes back to be reclaimed in pricey supplements to compensate for what is missing in the food or expensive vet bills when their furry loved one becomes ill.
A recent article in a petfood industry trade publication interviewed pet food nutrition and production experts to get their insight on what consumers will be looking for more in their pet food buying decisions. Fundamentally, pet owners are starting to inspect, and expect, the same standards they have for their own food buying decisions.
- 1. Labels with ingredients they know and recognize – you know, like FOOD. No by-products (whatever that is), no unpronounceable super long words, no additives, and no ‘scientific formulas’ created in a ‘lab’. Just f-o-o-d.
- 2. Natural and Humane foods.
- 3. Minimal Processing. Again, there is no reason why a natural and healthy ingredient should be subjected to intense heats or pressures to cook it and smash it into an unnatural state. It loses almost all nutrition and the products used in the process are often quite harmful.
- 4. Limited Ingredients Diet (LID). Think of what you ate last night, now minus all the spices and flavorings…. It was maybe 5 ingredients or less, right? This is especially important when looking out for allergies, etc.
- 5. Individualized packing for both safety and convenience. No more dumping a 30 lb bag of kibble into a bucket and letting it sit for weeks while scooping out meal-by-meal.
Personally, we’re glad to see this trend increasing. It’s like the organic market at the grocery store, as more and more consumers are purchasing the better and safer foods, the costs continue to drop.
