As pet food follows the trends of the food industry and continues to add more premium offerings, companies must keep up by embracing innovation. Pet owners, especially younger pet owners, are invested in providing the best food and care options for their pets. More and more pet food processors are embracing the development and use of alternative proteins, the addition of health and wellness supplements, and practicing sustainability throughout various aspects of manufacturing.
Today, the industry faces multiple supply chain challenges and potential future shortages in both the human food and pet food sectors. Pet food companies are known for upcycling byproduct materials into healthy pet food, doing so mostly to keep ingredient costs low. However, continuing to upcycle these ingredients will not be enough for the future because of looming protein shortage around the world. Alternatives like insect proteins, plant-based proteins, and lab-grown proteins may help fill these requirements for pet food.
Additionally, consumers have started seeking wellness supplements to treat conditions like anxiety, mobility, immune function, liver and kidney function, and skin and coat appearance. Addressing these concerns can enhance growth and development of younger animals and assist in healthy aging for older animals, as well as improving behavior for all ages.
With pet food companies creating these new and more complex recipes, it can become increasingly difficult to manage a multitude of ingredients without sufficient automation, storage and tracking. Horizon Systems understands how important it is to address product consistency, equipment durability and process effectiveness. Our range of ingredient storage options help companies properly store their valuable recipe ingredients while reducing loss due to product dusting and decreasing environmental contamination, while our ingredient tracking solutions can assist in recording received materials and following them pre and post inclusion throughout the process. Custom, automated lot-tracking programs can integrate radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, barcodes or QR codes into new or existing inventory systems to help with employee accuracy and to reduce the possibility of producing a bad batch.
Sustainability is also front of mind for all manufacturers as raw material availability shrinks. In pet food manufacturing, better sustainability can be achieved through adjusting product packaging and understanding the overall impact a company has on the environment. Companies are striving toward recyclable, refillable, and compostable options to help reduce packaging waste in landfills.
One way that Horizon Systems strives to assist the pet food industry in becoming sustainable is by providing risk-appropriate processing solutions that are sanitary, safe, and reliable. Our custom-engineered solutions include utilizing equipment that can be cleaned easily, such as our KleenLift Extruder Hood and Easy Clean Rotary Airlock, as well as by applying food grade finishes to provide safe surfaces for the passage of pet food products. We also execute food grade welds to prevent the housing and growth of bacteria.
These solutions are just a few options that Horizon Systems can provide to the pet food industry. Contact us to learn even more about how we’re innovating to keep up with consumer expectation and working to help clients become even more sustainable.