The humanisation of pet food

Over the last 25 years the global pet food market has seen the mega-trend develop known as the “humanization of pet food”. Our cats and dogs have become more real members of our families and we want to treat them as well as possible and feed them the best available pet food products we can buy. The global pet food market is today worth about $70 billion and is growing steadily at around 3-4% each year.

Before the 1990s pet owners mainly bought their cat and dog food in retail outlets without thinking too much about the quality or the ingredients of these products. Price and availability were more important than the real content of the food. People did not really consider which kind of food was best for their pets and pet allergies and other health problems were the consequence., during the 1990s, more and more “premium pet food” producers appeared (mainly from the USA) offering products of higher quality and with more valuable pet food ingredients. They used different kind of meat like lamb or chicken instead of beef or pork.

SUPER PREMIUM pet food

At the same time we saw the switch from small pet shops to huge pet supermarkets all over the world. The new premium products were mainly available in these pet food supermarkets and although they were more expensive than the traditional pet food, consumers accepted the higher prices. The last 7-10 years, consumers have become more and more critical about the food for their cats and dogs resulting in the demand for “super premium” pet food products.

These include high quality, selective ingredients, scientific formulas, indulgent production processes and special functional additives for different problem areas, for example to improve the immune system or the structure of the coat.

Furthermore, consumers now demand grain-free or non-GMO products and are prepared to pay the higher prices for these products.