These Diets Are Meeting Demand for Minimally Processed Dog Foods – PetProductNews.com

The dog food market is flooded with options, which can be overwhelming for pet owners deciding which diet is the best choice for their dog. Increasingly, pet owners are narrowing their search and turning to minimally processed pet foods. 
“[They] want to provide their pets with the best, and they have shown a strong understanding of how nutrition affects their pet’s overall health and vitality,” said Jessica Krueger, marketing manager for Ziwi USA, a manufacturer in Overland Park, Kan. “It is a common association for our own health, where often the additives in highly processed recipes and diet play a role in many health issues.”
In some instances, pet owners are influenced to seek out minimally processed foods after their pet experiences a health concern, Krueger added. 
The well-established humanization of pets trend is also a factor in the growing popularity of minimally processed foods, said Ruth Stedman Marriott, CEO and co-founder of A Pup Above, an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer.
“We’re seeing more pet parents apply their own food preferences for better-for-you products to how they shop for their dog’s food,” she said. “For smaller dogs, that can mean that the pet parent feeds them fresh food exclusively. For larger dogs over 40 pounds, we’re seeing pet parents add fresh as a mixer or topper to cut down on the processed food.”
Minimally processed dog foods can be found in multiple formats—from raw frozen and gently cooked to air-dried and freeze-dried. However, the definition of what minimally processed dog foods are can differ by manufacturer.
“To us, minimally processed is all encompassing from the start of the ingredient sourcing all the way to the finished product,” Krueger said. 
Ziwi uses ethically and sustainably sourced ingredients from farms across New Zealand, where the company raises its animals free range, grass fed and grass finished, Krueger explained.
“After the ingredients arrive at our kitchen, we prepare our recipes simply, unlike conventional dry foods that are mass-produced and cooked at high temperatures,” she said. “With our modern take on centuries-old meat preserving techniques, our Z-TWINTECH air-drying technology locks in the nutrition of our raw ingredients while eliminating pathogens too, without the use of artificial preservatives.”
The natural preservation process allows Ziwi to produce nutrient-dense and palatable food that is complete and balanced for all life stages.
In general, minimally processed dog food has received the least processing from preparation to the packaging, industry insiders report.
“We fall into this [definition] as we freeze-dry our foods,” said Joshua Errett, co-founder and COO of Because, Animals, an Oakland, Calif.-based pet treat and supplement manufacturer. “Before food ends up in your animal’s bowl, you need to look deeper into the supply chain to see what exactly is done to the ingredients before they are in the traditional manufacturing environment.”
Errett said Because, Animals uses an ancient process called culturing, in which foods are not processed by cooking or anything man-made but are broken down into ingredients by healthy bacteria.
“Our core ingredient is called Bmmune Nutritional Yeast, which is an ingredient we formulated ourselves through the process of cell culturing,” he said. “It’s approximately 60 percent protein and contains all 10 essential amino acids for dogs and is loaded with vitamins.”
Bmmune Nutritional Yeast goes into all of the new products offered by Because, Animals, Errett said, including the company’s new freeze-dried line of treats, baked line of treats and supplements.
For Instinct Pet Food, minimally processed means raw, uncooked pet food. 
“Our team of experts formulates nutrient-dense, complete, and balanced raw recipes that are made with real meat, veggies, fruits and other whole food ingredients,” said Gordon Dumesich, chief growth and marketing officer for Instinct Pet Food, a manufacturer in St. Louis. 
When it comes to format, dog owners base what they feed their pets on prior experiences and what they are used to feeding, Dumesich said.
“There’s a juxtaposition between what is known and what is convenient, i.e., kibble,” Dumesich said. “But we know now that continuously feeding ultra-processed foods is not healthy for our pets.”
Freeze-dried, air-dried, gently cooked and frozen raw foods increasingly fit the bill as healthy alternatives to more processed foods and are becoming popular options.
“It depends on the preference of the pet parent,” Krueger said. “A growing group of consumers have begun to seek out alternative to raw recipes that deliver optimum nutrition, but with scoop-and-serve convenience, avoiding all the mess and prep that is required in raw feeding. This is the demand that gave way to Ziwi.”
Ziwi is nearly finished building its new state-of-the-art kitchen—designated for research and development—in New Zealand, which will allow the company to fast-track innovations and have new products on the market by early 2023, Krueger said.
Instinct Pet Food recently introduced its most advanced line of raw diets, Instinct Raw Longevity, customized to provide optimal health at each life stage.
“This robust line includes frozen and freeze-dried raw meals, as well as an innovative 20 percent freeze-dried raw and kibble blend to give parents a variety of healthy options wherever they’re at in their raw journey,” Dumesich said. “Raw Longevity is exclusively available at neighborhood pet stores, giving independent retailers a leg up compared to larger retailers or e-commerce sites.”
 A Pup Above recently introduced an improved version of its gently cooked sous-vide line, which features freshly made bone broth in each recipe.
 “The inspiration for this was our pomsky pup Lola, [who] loves when we add bone broth to her bowl, but it was a pain to buy separately,” Marriott said. “Since she’s only 16 pounds, she couldn’t often go through a full container of bone broth before it went bad.”
When it comes to minimally processed dog foods, pet owners want to know what they are getting and not getting in their pets’ food, which is why educating consumers is of the utmost importance.
“Digital platforms like websites and social [media] and more are a fantastic way to get people in the know,” Krueger said. “It must be a combination of all mediums [to educate consumers,] and certainly having retail associates who can educate shoppers on the importance and value of minimally processed diets [is] the strongest way.”
Because pet food brands have varying definitions of what minimally processed means, marketing materials that help make purchasing understandable and easy for the consumer can be essential sources of information.
“We know there is confusion around the term and the forms that are available to pet parents, and we’ve created a good, better, best pet nutrition continuum to help retailers and pet parents,” Dumesich said. “We believe that raw frozen is the pinnacle of pet nutrition as it’s the least processed pet food and the most nutrients remain intact.”
Errett agreed that marketing materials with key product information is helpful for consumers.
“It’s important because there is food science at play here,” Errett said. “For instance, many brands will put probiotics in their kibble, but most strains of probiotic would not make it through the high-heat processing. This makes the inclusion of otherwise healthy probiotics completely meaningless.”
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