The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) is pleased to announce Dr. Brittany White, Dr. Maria R. C. de Godoy, and Mr. Michael Clark will be the featured speakers in the symposium entitled “Pet Food Innovation for Pets and Pet Parents” on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, during the 75th AMSA Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC). This session will be sponsored by Simmons Foods.
Dr. Brittany White, Director of Product Development for Simmons Pet Food, will start out this session speaking about “Insights Driven Development of Humanized Foods for Pets.” Commercialized pet food has been evolving since the late 1800’s. In 2020, the U.S. pet food industry was worth $42 billion, and it continues to grow at rapid rates year after year. Today, pet parents are increasingly looking for new ways to nourish and delight their pets, and this has led to the development of alternative pet food formats, including fresh-cooked pet foods. These new formats offer advantages to both the pet and the pet parent, but present unique challenges in formulation and processing that do not exist for conventional pet food processing technologies. This presentation will explore the consumer insights that have led to the evolution of the pet food industry. Further, it will highlight the unique opportunities that pet food brands face as they seek to satisfy consumer demand for high quality, humanized foods for pets without compromising the nutritional adequacy, safety, and sustainability of commercial pet food diets.