The concept of “Health and wellbeing” is a key driver of growth in the global petfood market and with the growing importance of pets in society for companionship and as members of the family, will continue to be a key factor in the market for years to come.
The aim of the Nordic Pet Food Conference is to showcase key current thinking in the areas of petfood science, technology, product formats and marketing linked to the overall theme of “Health & Wellbeing”.

There are 3 main themes in each conference: -

Meeting the market, pet owner and pet needs for products that support health and wellbeing in cats and dogs. This thread will focus on the question “What are these needs?”
How to meet these needs through product design (product format and recipe) and ingredient selection – Ingredient and product performance.
How to ensure these benefits are delivered through technological applications and ensuring the quality and safety of our pet food products – Petfood integrity.
Without sustainability, the landscape of the petfood industry and petfood will change.
“Sustainability is doing (all) the things we do today, in ways such that we (including future generations) can continue to do them tomorrow, and into the future”. Millennium Alliance for Humanity and Biosphere (MAHB).
As pet owners, petfood ingredient suppliers, petfood manufacturers and petfood retailers we all have a key role in ensuring the future sustainability of the petfood industry. Unless we all play a role in this, we will not ensure the ongoing health and wellness of our pets for future generations. The outcome will be that pets, our businesses, the petfood sector (“field-to-bowl”) and society will suffer.
What does the concept of “reduce” mean for petfood design for health and wellbeing?
Apart from the obvious opportunity to reduce the energy used to manufacture petfood and get it to the pet bowls, R&D has a role to play in reducing the resources required to feed our pets. In doing this we can make more efficient use of the raw materials used in petfood and the efficiency of how our pets get the nutrients they require.
Role of R&D in reducing resources used in petfood.
Areas where the concept of optimizing resource utilization can support sustainability include: -
• Recipe design – Optimising palatability and digestibility to ensure delivery of the optimum nutrient level and minimize waste (faeces)
• Raw material functionality – Ensuring we don’t waste ingredients by making the substandard product; ensuring we don’t use more raw materials than required through correct specification
• Petfood integrity – Ensuring raw materials, ingredients and finished products are not wasted due to food quality, food safety, and food adulteration failures.

5th Nordic Pet Food Conference – How R&D can contribute to sustainability and health and wellbeing?
5NPFS has our 3 key themes: - Pet and owner needs / Product and ingredient performance / Petfood integrity.
Join us at Europe’s largest annual petfood technical conference at the Porto Palacio Hotel & Congress Centre in Porto, Portugal on 8th – 9th October 2019 to hear experts from academic research and industry on how we can link sustainability with health and wellbeing to grow our business.