Page 24 - PET worldwide issue 05/2022
P. 24
Dog products On trend – but also
a good thing?
The use of insect proteins to produce dog food is regarded as
a trend by manufacturers and users – but critical voices can be
heard among retailers.
The dog food market is well posi- Whichever way you look at it, in- sources, especially insects, are incorporated alternative protein
tioned internationally. It is often creasing the proportion of fresh not popular with everyone. When sources from various manufac-
difficult for new concepts to gain a meat is a key topic in the dog it comes to products made from turers into our range,” reports Ste-
foothold. food segment. It was recently re- alternative proteins, in particular fanie Klasen, category manager
ported from the German manu- where insects are concerned, a of the German pet store chain Das
facturer Mera Petfood that “the large number of manufacturers Futterhaus. Her comments reflect
trend around dog food with a report an acceptance barrier on the standard practice in pet sup-
high meat content has become the part of pet owners. plies retailing. In the category of
established and persists”. The treats for dogs in particular, pet
strained situation in the raw What the retailers say owners are more open to trying
materials markets, however, is “As speciality retailers, it is im- new things and treats containing
forcing manufacturers to look portant to us to offer pet lovers insects as a protein source are
for alternative protein sources a large and multifaceted product the beneficiary of this.
as a replacement for animal selection. This includes em-
proteins. But alternative protein bracing new trends. We have This is happening on a small
scale, however. “In the dog food
market, the insect protein seg-
ment is growing but as yet has
no absolute volume shares,”
stresses Ramin Danaei, manag-
ing director of the Kölle Zoo store
group, which is part of Fressnapf.
Insect proteins are still regarded
as a niche item here, for example
as an alternative for exclusion di-
ets or as an occasional food sup-
plement.
In the Megazoo branches of
Thomas and Felix Bangel, the
topic of sustainability has al-
ways played an important part.
They are therefore happy to sup-
port the concept of food from al-
ternative protein sources. Jun-
ior manager Felix Bangel points
out, however, that “advice for the
24 PET worldwide 5|2022
