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Food Safety, Sustainability, Convenience Lead Pet Food Efforts

With the pet food market skyrocketing and owners changing the way they care for their pets, manufacturers are innovating to meet a long list of consumer values, notes a survey-based report from CRB.

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The U.S. pet food market is expected to triple in size to $275 billion by 2030. Though the sheer size of the market has pet food manufacturers scrambling to keep up with demand—pushed to automate and innovate amid supply chain and labor difficulties—they are also reacting to a change in the way consumers are caring for their pets. With pets being treated as increasingly important members of the family, demand is rising for higher-quality pet foods.

Aiming to get a better handle on how pet food manufacturers are reacting to a growing and changing market, CRB gathered responses from more than 300 pet food industry leaders. What they found was that manufacturers are investing increasingly in sustainability, food safety, and innovations from a variety of angles.


Read article   Read the full report from CRB, Horizons: Pet Food Report.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not slowed the pet food industry in the slightest, according to survey respondents. Consistent with the trends in pet adoption, three-quarters of those surveyed said that the pandemic has increased their intended capital equipment investment. They’re upgrading packaging systems, installing more automation, and rethinking processing to improve efficiencies, quality, and food safety.

There are plenty of challenges—supply chain, inflation, labor availability, aging equipment, inefficiencies, and more—but manufacturers are intent on meeting the changing market head on. “We are calling it their ambitious agenda because there’s a lot going on in this space,” says Tony Moses, director of product innovation at CRB. “And we don’t feel like producers are willing to compromise.”

When CRB asked pet food manufacturers which product attributes mattered most to their customer retention strategies, the answer was: All of them. Nutrition, taste, sustainability, consistency, ingredients, selling price, value, packaging convenience, appearance, and texture—they’re all vital to attracting and retaining customers.

There was very little difference in the attributes that pet food manufacturers find important to attract and retain customers. They’re all “very important.” [5=Extremely important, 4=Very important, 3=Moderately important, 2=Slightly important, 1=Not at all important]There was very little difference in the attributes that pet food manufacturers find important to attract and retain customers. They’re all “very important.” [5=Extremely important, 4=Very important, 3=Moderately important, 2=Slightly important, 1=Not at all important]Image courtesy of CRB

Key business drivers

When CRB asked industry leaders to rank their top business drivers, the assumption based on anecdotal evidence was that the humanization of pet food would rank high, along with issues around sustainability or regulations. Ranked as the top business driver, instead, were expectations for manufacturing practices and workplace environment.

“We think that that one is so high up because it captures some of that labor availability [which was No. 3 on the list],” Moses says. “We’re seeing anecdotally from some of our clients that expectations for breakrooms have changed, natural light in process areas, even just making sure everything’s clean and that it’s not an unpleasant place to work in is more and more top of mind.”

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INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Food Products at PACK EXPO Southeast