Pet Food Processing - May 2024 - 34

INGREDIENTS
The Bond Pet
Foods team, led
by Chief Executive
Officer Rich
Kelleman (far left),
recently unveiled its
new 15,000-squarefoot
state-of-theart
Food Lab in
Boulder, Colo.
Bond Pet Foods
and eating insects when outside, insect protein is slowly
carving out its niche in pet food formulating.
Proteins produced by precision fermentation and molecular
farming, often fueled through insights obtained
from artificial intelligence (AI), may also find pet food
as their entry point into consumer packaged goods. This
path to market may assist with building a comfort level
with pet parents, who may then be more willing to consume
these types of proteins themselves.
" Humanization in the pet care industry is often menthe
reverse also has potential, " said Ally
tioned, but
Motta, pet nutritionist and application specialist at
MicroHarvest GmbH, Hamburg, Germany. " We believe
that for pet food, pet owners might be more open to trying
new ingredients when they can benefit the health of
their pets, and indeed, sustainability has been flagged in
several reports during the last year as one of the main
purchase drivers for premium pet food. "
MicroHarvest produces microbial protein through
biomass fermentation. It can be produced in 24 hours
from input to output, using agricultural side streams as
feedstock.
" Microorganisms are the most efficient protein factories
in the world, " Motta said. " They contain over 60%
raw protein, and they are produced in bioreactors that
can be located anywhere in the world, ensuring a reliable
and consistent supply of ingredients, less exposure
to weather conditions and supply chain disruptions. "
Bond uses yeast to make its animal-free protein. The
company's first product, brewed chicken protein, consists
of two simple components: a nature-identical protein
found in chicken muscle and brewer's yeast, which is
the same strain of yeast used in brewing beer and baking
34 PET FOOD PROCESSING | May 2024 | www.petfoodprocessing.net
With precision fermentation,
we're creatively reassembling
the process to make high-quality
animal protein that can be
foundational for pet health. "
Rich Kelleman, Bond Pet Foods
bread. The animal protein provides all key essential amino
acids while the yeast contributes B vitamins, beta glucans
and antioxidants, as well as a flavor profile that is known
to be highly palatable to cats and dogs. To produce this
brewed protein, Bond employs precision fermentation.
Understanding precision fermentation
While precision fermentation technology has been
around for a little more than 30 years, it's only now being
recognized for its potential in feeding the growing population
and saving the planet by producing food and food
ingredients in a more earth-friendly manner. It's already
used to make a number of food ingredients, including
natural flavors, rennet, vitamins and stevia. But recent advancements
in cellular agriculture - the process of using
precision fermentation to produce genuine animal proteins
- are particularly fueling interest and innovation.
Fermentation without the " precision " has been
around forever. That's how grapes turn into wine and
bread rises. Precision fermentation is, as the name suggests,
more precise. It's calculated technology.
In precision fermentation, bioengineering techniques
are used to program microorganisms by giving them a
specific genetic code to produce a compound of interest
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