Panel discussion on...

Pet Supplements

Antonella Riva
Manager of Radical Innovation, Indena Spa

Member of AgroFOOD Industry Hi Tech's Scientific Advisory Board

Is there room for innovative pet ingredient development?

The rising trend of pet humanization and increased consumer spending in the household and pet care are probable the major driving force of market expansion in this sector. Indeed pets (mostly domestic dogs and cats) play an important role in the daily lives of humans and their health has attracted growing attention from pet owners. Botanicals could play an important role to support pet health but there are few and important pillars. First, quality: quality of botanical ingredient has become a basic starting point for “premium” product where the real difference is made by the available data supporting that specific botanical extract. Standardization and deep analytic and stability dossiers assure batch-to-batch reproducibility along with controlled manufacturing process. As regards biomedical documentation, human data are a good starting point due to available conversion table; however specific species studies are welcome to confirm ingredient pet suitability and to avoid unrealistic expectations about supplement performance.


In the R&D approach of innovative botanical proposal for the pet field, “clean label,” sustainability, and transparency are and will be in the next future important factors influencing pet owners purchasing decisions in the pet supplement space. Following all these pillars, new products could be developed in health conditions not yet explored such as longevity. A rapid expansion in the companion animal population has increased the number of aging pets, particularly dogs and cats. Current estimates indicate that over one-third of the global dog and cat population are classified as senior. Botanicals are an uncharted treasure for healthy life span solutions and will be a great source of next generation for pet “premium” ingredients.

In this Panel Discussion, several prominent companies within the food and nutraceutical ingredient industry have been invited to discuss about drivers and barriers of healthy lifestyle, focusing on global and regional consumer trends, scientific achievements, emerging delivery formats, use of AI technologies and the implementation of the United Nations sustainability goals.

Panelists

Katrin Hedvall

Head of Food Sweden AFRY

Dr. Banu Sezer

Global Market Development Manager 
Anton Paar GmbH, Graz, Austria

Dr. Adam M. Adamek , PhD

CEO, Editor-in-Chief, Food Edge, Belgium

Elizabeth Koumpan

Distinguished Engineer and CTO 
for IBM iOps organization

Kirt Phipps

Principal Scientific Consultant –

Toxicology & Regulatory Affairs, Intertek

Dayna Lozon

Scientific Consultant 1 – Toxicology and Regulatory Affairs, Intertek

Karen E. Todd, RD

VP, Global Brand Marketing
Kyowa Hakko USA

René Floris

Chief Innovation Officer, CIO, 
NIZO Food Research

Veronika Pipan

Head of Scientific Support at PharmaLinea

Dr. Mariette Abrahams MBA

CEO & Founder of Qina