Happy New Year! As we ring in 2025 together, we’re bringing you the top five pet care trends to watch in the coming year, from sustainable initiatives and alternative proteins to biotic ingredients and personalized nutrition. In this first episode of the series, we’ll explain greenwashing, explore the potential of upcycled ingredients and the legacy of rendered ingredients, debunk misleading data, and discuss other barriers and opportunities for more sustainable ingredient sourcing across the pet nutrition market.

Helpful Links

Pet Food Ingredients and Environmental Sustainability: https://bsmpartners.net/insights/pet-food-ingredients-and-environmental-sustainability/

BBC on VW greenwashing: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772

More examples of greenwashing: https://earth.org/greenwashing-companies-corporations/

Turning Grocery Waste into Nutritious Ingredient by Dr. Bradley Quest, DVM: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/turning-grocery-waste-nutritious-ingredients-bsm-partners-f1tbc/

Learn more about California Safe Soil (CSS): https://www.calsafesoil.com/

Read more about Emilie Mesnier’s personal sustainability journey: https://bsmpartners.net/insights/a-journey-to-compassionate-consumption/

Top Trends of 2025: How Consumer Evolution Lends Itself to the Pet Care Revolution: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-trends-2025-how-consumer-evolution-lends-itself-pet-care-q5isc/ 

Show Notes

00:00 – Welcome and Introduction

02:36 – Why is Sustainability So Complex?

05:22 – The Impact of Greenwashing

09:32 – Strategies for Sustainable Sourcing

12:23 – Exploring the Upcycling Movement

14:42 – Rendering: The OG Upcycler for Pets

16:34 – The Real Environmental Impact of Pets

21:16 – Back to Upcycling: CSS on Enzymatic Digestion

23:49 – Pet Treat Brands Using Upcycled Ingredients

25:31 – A Quick Word on Regenerative Agriculture

27:35 – Stay Tuned for Our Sustainability Series!

28:09 – Final Thoughts

Walk down any pet food aisle today and it's easy to feel overwhelmed

by the sheer number of options available.

Every bag, pouch, and can seems to tout its superiority, but

not all are created equal.

So how do you know what's truly best for your pet?

And what's up with all these new ingredients and claims that you swear

weren't such a big deal a year ago?

Pet industry innovation moves fast.

Sometimes so fast that novel concepts and new ingredients aren't always

properly studied before they hit the market, leaving consumers even

more confused and putting the long term health of our pets in limbo.

To help pet owners navigate this increasingly saturated

space, we're bringing you the top 5 trends to watch in 2025.

In today's episode, the first installment of our Trends to Watch in 2025

miniseries, we'll dive into the world of sustainable ingredient sourcing to

discuss the phenomenon of greenwashing, how pet industry brands are selecting

their raw materials more carefully to reduce their overall environmental

impact, And the question of upcycling, a practice used in the pet nutrition

industry for decades, but now taking a different approach to minimize the

hundreds of billions of pounds of food that wind up in landfills each year.

Later this week, we'll share additional episodes about four more trends expected

to shape the industry's future, including alternative protein sources, the

promising power of biotic ingredients, The state of sustainable packaging and

the rise of personalized pet nutrition.

So, as you enter 2025 with fresh eyes and a renewed commitment for going to

the gym, eating healthier, being better at self care, or whatever it is on your

New Year's resolution list, You can use the information from today's episode and

the four others we'll release this week to gain a better understanding of each

of these trends so you can ensure your furry companion is getting the very best.

Welcome to Barking Mad, a podcast by BSM Partners.

I'm your host, Jordan Tyler.

So when we were sitting down to research and put this episode together, we

came up with a long list of trends.

This was done in part through BSM Aperture, which is a powerful predictive

tool under the BSM Partners umbrella.

As well as the company's collective pet industry experience, which is pretty vast.

And while all these trends are important, we decided to focus on the five that we

felt are most likely to drive industry sales in 2025, as well as those that

pet parents may find most confusing.

Take sustainability for example.

Sustainability means something different to everyone, making it incredibly

difficult to compare one company or brand's initiatives to another.

This sentiment was shared by Emily Mesnier, Vice President of European

Operations at BSM Partners, a pet food palatability expert by

trade and sustainability guru

by choice.

To me, sustainability is a way of life, right?

But in pet food, it transcends simply swapping out recyclable packaging.

To me, sustainability is about a holistic shift in mindset.

Thanks.

Considering the entire life cycle of a product from farm to ball.

Because it impacts the planets, animals, people, and our industry.

Emily explains part of why sustainability is so complex is

because it's interconnected to so many other values and purchasing decisions

and involves not only science, but also

human emotion.

For most U.

S.

consumers, sustainability is often a feeling rather than a concrete definition.

Pet parents might identify or associate sustainability with vague

notions of being good or doing the right thing for the environment.

And this highlights the need for clear and compelling communication,

meaningful storytelling and tangible examples and solutions to bridge

the gap between consumer perception and actual sustainability practices.

So for pet parents today, you know, in the U.

S., they do not want to compromise on health or convenience for sustainability.

In contrast, in Europe, sustainability is often seen as a baseline expectation.

You know, while in the U.

S., it can still be perceived as a premium or a niche attribute.

This difference in market maturity presents both challenges and

opportunities for pet food companies.

You know, European companies might need to focus on differentiation and innovation

to stay ahead of the curve, while U.

S.

companies may have the opportunity to leverage sustainability as

a true competitive advantage.

Now sustainability reporting tools like lifecycle analyses,

which is a way of measuring one input against another in terms of total

environmental impact from farm to fork and beyond, As well as concepts like

Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, in which corporations are qualifying

environmental impacts as part of their bottom line and prioritizing the

reduction of emissions and waste across their supply chains, are advancing with

speed toward the goal of creating a more environmentally friendly industry.

However, there is a phenomenon that's caused some consumers

to proceed with caution.

Thank you Greenwashing is where companies dress up their product

packaging, websites, and marketing materials to deceptively lead

consumers to believe their products are environmentally friendly.

Deceptively is the key word here, as companies that employ greenwashing

tactics are actively misleading shoppers to a conclusion that just isn't true.

A great example of this is Dieselgate, the 2015 scandal in which well known

German car manufacturer Volkswagen was called out for greenwashing.

Now, according to a report from BBC explaining the scandal, Volkswagen

had installed what they called defeat devices, or software that could detect

when official emissions testing was being done on its car's diesel engines.

So, when the United States conducted their testing, these defeat devices

effectively altered the performance of the engines to improve emissions results.

But here's the catch.

The DEFEAT devices only turned on during official testing to warp the results.

When a regular old person bought this car and took it for a spin, the emissions

coming from that car would be much higher because the DEFEAT devices were

only meant to skew testing results, not actually reduce real emissions.

As I say to my dog when he uses his front paws, During a match

of tug of war, that's cheating.

The company was eventually called out by the Environmental

Protection Agency, leading them to publicly admit their wrongdoing.

So greenwashing is, uh, one of the most complex things to

address with sustainability as well.

It erodes consumer trust.

It undermines genuine efforts to make the pet food industry more sustainable.

So it is a serious problem that needs to be addressed through greater

transparency, stricter regulations.

And, and increase consumer awareness, right?

We need to arm them with how to recognize when things may not be

accurate or believable, right?

And the lack of clear definition and standardized metrics for pet food

sustainability make it easier for companies to make misleading claims.

So I think really what we need is a robust.

third party audits and certification system that could help the pet

food industry and pet parents and animals in the same token.

You know, this would help to level the playing field and empower pet

parents to make informed choices based on verified Sustainability practice,

knowing that we all have limited time on our hand to do this research.

Quick

plug, we'll be exploring the world of pet industry sustainability

this year and beyond in our up and coming sustainability series.

Stay tuned for several fascinating episodes about regenerative

agricultural practices and initiatives.

Upcycled ingredients, sustainable packaging, cat litter, alternative

proteins, and much, much more.

Now, while greenwashing isn't the trend per se, it is an important aspect of

sustainable ingredient sourcing, which is the trend we'll get to here in a minute.

And this is important to be aware of, because pet parents and consumers in

general need to know about these shammy practices, so that they can ensure

they're not being duped by corporations and brands who want us to believe they're

doing more good than they really are.

Now let me hop off my soapbox, and let's get into this trend.

So when it comes to sustainability, being mindful of ingredient sourcing is a huge

opportunity for the pet food industry.

as most companies greatest emissions don't actually come directly from its

manufacturing operations, but rather what happens on either side of the process.

So if you're supply chain savvy, you'll understand this as upstream and downstream

activities, wherein upstream activities refer to things like raw material

sourcing for ingredients, packaging materials, and other crucial inputs.

While downstream refers to things like transporting the

products from the facility to a warehouse or a retail location, or

directly to somebody's doorstep, depending on their business model.

So when you think about the upstream portion of the supply

chain, ingredient sourcing falls directly into that category.

And when you think about it, reducing the environmental impact of

ingredients is really a two way street.

Both the company supplying the ingredients and the company transforming those

ingredients into finished products.

Must be committed to sustainable sourcing and providing data to prove an

ingredient is more sustainably sourced than another becomes super important to

avoid greenwashing and help both parties achieve their sustainability goals.

Joining us to discuss just how the pet industry is tackling sustainable

ingredient sourcing is Allison Reeser, Director of Sustainability and

Innovation at the Pet Sustainability Coalition, an organization dedicated

to supporting pet industry companies as they seek to become more sustainable.

I would say there's three topics that companies are

tackling with their sourcing.

First is low carbon ingredients, so seeing how their sourcing strategy can level

up to their overall emissions targets.

The next is traceable, so making sure that they know where their ingredients

are coming from, because that's a huge benefit for understanding the impact.

for that.

And then the third is animal welfare.

I think that makes a lot of sense for the pet industry because we inherently

care about our pets and want to feed them healthy food and think about their

animal welfare, but then also thinking about the welfare of the animals that

are being used as ingredients, the chickens and the cows in that way.

There's also two different approaches that I'm seeing a lot.

So, first, is I'm seeing brands and manufacturers take a look at existing

recipes and say like, Okay, how can we keep this same recipe but really

engage with our supply chain to improve one of those topics that I

just mentioned, or something else.

The other method I'm seeing is some companies are designing entirely new

products with these sorts of qualities, environmental and social benefit in

mind, which is very exciting to see.

So there's actually an interesting subtrend in the

world of sustainable sourcing that we've identified, and

this subtrend is upcycling.

Now, upcycling is not a new concept, but the idea of upcycling food that would

otherwise go to waste into dog and cat food and treats is gaining traction.

And while this trend is definitely still in its early stages and its widespread

adoption in the market remains to be seen, it does pose an exciting way to

reduce the absolutely monumental food waste that we accumulate each year.

According to ed, a nonprofit dedicated to solving the systemic issue of food waste.

In the United States, the average American spent nearly $800 on

food that ended up ate in 2023.

And collectively, this totaled $264 billion worth of wasted food.

The annual greenhouse gas emissions from that wasted food are estimated

at around 205 million metric tons of CO2, which is, as ReFed equated,

the same as driving more than 49 million passenger vehicles for a year.

And the amount of water used to grow that food is projected

at nearly 11 trillion gallons.

Which is enough to fill 16 million Olympic sized swimming pools.

So, not only is this a huge environmental problem, it's also a huge economic issue.

It is important, though, to note the current challenges facing the

upcycling movement, like how a lack of clarity around the term upcycled

could actually lead to greenwashing.

Upcycling ingredients is all about maintaining

food at its highest value.

There are some really alarming statistics that, um, also come from the upcycledfood.

org site and also Project Drawdown.

One third of our food.

is never eaten.

And that leads to so many greenhouse gas emissions and just like a shame.

So making sure that that food is not wasted is a huge opportunity

for all things that eat.

But I also, again, think it's a little tricky to think about like,

okay, what would have gone to waste?

So perhaps further defining upcycled food ingredient or

what kinds of foods should be targeted for upcycling would be helpful.

But here's another thing.

The pet food industry has been upcycling since way before it was

cool through the use of rendered byproducts from the human food supply

chain, specifically animal byproducts.

So think of like you go to the store, you buy a steak that steak.

It's not the only thing that came from that cow, right?

There are all sorts of other parts that never even make it to the meat section

of the grocery store because culturally, there are certain parts of the animal

that we simply won't eat as Americans.

We'll get to that a little bit later.

The point I want to make here first is people get really worked up about

byproducts being nasty and gross and unfit for consumption, but I'd like to

point out that while meat byproducts like trimmings and organ meats.

Get a bad rap.

They're actually really, really great sources of nutrition for pets, and they

save valuable nutrients, those meaty ingredients that used up a ton of natural

resources for the chance to become food from just wasting away in a landfill.

The pet food industry complements the human food industry

really beautifully because there are some parts of plants and animals that are

super nutritious for pets and healthy, but not necessarily, again, they don't

find their way into human food a lot.

Animal byproducts fit into that category, and I, again, byproducts kind of needs

a brand refresh because it's such a, ugh, that word doesn't feel very good,

but it's all the organ meats that tend to be sent to rendering or something.

Those have a huge opportunity in pet food, um, and can complement

the human food industry.

Now, in a minute, we'll hear about some of the companies

making upcycled ingredients for use in animal food, as well as some

brands that are proudly incorporating such upcycled ingredients into their

finished pet food and treat products.

But first, while we're talking about rendering and greenwashing, I want

to address a statistic that's been Floating around for some years now and

maybe deserves another closer look.

This statistic comes from a peer reviewed paper by Gregory Okun

published in 2017, which states that through their diet, the American dog

and cat population constitutes about 25 to 30 percent of the environmental

impacts from animal production.

In terms of the use of plant, water, fossil fuel, phosphate, and biocides.

By way of solution, Okun suggests in the paper that reducing the rate

of dog and cat ownership in the United States, as well as industry

wide efforts to reduce overfeeding, waste, and find alternative sources of

protein, would reduce these impacts.

So, we could just stop having pets.

Although that comes off to me as a little eco fascist, and you'd really

have to twist my arm to make me believe that that's the only solution here.

And the industry is already exploring alternative proteins, which we will

discuss more in our second Trends of 2025 episode coming out tomorrow.

But, as we're 30 percent statistic, what about the rendered

byproducts we just mentioned?

These byproducts are made up of all the parts of an animal

that humans refuse to eat.

So, organ meats, bone meal, and other parts we find unsavory but are perfectly

edible and actually super nutritious.

And if we don't do something with them, they're just going to go to waste.

Now, I'm going to read a passage from this report that kind of serves to

make the point I'm trying to make here.

He says, It could be argued that dogs and cats eat meat that humans cannot consume.

And, which is simply a byproduct of production for human use, and

therefore should not be counted as consumption beyond that of humans.

To some extent, this is certainly true.

Humans, for instance, do not generally consume bone meal, a common ingredient.

But other ingredients in pet food that are byproducts of human meat production

are certainly edible after processing.

Now, the phrase, certainly edible after processing.

And another, which is readily accepted at the dinner table,

are completely different things.

Like, yeah, organ meats are a delicacy in certain cultures, but you would be

hard pressed to find a tried and true American that isn't skeptical about

adding those ingredients into their diets.

And I'm not saying that's a good thing.

You know, incorporating more animal byproducts into our own diets is

maybe something we should look into.

And I know Personally, I'd certainly try that before giving

my own dogs and cats the boot.

And you know, I'm not doing this to bag, and Okun does make some arguments

in here that are more compelling, in my opinion, like how the humanization

of pet food, like using human grade meats to produce pet food instead of

byproducts of those ingredient streams, is actually placing dog and cat food

in direct competition with human food, in terms of the supply chain.

That I actually agree with, and there's a delicate balance

to be struck there, for sure.

But my point here is this, if byproducts are lumped into the environmental

impact of our dogs and cats consumption of animals, and then we stop feeding

animals byproducts, or stopped keeping pets altogether, there would

be no market for these ingredients.

It would just mean a pile of animal products deemed unfit

for human consumption under today's conventional standards.

And that pile would grow and grow with nowhere to go but the landfill

or contaminating our oceans.

So really, if we didn't have pet food as a viable stream for these

ingredients, They would be going to waste.

And, in my opinion, this makes rendered byproducts an OG champion of upcycling.

I don't remember getting back up on my soapbox, but here we are.

I just felt that was a really important point to make because that 25 30 percent

statistic gets thrown around a lot, but I fear it's actually serving to exaggerate

what's really going on to the point where it could be considered greenwashing.

Especially for the positive impact that rendered ingredients

in pet food already have on the environment and have for decades.

Okay, let's get back to upcycled ingredients.

Today and in the future, ugly produce and food items that don't sell in the store

but are perfectly delicious and nutritious otherwise have another way to be recovered

through a company called California Safe Soil, or CSS, which originally used

these food products to create all natural fertilizers and is now bringing their

business model to the pet nutrition space.

CSS works closely with grocery stores to recover food, maintains a strict cold

chain, in other words, transportation that keeps the food cold and fresh

between the store and CSS facilities, and sorts out any garlic, onions,

or other food items known to be harmful to pets before embarking on a

process called enzymatic digestion to create its final pet food ingredient

for manufacturers to incorporate.

It's basically biomimicry.

What we're doing is the same thing that happens in your stomach where

you digest your food with enzymes, which therefore breaks the food down.

That process of enzymatic digestion is something that is

very efficient at breaking food down into its constituent elements.

Thanks.

Uh, that can then, particularly once it's pasteurized and stabilized.

You can get the value of the food the same way you get value from

food when you digest it yourself.

So if any of y'all listened to the Barking Mad trailer,

you know that I have a dog with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency,

or EPI, which basically means his pancreas doesn't naturally produce the

enzymes he needs to digest proteins, fats, and sugars properly on his own.

So When Dan started explaining enzymatic digestion, I was like, this sounds

a lot like what we have to do for Lenny every morning and every night.

So to help him be able to digest the nutrients in his food, we sprinkle a

blend of digestive enzymes on every meal.

We slosh it around with a little bit of water.

And then let it sit and digest in the bowl for up to 20 minutes

before he can actually dig in.

So, this pre digestion is essentially what CSS is doing

just on a much, much larger scale.

And for the good of not just my dog, but other dogs and the planet.

Anyway, enzymatic digestion is one great way to upcycle, but just to kind of drive

this trend home, there are a handful of brands that have launched products

made with upcycled ingredients in the recent years, including Shameless Pets,

which takes misfit and surplus produce.

Eggshells, seafood, and other ingredients, and incorporates them

into nutritious pet treats that also pack a punch of functional

health benefits at the same time.

Another company, Phelps Pet Products, which co manufactures

jerky style treats for a variety of brand names and private labels,

has robust capabilities for putting upcycled ingredients in its treats.

Including through an exclusive licensing agreement with Disney inked

in 2021, through which the company has created a line of Disney character

inspired trades, most of which carry the upcycled certified label.

And then there's also Ag Alchemy.

Another co manufacturer based in the Midwest that incorporates upcycled

bakery products and produce into its pet treats, but then goes a step

further and also includes biotics.

Another fascinating trend we'll discuss here in a minute to not only

recover food waste, but Also support a pet's gut microbiome and how ag

alchemy is also USDA organic certified.

So really hitting on some important priorities for consumers there.

Now there are others of course, but as the supply chain infrastructure

for upcycling ingredients ramps up alongside new companies entering

this space, this will certainly be a trend to watch in 2025 and beyond.

There's one more ingredient sourcing subtrend I want to bring up today

before We wrap up this episode, and that's regenerative agriculture.

The Pet Sustainability Coalition has its boots on the ground in this

space, facilitating the adoption of regeneratively sourced ingredients

through a USDA Climate Smart Commodity Grant called Growing

Grass, according to Allison.

It's all about increasing the use of regeneratively raised beef

and bison byproducts in pet food.

So that's been a really fun initiative.

And just a few sentences on regenerative agriculture.

It's a way of farming and ranching that uses grazing animals over the land and

their hooves and a variety of things are really good for soil health and carbon

sequestration among many benefits.

Now, the 21st century has seen a sizable push for

farmers and ranchers to adopt more sustainable practices and really

be positive stewards of their land.

And in recent years, this has evolved into a sharper focus

on regenerative agriculture.

Which, according to the National Resource Defense Council, or NRDC,

is a holistic land management philosophy that recognizes how soil,

water, crops, people, and animals are elements of one interconnected system.

And while there is no one definition for regenerative agriculture, at

least not yet, these practices aim to empower farmers and ranchers by

helping them to reduce their carbon emissions, conserve water, keep

it clean, safeguard biodiversity within the soil and on the farm.

Reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers and other chemicals, grow foods that

are actually healthier and more nutrient dense, and fairly compensate and support

farm workers in the communities in which crops are grown and animals are raised.

All of this, according to the NRDC, is to ensure the long term vitality of the land.

In the pet industry, there are a few brands proudly partnering with

regenerative farmers and ranchers, but We're not doing spoilers today.

You're going to have to wait for an upcoming episode in our sustainability

series, in which we'll sit down with regenerative agriculture

champions inside and outside of the pet nutrition space to learn more

about why this trend is important and how it might evolve over time.

Sorry not sorry for the cliffhanger, but be sure to stay tuned as that episode will

come out in the first quarter of 2025.

And with that, we've reached the end of our first Trend to Watch in 2025.

From understanding greenwashing to exploring the exciting world of upcycled

ingredients, debunking reservations around rendered byproducts, and the potential

of regenerative agriculture, it's clear that sustainable sourcing is here to

stay and will continue to shift how the pet food industry thinks about and works

to address its environmental impact.

Be sure to come back tomorrow as we dive into our second trend

of 2025, alternative proteins.

You will not want to miss a fascinating conversation about how cultivated and

fermented meats and insect proteins Might reshape the future of pet nutrition, but

the keyword here is might, and that's all I'll say ahead of the episode.

In the meantime, thank you for tuning in to Barking Mad, a podcast by BSM Partners.

If you'd like to learn more about us, please visit our website at www.

bsmpartners.

com.

Don't forget to subscribe on Spotify or Apple podcasts, and if you enjoyed

today's episode, share it with a fellow pet lover and leave us a review.

Lastly, be sure to stay tuned for more insights this week from our Trends

2025 miniseries, as well as future episodes on pet care innovation,

sustainability, and other hard hitting topics you won't want to miss.

We'd like to thank our dedicated team in support of this episode.

Ada-Miette Thomas, Neeley Bowden, Kait Wright, and Dr.

Katy Miller.

A special thanks to Lee Ann Hagerty and Michael Johnson.

See you next time!