Pet food processing
07 feb 2008

Two obvious trends have appeared the
last few years.
Firstly, we see extruders with much higher
capacities. These are mainly used to answer mass production requirements for
mature core markets. Secondly, we see an increase in small and
medium size compact and very flexible production lines dedicated for processing very high added-value products.
In addition, manufactures are becoming more aware of the specific needs
during the different life stages of pets, and reflect this in tailor-made
products and more premium brands.
We therefore see an increasing amount of pet food with different shapes,
colours and use of raw materials and ingredients entering the market.
One can speak of treats, moist and semi moist, bi-coloured, co-extruded,
premium and super premium, nutritional, functional and so on. These products can
be extruded in compact lines ranging from 300 to 1000 kg/h while lines with a
higher capacity are now standardized for "standard" pet food (10 to more than 16
T/h output).
See also: