Recent Research on Pet Food

The Purina Pet Care Center, which opened 45 miles southwest of St. Louis, Missouri in 1926, is the oldest and largest facility in the world for research on pet nutrition and care. Studies at the center focus on five primary areas: growth, maintenance, digestibility, reproduction, and palatability. The 60,000-sqare-foot research facility includes equipment for molecular biology, genomics, immunology, cell physiology, food processing, and food and aroma chemistry.

The center also studies other issues of importance in the manufacture of pet food, including quality standards for raw ingredients, consistency in manufacturing, product freshness, packaging safety, and product integrity as it passes through warehousing and transportation systems. In January 1999 the company opened the Purina DNA Distribution Center, designed to provide scientists worldwide with genetic material that can be used for developing the canine marker map. At that time, Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine turned over DNA from a set of dog pedigrees to serve as the principal resource for the new center.

The Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition in Leicestershire, United Kingdom, is the research arm for Mars pet foods. The center published its first paper in 1963, and since then has shared its findings in more than 1,500 publications, as well as regular communication with the scientific and pet care communities. Mars established the Waltham Foundation in 2001 to support scientific research on nutrition, health, behavior, and welfare of companion animals around the world. The foundation has provided more than $500,000 for research in 20 countries.

When Procter & Gamble acquired the Iams pet food line in 1999, the company inherited a tradition of nutritional research. Company founder Paul Iams began creating his own recipes in 1950, relying heavily on animal proteins instead of the more commonly used grain proteins.

The company opened the Paul F. Iams Technical Center in Lewisburg, Ohio, in 1987 to study the emotional and physical needs of companion animals. Procter & Gamble has been able to leverage some of the research conducted for its health care business to improve Iams products. In one example, university research showed that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) enhanced brain development in babies. Iams researchers verified that it had a similar effect on puppies, and the company introduced its Iams Smart Puppy formula featuring high levels of DHA.

Under Procter & Gamble’s leadership, the company opened an Iams Pet Imaging Center in Vienna, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., in early 2002. The center has provided free MRI services to monitor 24 search and rescue dogs used after September 11, 2001, in rescue operations at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Hill’s Science Diet company was founded on the basis of nutritional research in 1939, when Dr. Morris, formulated food to save a guide dog with kidney disease. Colgate, which markets Hill’s Science Diet largely through veterinarians, continues to stress nutrition, noting on its Web site that its “staff of veterinarians and nutritionists publish more than 50 research papers and textbook chapters each year and teach at leading schools of veterinary medicine all over the world.” One problem companies face when conducting nutritional studies is the charge by some animal rights groups that they injure and kill animals as part of the research. The companies devote considerable effort to countering such reports. As of November 2006 Iams conducts studies only at its Pet Health & Nutrition Center, in pet owners’ homes, and at locations where dogs and cats are already living in kennels. Iams also has an agreement with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), which conducts regular inspections of Iams laboratories. The ASPCA participates on the Iams Animal Care Advisory Board, which provides input to the company on research issues.The application for Waltham Foundation grants states that research will not be funded “that causes suffering or results in euthanasia of the animals involved, or studies whose subjects have clinical conditions which have been artificially induced.” Iams and Hill’s also stress on their Web sites that they only conduct dog and cat studies that are the veterinary equivalent of nutritional or medical studies acceptable on people, and that all pets in their care are kept in a loving, safe, playful, and clean environment.

In addition to nutrition, there is substantial research in packaging cat and dog food in ways that will appeal to consumers. Recent innovations have included a standup pouch with a built-in handle and reclosable seal, a flexible sealed container that can withstand thermal processing for long shelf life, and new bags with built-in zippers.