A Day In The Life Of A Pet Food Scientist
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT - TECHNICAL POSITION PAPER
Leading with Technical Expertise - White Paper
Leah Lambrakis & Brittany White, Department of Technical Services
There is an immense sense of pride you feel when you walk down a store aisle and see a product that you created finally displayed for sale on the shelf! What many pet parents may not realize is that it took months of hard work, research, testing, long hours on the production floor, and strong cross-functional collaboration to bring that new product to the market. The “creative” behind all of this is the pet food scientist, who may wear the hat of a product developer, animal nutritionist, food scientist, culinary professional, or process engineer. Regardless of their training, all are committed and skilled technical professionals within a pet food Research & Development (R&D) team who are passionate about creating high quality and nutritious foods for the pets we love!
The Process Starts With An Idea
The idea for a new pet food product could come from almost anywhere – a data-driven market insight, an unmet need identified in the industry, or a completely new innovation with exciting market potential that capitalizes on a specific pet parent pain (or delight) point! Once this idea becomes a viable project for the company, the R&D team begins the product development process with the goal of creating a product that is not only nutritious, but also provides food enjoyment for the pet and meets all the product attributes that are important to the pet parent.
Pet food scientists apply techniques from a range of disciplines that include animal nutrition, food science, chemistry, microbiology, engineering, etc. Ingredients are combined in a calculated approach to ensure the product meets the design criteria, and that all of the animal’s nutritional needs are not only met when the product is initially created, but also maintained to the end of the food’s shelf life. This requires an in depth understanding of ingredient functionality and nutrient stability, as well as ingredient interactions, synergies, and physical and chemical reactions that may occur during manufacturing and storage.
Multiple Hats, Multiple Roles
As pet food scientists, we are often asked to wear multiple hats as bringing these ideas to fruition requires immersion into and collaboration across many areas of the business. Wearing our food scientist hat, we focus on ingredient functionality and microbial and nutrient stability during storage. As animal nutritionists, we are concerned with guaranteeing that the product meets the animals’ nutritional requirements day in and day out, and as process engineers, we ensure that our manufacturing processes and equipment are capable of manufacturing the product as designed. Though a pet food R&D team is comprised of individuals with diverse backgrounds, we are all challenged to apply multiple disciplines during the development process.
Project Types
A pet food scientist can work on many different types of projects, often at the same time. These typically include Innovation, New Product Development/Line Extension, Renovation/Reformulation, and Core Business Support/Optimization. Some of these projects are certainly more exiting to work on than others, but all are critical to ensure the ongoing success of a pet food portfolio. Let’s dive deeper into the details of these project types!
Innovation
Most Innovation projects typically fall into of these three categories as described by the Harvard Business Review1: Core (streamlined development work, which will be described in more detail below), Adjacent (new to the company), and Transformational (new to the world). Adjacent and transformational projects allow the pet food scientist to be most creative, working outside of the box to meet a new consumer need. However, these projects also come with the most risks, extended timelines and costs.
New Product Development/Line Extension
Often referred to as Core innovation, this category of projects optimizes on what the company already does well and utilizes assets and expertise that the company already has in place. These projects are fulfilling as the R&D team is typically able to execute with ease and efficiency.
Renovation/Reformulation
A product’s life-cycle can often result in the need to refresh the offering or value proposition in order to stay current and viable. This renovation may be due to pressing trends in the market that require a product upgrade, an ingredient supply chain challenge, or a consumer demand to improve the flavor, texture or performance of the product. These are typically simple reformulations but do take up significant time and resources to complete.
Core Business Support/Product Optimization
Ensuring that the business is operating smoothly and efficiently is no simple task and often takes a strategic team to proactively identify solutions to potential disruptions. This requires a constant review of the product portfolio to evaluate opportunities for continuous improvement relative to cost, capacity, consistency, and continuity. With the current, ever-changing landscapes of supply and demand, ingredient and packaging availability, production capacity, and logistics, pet food manufacturers are faced with many opportunities to optimize their operation. The R&D team often plays a critical role in solving for these opportunities with unique and creative ideas that can help improve the product portfolio while balancing consumer demands and business needs.
Preparing For Launch
Once the scope of the project is clearly defined among key stakeholders (i.e., the customer, marketing team, R&D, sales, etc.), the pet food scientist often begins with determining what ingredients will be required for the project and if these ingredients are available and feasible to include in the formulation. They work closely with the procurement team to identify reliable ingredient suppliers and to ensure that the ingredients are available at the quantities required to meet the initial product launch and on-going demand.
Next, the pet food scientist uses a formulation software to build a diet that meets the labeling and nutritional requirements that have been agreed upon by the key stakeholders. This software uses inputs such as ingredient costs and nutritional composition to calculate a feasible, least-cost formula. The pet food scientist also provides restrictions to the software which can include the desired ingredients and listing order, the nutrient requirements of the animal according to species and life stage, in addition to guaranteed nutrients that will appear on the finished product label. This part of the process often feels like solving a puzzle as the developer must identify the right combination of ingredients to meet specific nutrient minimums, maximums and ratios, as well as the overall design criteria established in the project scope.
After the theoretical formulation is created “on paper,” the product design may need to be vetted through bench-top or pilot scale prototyping in the R&D laboratory to validate that it meets the intended design criteria. While bench-top prototyping is not a perfect representation of what a commercially produced version would be, it does provide insight as to how the combination of ingredients will perform in the finished product. During this process, the pet food scientist may refine the type and quantity of functional ingredients to maintain product appearance, texture, and consistency as well as any visible pieces of vegetables, grains, or fruits that are desired in the finished product. This also allows them to get a first look at the finished product nutrients to ensure they are meeting the animals’ nutritional requirements and any label guarantees.
Finally, the pet food scientist takes this creation to the production facility and works closely with the manufacturing team to ensure the product is built as designed, and can be consistently done so during each production run thereafter. The first production run is the true test of the product design and process capability. This is where all the efforts come together across R&D, Procurement and Operations and Quality to bring this creation to life. There could be many hurdles encountered during the initial production runs as each formula can perform differently. For this reason, the scale-up phase is approached with care as adjustments may need to be made. Often, the product moves back to formulation and prototyping in order to make improvements, based on what was learned during in-plant testing. This is why it’s called Research & Development! In the end, the pet food scientist oversees the entire commercialization process by monitoring ingredient staging, recording key processing parameters, testing finished product analytical conformance, and finally evaluating the product’s performance when consumed by the animal.
In closing, bringing a new product to the market requires significant resource investment and the timelines are often very long. However, this investment is well worth it when the product is successfully embraced in the market and delights both pets and pet parents!
Our Commitment – Leading with Technical Expertise – Leah and Jarrod are here to provide guidance and insights – do not hesitate to connect with us at Simmons Pet Food, pfcomments@simfoods.com. We would love to hear from you and be part of your pet’s nutrition solution!