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A brief history of feed: from bread crusts to therapeutic diets

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It is difficult to imagine the modern world without ready-made dog and cat food. And it's hard to believe that this is a relatively modern concept that has existed for less than 150 years. Step–by-step information about how the pet food industry has developed is in this article. 

История кормов
DATE

June 14, 2024

Dogs have been living next to us for almost 30 thousand years, cats for about ten thousand years. But special feeds for the former appeared only at the end of the 19th century, and for the latter - only in the XX century.

"Meat cookies" without meat

No, of course, even in ancient times, animals received food in human kitchens (in addition to what they procured on their own).  For example, the first known book on agriculture, written by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago, advised feeding dogs with a mixture of barley bread soaked in milk and crushed sheep bones. 

And in Ancient Egypt, fish without scales were bred for cats in special tanks. Also, in some Egyptian tombs, you can find images of cats being fed pieces of meat. 

But if we talk about the commercial feed industry, it has emerged quite recently. On a scale of history, just yesterday. 

Until the mid-1800s, dogs were perceived not as family members, but as working animals whose place was on the street. They ate everything that the owners did not finish: bones, bread crusts, cabbage, potato peelings, etc. In those days, no one cared about the nutritional content or the quality of the ingredients in dog food. 

Mid-1800s: the industrial revolution took place, the middle class was formed. Many families were able to afford to keep dogs as pets. The attitude towards them has also changed. The owners began to strive to give their pets something better than bread crusts. There was a need to create specialized products.

In 1860, English businessman James Spratt released the first ever commercial dog food — biscuits called “Spratt’s patented meat biscuits for dogs.” There was actually no meat in them: the biscuits consisted of wheat flour, beef blood, beet juice and vegetables.

The "Golden Age" of canned food and convenient crackers

 


The product format itself was inspired by the sailor’s ration. Back when Spratt was working as a port electrician, he noticed that sailors often feed dogs with unleavened cookies from their stocks, and dogs crunch them with pleasure. 

Spratt biscuits were very popular – first in the Old World, by 1870 – also in the USA. Other manufacturers started copying the product. 

 

In 1908, F. H. Benner released the first dog biscuits in the form of bones and the first dog food in the form of pellets. 30 years later, Benner sold his company to Nabisco, which renamed Benner’s Cookies into Milk Bones. From that moment on, dog food appeared in grocery stores! 

The 1930s turned out to be the golden age of canned dog food. Ken-L-Ration has introduced the first version of canned horse meat. 50,000 horses a year were slaughtered for the production of dog food! By 1941, 90% of dog food was canned. 

At the same time, the first therapeutic food was created – canned food for dogs with kidney diseases. It was developed by American veterinarian Mark Morris. One day, a blind man, M. Frank, turned to him and complained that his guide dog, a “German” named Buddy, was suffering from kidney failure. Morris compiled a special recipe and began to prepare and preserve the food in cans on his own, using a portable canning machine. 

In the 30s, the first cat food was also released.  Of course, these were canned goods, and they mostly consisted of fish.

In the 40s, the American food industry underwent drastic changes. The priority was provisions for the army, which meant rationing meat. Sales of canned dog food have fallen. Manufacturers have switched to a dry format.  

Cheap dry feeds are appearing, consisting mainly of grain. By the end of the decade, 85% of the market was made up of two main feed formats: biscuits or crushed biscuits (pellets) and pellets that needed to be soaked in water or broth. 

In the 1950s, the post-war economic boom led to increased home sales and massive relocation to the suburbs. Now supermarkets were filled with processed food products and fast food. People wanted convenience in food, both in the food they ate themselves and in the food they fed their dogs and cats. 

A new boom in dry food began, and manufacturers, without hiding it, produced it from by-products of the “human” food industry. This was a trend of the time: to use profitably the waste from slaughterhouses, grain mills and processing plants, which were then formed in excess.

In 1964, the newly created American Institute of Pet Food set itself the task: to prevent owners from feeding pets with leftovers from the table and to urge pet food manufacturers to be more responsible about the composition of their products. 

At the same time, the first puppy food was invented. This marked a shift in the history of dog food, as both businesses and consumers became more aware of the importance of nutrition adapted to the dog’s life stage. 

Over the next 10 years, the industry grew and by the 70s had 1,500 brands of pet food. The main players were food processing companies:  Mars, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor&Gamble and Delmont. 

In the mid-1980s, a historic moment came. The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States published nutritional requirements for dogs and cats. The document was addressed to pet food manufacturers. It included recommendations on the composition and ratio of nutrients based on physical activity and the stage of life of the animal. Today, these factors are key – for both manufacturers and owners. 

 

Millennium: new generations of feed

Despite the fact that the first dietary feeds for sick animals were sold back in the 1970s, then it was, for the most part, marketing. The actual composition of “dietary” feeds (no matter what the manufacturers wrote on the front of the package) differed little from the composition of conventional products. And it is not surprising, because dietetics for pets was just developing then.

High quality and medicinal properties of feed are already the prerogative of the 80s and 90s.   In the early 1980s, more meat was added to the formulations, vitamin and mineral complexes were introduced – this is how the “premium” and “super-premium” segments appeared. 

In the 90s, a new generation of feeds appeared – holistic. They began to be positioned as rations of the highest quality — from raw materials suitable for food even for humans. At the same time, the recipe is compiled based on the needs of the predator – it is assumed that this is how dogs and cats would eat if they lived in the wild. A large amount of meat and fish (up to 70%), only natural vegetables, fruits and berries, the absence of artificial additives, a reduced content (or complete absence) of grain are the characteristics of this category.

By the way, about the 90s: this is exactly the time when ready-made dog and cat food appeared on the Russian market. Initially, it was represented only by well-known purple and yellow packs. Despite the limited assortment, the Russians appreciated the convenient format of the pellets (long storage, economical consumption, hygiene, credible composition). Note that in the USSR, feed was produced only for farm animals. It was only in the mid-2000s that the first specialized factories for the production of cat and dog food appeared in Russia. 

In the XXI century, the demand for medicinal, veterinary and hypoallergenic feeds has increased. It turned out that due to the peculiarities of breeds and breeding culture, allergies in each new generation of dogs and cats are more common than in the previous one. The hypoallergenic feed segment has started to develop actively. Manufacturers are betting on gluten-free formulations, as well as developing new easily digestible protein sources (as opposed to classic allergens – chicken and beef). This is how hypoallergenic feeds based on turkey, rabbit, lamb, salmon, as well as exotic, fundamentally new types of protein for dogs and cats appear: llama, kangaroo meat, etc.

In the late 2010s, revolutionary entoprotein feeds began to appear on the global pet food market. The source of animal protein in them is protein obtained from valuable insect species – safe, easily digestible, with all the necessary amino acid profile. 

The British company Yora and the Swedes Petgood were one of the first entoprotein feeds on the world market. Currently, the giants Mars and Nestle also have such lines. In Russia, the first full-fledged hypoallergenic food with entoprotein was released by Cosmopet: in 2023, our dog diets Cosmodog and Cosmobaka appeared, and in 2024, cat food   Cosmocat

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You can read more about the benefits of entoprotein in pet food  here

…  The feed industry does not stand still, and it is safe to say that feed quality is growing, as well as the awareness of owners about the proper nutrition of animals. According to surveys, an increasing number of people refuse to save on pet food. And this means new developments and improved formulations. 

Feed with E-protein: maximum benefit for the pet. Minimal damage to the planet.