Alternative Ingredients in Pet Food

A Guide to Emerging Proteins and Oils in Dog and Cat Food

This report evaluates nine alternative ingredients for use in dog and cat food across supply, current adoption, sustainability, nutrition and health, and consumer acceptance. Findings show that alternative ingredients can diversify sourcing and offer environmental benefits, and that several are already in commercial use, although supply maturity and the strength of evidence vary widely between ingredients.

Read the executive summary

About the Report

The global pet food sector continues to expand, while manufacturers face pressure from ingredient costs, environmental impacts, supply chain disruption, and changing consumer expectations. Alternative ingredients could widen sourcing and formulation options and help address some of these pressures, though their potential varies by ingredient.

The Centre for Feed Innovation, in collaboration with the Pet Sustainability Coalition, assessed nine ingredients that could play a larger role as protein or oil sources in dog and cat food: algal oil, algal protein, bacterial protein, black soldier fly larvae, brown seaweed, cultivated meat, mycoprotein, red seaweed, and yeast protein. Eight were assessed as potential protein sources; algal oil was assessed as an alternative oil rich in omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA).

The report compares these ingredients across supply, current adoption, sustainability, nutrition and health, and consumer acceptance. It finds a diverse supply base emerging at varying levels of maturity: some ingredients are already established in pet food or produced at scale, while others remain at an early stage. Opportunities will evolve as production scales, new evidence emerges, regulatory pathways develop, and other barriers are addressed. This report extends CFI's research on feed innovation in the pet food sector.

Lead Organization

Consulted Organisation

Supply conditions vary substantially across the nine ingredients. Some benefit from mature production systems and established global supply chains, while others remain at early stages of commercial development.

Production maturity varies: Some ingredients are already produced at substantial global scale, while others remain early commercial.
Cost remains a major barrier: Many emerging ingredients are still more expensive than conventional animal-derived ingredients, although competitiveness depends on ingredient, product form, and intended use.
Regulatory pathways differ by market: Lawful use depends on the organism or strain, production process, product form, and application.
Supply risks differ in kind and severity: Energy requirements, feedstock availability, climate exposure, disease, supplier concentration, and competition from other sectors can all affect availability and price, but which risks matter most varies by ingredient.

Commercial readiness for pet food varies widely

No single alternative ingredient combines scale, cost competitiveness, regulatory access, and supply resilience yet. Manufacturers will need to evaluate ingredients against the requirements of specific products and markets.

Alternative ingredients are already present in thousands of US pet food products, but adoption is concentrated in a small number of established ingredients. CFI analysed 6,803 dog and cat food products from KibbleLab, spanning dry and wet food, treats, supplements, and toppers.

Yeast protein: Present in 19.5% of products assessed.
Brown seaweed: Present in 14.6% of products assessed.
Algal oil: Present in 3.4% of products assessed.
Algal protein, red seaweed, and BSFL: Each present in fewer than 1% of products assessed.
Bacterial protein, mycoprotein, and cultivated meat: Not identified in the US dataset.

Commercial use is already established for some ingredients

The relatively high prevalence of yeast protein and brown seaweed largely reflects use at low inclusion levels or for specific nutritional and functional purposes, rather than use as primary protein sources. Bacterial protein, cultivated meat, and mycoprotein are gaining regulatory approval and early traction in markets across Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Ingredients can account for a substantial share of the environmental impact of pet food, making ingredient selection an important lever for manufacturers. The report benchmarks alternative proteins against chicken meat and animal byproducts, and algal oil against fish oil.

Algal oil: Can outperform fish oil on greenhouse gas emissions and reduce reliance on wild-capture fisheries, although land and freshwater use can be higher.
Alternative proteins: Generally lower-impact than chicken meat, but advantages over animal byproducts are less consistent.
Bacterial protein stands out: Lower average greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and freshwater use than the animal byproduct benchmarks.
Context matters: Environmental performance varies with energy source, feedstock, production technology, geography, and scale. Comparisons with animal byproducts are also sensitive to how livestock impacts are allocated.

Alternative ingredients offer opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts of pet food

Alternative ingredients can reduce the environmental footprint of pet food, but they should not be assumed to be lower-impact. Performance depends on the specific production system and on which conventional ingredient is supplemented or replaced.

Alternative ingredients are protein- and oil-rich ingredients with novel or expanded potential in dog and cat food. They range from established ingredients such as yeast and seaweed to earlier-stage options such as bacterial protein and cultivated meat.

Eight protein sources: Algal protein, bacterial protein, black soldier fly larvae (BSFL), brown seaweed, cultivated meat, mycoprotein, red seaweed, and yeast protein.
One alternative oil: Algal oil, assessed as a source of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.
Different starting points: The nine ingredients differ substantially in production systems, nutritional characteristics, commercial maturity, and current applications.

A portfolio, not a single substitute

Some of these ingredients are already used in pet food for nutritional or functional purposes; others are being developed specifically as protein or oil sources. The report assesses each on its own merits rather than as a like-for-like replacement for conventional ingredients.

The nutritional evidence for alternative ingredients is broadly encouraging, but important gaps remain. Across the feeding studies reviewed in healthy adult dogs and cats, most ingredients maintained key measures of nutritional suitability at the inclusion levels tested, including food intake, nutrient digestibility and utilization, gastrointestinal outcomes, and body or physiological condition. Some ingredients were also associated with additional health-related outcomes.

Species gap: Evidence is stronger in dogs than in cats.
Thin evidence base: Several ingredients have only a small number of feeding studies.
Low inclusion levels: Many studies test supplementary rather than substantive inclusion levels.

Promising evidence, with important gaps

The available evidence provides preliminary support for the nutritional suitability of several alternative ingredients while highlighting where more work is needed. Suitability should be evaluated case by case for the specific ingredient, species, formulation, inclusion level, and intended application.

Consumer acceptance will determine whether alternative ingredients move from niche or functional uses toward broader adoption. Pet owners' perceptions of nutrition, quality, and safety play a central role, and many consumers remain unfamiliar with these ingredients, which heightens uncertainty about their suitability for pets.

Acceptance varies by ingredient: Cultivated meat received relatively positive responses in the available studies, while evidence for several other ingredients remains limited.
Some ingredients face specific barriers: BSFL, for example, has been associated with safety concerns and feelings of disgust, an “ick” factor.
Perceived benefits matter: Acceptance is likely to be stronger when nutritional, functional, or health benefits to pets are clear and credible.

Building familiarity and trust will matter

Alternative ingredients are more likely to gain acceptance when consumers understand what benefits they provide to their pets.

9 ingredients

Alternative protein and oil ingredients assessed across five criteria

2,271 products

Dog and cat food products in the US containing alternative ingredients

42–80%

of pet food’s overall environmental impact comes from the ingredient stage

Recommendations

The report recommends a tiered approach to evaluation, based on the current evidence and commercial readiness of each ingredient as an expanded protein or oil source.

Prioritize for evaluation: Algal oil and yeast protein: Algal oil has strong basis for use as an alternative oil that can supplement or replace fish oil. Yeast protein is strongly established as a functional pet food ingredient, with a credible basis for a substantially expanded role as an alternative protein.

Evaluate selectively: Bacterial protein and mycoprotein: Credible potential, but evaluation should focus on suitable applications, markets, suppliers, and formulations.

Monitor development: Algal protein, black soldier fly larvae, brown seaweed, cultivated meat, red seaweed: Potential exists, but current limitations in evidence, scale, cost, regulation, consumer acceptance, or suitability for expanded protein use make broader near-term evaluation less compelling.

Match the ingredient to the application: Alternative ingredients are best viewed as a portfolio of potential tools rather than direct substitutes for all conventional ingredients. Relevance depends on formulation role, the conventional ingredient displaced, species and inclusion rate, production system, cost, regulatory requirements, and commercial objectives.

The recommendation tiers relate to each ingredient's assessed role as an expanded protein or oil source. Some ingredients are already established in pet food for functional or supplementary uses.