Alternative Ingredients in Pet Food: A Glimpse Into CFI’s New Report

Global demand for pet food is growing, creating new opportunities and challenges for ingredient sourcing and product formulation. As companies work to reduce environmental impacts and manage risks to conventional ingredient supplies, alternative sources of protein and oil could help diversify sourcing and support product innovation.

But how do these ingredients compare with sources of protein and oil conventionally derived from animals? Which alternative ingredients are commercially mature, and which still face significant barriers to adoption?

To explore these questions, the Centre for Feed Innovation (CFI), in collaboration with the Pet Sustainability Coalition (PSC), has released a new report, Alternative Ingredients in Pet Food: A Guide to Emerging Proteins and Oils in Dog and Cat Food.

The report provides an evidence-based assessment of nine alternative ingredients, examining where they could offer benefits, where important constraints remain, and how they compare with conventional ingredients. It brings together research on supply, current adoption, sustainability, nutrition, and consumer acceptance to help manufacturers identify opportunities, understand trade-offs, and make more informed sourcing and formulation decisions.

Why consider alternative ingredients in pet food?

The pet food market is expanding, driven by growing pet populations, rising incomes, and the “humanization” of pets as family members deserving of high-quality nutrition. The increasing demand for premium products, including those featuring human-grade ingredients and higher meat content, is also influencing the types of ingredients manufacturers source.

These trends have implications for sustainability and supply chains. Ingredients are a major contributor to pet food's environmental footprint, while conventional ingredient supplies face pressures from climate change, animal disease, geopolitical disruptions, and competition from other sectors.

Alternative ingredients could help manufacturers diversify sourcing, support product innovation, and offer nutritional or functional benefits. Several alternative proteins may also reduce environmental impacts compared with conventional meat, particularly chicken. However, benefits depend on production methods, what ingredients they replace, and how impacts are assessed. Wider adoption will depend on cost, supply, regulation, and consumer acceptance.

Understanding these differences is essential to identifying where alternative ingredients offer the greatest opportunities for the pet food industry.

The nine ingredients assessed

CFI's report assesses nine ingredients that could play a greater role as protein or oil sources in dog and cat food:

• Algal oil extracted from microalgae rich in the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.

• Algal protein derived from microalgal or cyanobacterial biomass.

• Bacterial protein derived from non-living bacterial biomass.

• Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) derived from commercially reared larvae of Hermetia illucens.

• Brown seaweed derived from marine macroalgal biomass belonging to the class Phaeophyceae.

• Cultivated meat produced by cultivating animal cells under controlled conditions.

• Mycoprotein derived from filamentous fungal biomass.

• Red seaweed produced from marine macroalgal biomass belonging to the phylum Rhodophyta.

• Yeast protein derived from yeast biomass, most commonly Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

These ingredients vary considerably in production methods, nutritional characteristics, commercial maturity, and potential applications.

What does the report reveal?

1. Commercial supply readiness varies widely

Yeast and seaweed benefit from established production systems and supply chains, while algal oil has an expanding supply base. Other ingredients, including bacterial protein, mycoprotein, BSFL, and cultivated meat, face greater barriers to broader adoption. 

The report assesses these constraints to help manufacturers identify near-term sourcing opportunities and ingredients that warrant continued monitoring.

2. Alternative ingredients are already present in US pet food

CFI analyzed ingredient lists from 6,803 US dog and cat food products, finding that over a third contained at least one assessed ingredient.

Adoption was concentrated in established ingredients, particularly yeast protein and brown seaweed, with algal oil also present. Other ingredients appeared rarely or were not identified in the dataset. Importantly, their presence does not necessarily indicate use as primary protein sources; many are incorporated for nutritional or functional purposes.

The report breaks down adoption by ingredient, product type, and manufacturer, offering insights into current commercial use and expansion opportunities. 

3. Sustainability benefits depend on the comparison

Several alternative proteins show potential for lower environmental impacts than chicken meat, but their advantages over animal byproducts are less consistent.

Bacterial protein performs particularly well against the assessed animal byproduct benchmarks on average. Algal oil can offer greenhouse gas advantages over fish oil and reduce reliance on wild-capture fisheries, although it can require more land and freshwater.

The report compares environmental impacts and examines how production methods, feedstocks, energy sources, and allocation assumptions shape the results.

4. Nutrition and consumer acceptance are essential

Feeding studies provide encouraging evidence that several ingredients are nutritionally suitable at the tested inclusion levels. However, findings vary by formulation and species, with important evidence gaps for cats, newer ingredients, and higher inclusion levels.

Pet owners’ perceptions present another consideration. Acceptance varies by ingredient and depends on familiarity and perceived benefits for pet health, nutrition, and safety. Some studies show greater reservations about BSFL, while cultivated meat has received more favorable responses. However, much of the evidence measures self-reported willingness to feed rather than actual purchasing behavior.

From evidence into decisions

The report brings these findings together to help manufacturers prioritize alternative ingredients based on nutritional suitability, environmental impacts, supply availability, cost, regulatory requirements, and consumer acceptance.

Algal oil stands out for near-term evaluation as an alternative source of EPA and DHA, while yeast protein stands out as an alternative protein. Bacterial protein, and mycoprotein warrant selective evaluation as alternative proteins, depending on formulation needs and market conditions. Other ingredients may be better suited to continued monitoring for substantially expanded protein use as evidence, supply, costs, and regulatory access develop.

By weighing potential benefits and constraints, manufacturers can identify where alternative ingredients could help build more sustainable and resilient pet food supply chains.

Download Alternative Ingredients in Pet Food: A Guide to Emerging Proteins and Oils in Dog and Cat Food to explore the evidence and assessments for all nine ingredients: