KSU pet food course
 
MANHATTAN, KANSAS, U.S. — The pet food industry is constantly developing new products using or taking out certain ingredients to improve the product. Individuals who are interested in learning the formulation of pet food are encouraged to attend the IGP-KSU Pet Food Formulation for Commercial Production course scheduled Jan. 8-12, 2018. 

The course will cover several topics in the industry to help participants develop a working knowledge of ingredients, processes, and the software necessary to create new products, revise existing formulas and perform business and production analysis.  


“The pet food formulation course is set to be very exciting for the participants with a dynamic set of pet food industry topics,” said Greg Aldrich, research associate professor in the Department of Grain Sciences and Industry at KSU.

These topics include a general understanding of the raw ingredients used to produce pet foods, their general composition and processing considerations; fundamental principles of companion animal nutrition and dietary needs; processes involved with producing pet foods, the regulatory constraints regarding claims and requirements, and the transportation and storage factors involved with marketing effective foods for companion animals; and the range of formulations tools common to the trade. 

“As the industry grows and improves, the Department of Grain Sciences and Industry at K-State is continually striving toward significant research developments and works hand-in-hand with the goals of the feed and food industry to promote and developing pet food processing,” Aldrich said. 

Creating pet food formulas from concepts, reversing engineer existing pet foods, and troubleshooting pet food production and quality control compliance issues using formulation software also are learning outcomes that participants can expect from the course.