According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, 63.2% of pet owners consider their pets to be members of the family. Given this statistic, it should come as no surprise that more and more pet owners are moving to premium pet foods for their animals resulting in the rise of the premium pet food market. When walking through a pet store you cannot help but notice a wider variety of offerings, and specialty foods, including grain-free, limited ingredient, high protein, and let’s not even get started on all the flavors available to satisfy every canine and feline palate!
As the shift in perspective on pets from property to family members continues, the number of pet owners wanting better food options for their dogs and cats should increase as well. A crucial component of creating premium pet food is low-ash, high protein animal meal which can be from poultry, fish, lamb, beef, and more. Manufacturers who can process this low-ash, high protein meal have the corner stone for creating premium pet food and an advantage in the growing market.
An option for creating the animal meal for premium pet foods, which does not require auxiliary equipment and is energy efficient, is air classification. A centrifugal air classifier utilizes an internal fan to lift fines out of the feed and the number of blades used determines the quantity of fines removed allowing for the precise ash removal necessary for the animal meal to become the base for premium pet food.
You can learn more about how air classification technology can assist those wanting to take animal byproduct and turn it into ingredients suitable for use in premium pet food products via our animal feed processing page or from our article, Air Classification for Low-ash Meal Processing.
