History and Pet Food in the USA

Pet owners usually have two choices of pet food: the homemade and the commercially prepared. The latter one has been gaining popularity in the past 50 years. The commercial pet food industry had grown from a 350 million dollar industry to a 12 billion dollar industry by 1996. 

An American living in London marketed the first commercial pet food as a biscuit. His name was James Spratt. He started his business in England in 1860, and then he started it in the US. 

Milk-Bone biscuits were created in 1908 by the F.H. Bennet Biscuits Company. The Chappel brothers first marketed canned dog food under the brand name Ken-L-Ration in 1922. 

Around the same time, Samuel Gaines started his meal business. This was a ground product sold in large bags. This item was easy to prepare and convenient to store. Until this time, pet food products were sold in feed stores. 

The situation started to change after Nabisco (the National Biscuit Company) bought Milk-Bone in 1931. The masses did not want pet food in the supermarket because that was where food for people was stored. Nabisco persisted in selling the pet food in the supermarket. They and other manufacturers became successful at selling their products in the supermarket. 

The most popular product was canned wet pet food. Then, there were meals and biscuits. There was a decrease in wet pet food during WW2 due to meat rationing. After the WW2, the canned products came back to full capacity. 

After 1950, Purina laboratories started trials of extruded pet food. The process started with mixing ground-up raw materials with a starch source. The extruder cooks the meal under pressure, and screws push it out of a die cast to give it its shape. The hot product exits the die cast and expands into crunchy bite-size kibbles. These kibbles were later sprayed with fats for palatability. Purina Dog Chow, launched in 1957, was a hit, and it became the best-selling pet food in a year. 

Cat foods started to develop later on because there was a lack of nutrition knowledge for both. The products used to be sold for dogs and cats. The first cat food was canned fish-based food. Companies later on created different products with more palatability. In the 1970s, there were specialty products for different stages of dogs and cats in vets, pet supply stores, and feed stores. 

At the same time, some companies created breeder programs. It was a B2B arrangement, breeders used a specific brand, and pets developed a specific taste as they grew up. This was aimed at creating brand loyalty. 

Nowadays, we have various pet foods specialized according to breed, life stage, physiological status, and disease status. Grain-free raw meat, organic ingredients, and fresh meat concepts were developed. 

The customer base for pet food has changed significantly since the first release. There was a time when the public resisted pet food in the supermarket, but there is a strong trend of humanization of pet food. Nowadays, pet owners are interested in quality products, which can really help their pets grow and stay healthy.