by Roger Gilbert – Publisher, International Petfood
Yes, the picture on our first edition for 2025 says it all; a pet provides all the family with so much joy and happiness. And as our image on the contents page suggests; often pets know what they want when it comes to diet.
Many pets have this built-in awareness of what is good for them in terms of nutrition and will often turns their heads away when something is not quite right.
And if to prove a point UK Pet Food is launching a campaign to simplify pet nutrition in order to improve pet parent’s understanding of what is required, and which we report on page 8.
Other topics of significance in this issue include: Up-cycling Brewer’s Yeast (page 14); Protein Digestibility Kinetics (page 18); Packaging Trends (page 22), a report on the company Symaga a provider of bulk storage silos (see page 28); our Training and Trouble Shooting columns (pages 30 and 31) along with our Production Focus section (page 32). That’s before we look at events with reports from Petfair Southeast Asia, upcoming IPPE AFIA’s Pet Conference, and February’s Iberzoo Pro Pet 2025 show.
This edition is a great read. Please continue to use our ‘latest’ links below to read-for-free each month’s edition as we publish them in 2025.
Editorial Advisory Board
International Petfood is setting up an Editorial Advisory Board to include a range of honorary members to assist us in developing the content of the magazine that meets the needs of petfood formulators, petfood manufacturers and those in the distribution and retail business who need to know more about how petfood is produced and what is coming our way with regard to market developments, regulations and other aspects impacting pet ownership.
Therefore, I am pleased to welcome to the Board: Joe Kearns, who has worked his whole career with Wenger Manufacturing with a clear focus on the extrusion technology; Dr Anna Kate Shoveller who is Professor and Champion Petfoods Chair in canine and feline nutrition, physiology and metabolism, and University of Guelph Research Leadership Chair, and Geert van der Velden who is IQI Trusted Petfood Ingredients’ Innovation Manager and who has more than 25 years working within the international petfood industry (and by the way his interview is in this edition on page 48). Welcome all three inaugural Editorial Advisory Board members.
With condolences
Unfortunately, I must report a great loss to our industry – on December 29, 2024, it was reported that LaVon Wenger, a founder of the Wenger company, had passed away at 89 years of age. He was a stalwart in the industry and brought about much innovation and development to the extrusion process, which has in his lifetime provided the petfood industries in particular with processing possibilities that have gone on to revolutionise the way we prepare nutrition diets our pets.
Many of us will have known Lavon Wenger personally or if not, certainly by his reputation and achievement as he was a leading light in our industry for almost 70 years. We pass on our condolences to his family and friends and carry a tribute to him on page 10. He will be missed…
Published in the January 2025 issue of International Petfood.