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The ultra-processed debate moves to pet food

Pet owners' interest in less processed products is growing, pointing to opportunities for brands to rethink formulations, Mintel says.

Pet owners are increasingly treating their pets like “fur babies” and, in turn, applying human health standards to pet nutrition, Kate Vlietstra, senior director of research and insight at Mintel, told an audience at Fi Europe 2025.

According to Mintel data, in Poland, two-thirds of pet owners surveyed “like to stay on top of diet trends” as a way to enhance their pets' lives, and in Germany, 36% agree that taking care of their pets' health is more important to them than the cost of doing so.

The effect of this, Vlietsra explained, is that consumers are both interested and concerned about what exactly goes into the food they feed their pets. “Around half of UK pet owners say they are worried about the processing levels in manufactured pet food because of health concerns,” she said.

The shift toward ‘simpler’ processed pet foods

Many consumers are turning away from purchasing ultra-processed food (UPF) products for their pets, which in turn has led many brands to distance themselves from the label, too.

Some brands are responding by employing “simpler” production methods and communicating this to pet owners, Vlietsra said, discussing the German pet food brand Josera as an example.

The brand claims to employ “gentle processing of selected raw ingredients” in many of its formulations. It says it uses minimal intervention techniques that avoid harsh heat, chemicals, or high pressure to retain nutrients, colour, and texture.

Another way brands are combating consumers' processing fears is through packaging and labelling.

Digging into global pet food launch data, Vlietsra discussed the surge in the use of the term “naturality” on packaging, as well as the five-point increase – from three percent to eight percent – in freeze-dried, cold-pressed, or air-dried products launched over the past five years.

Simpler processing techniques are still niche right now, “but that growth is indicative of a trend to come”, she said.

Unpacking the link between diet and pet lifespan

The number of studies exploring the link between UPF consumption and early death in humans has been mounting over the years. Meanwhile, genetic testing suggests humans and dogs share 84% of their DNA. Vlietstra said this finding has led many experts to believe that human longevity principles can be directly applied to pets.

“It stands to reason that many of those principles about longevity […] would also be relevant in the pet space,” she said, pointing to a 2023 study by the DogRisk research group at the University of Helsinki in Finland.

The study found that dogs consuming raw, non-processed meat-based diets had a lower risk of otitis (ear infection) later in life, compared with those given ultra-processed, carbohydrate-based diets.

However, not all research suggests that consuming UPFs is inherently bad and that no- or low-processing is good. For example, a December 2025 review published in the Animals journal concluded that processing intensity, taken alone, was not a reliable predictor of nutritional outcomes.

The researchers evaluated 102 comparisons between processing and ingredient digestibility and 137 comparisons between processing and nutrient density. They found significant variability: some processing methods enhanced bioavailability, improved protein digestibility, and reduced anti-nutrients.

Pet food transparency: Made clearer by the Processed App?

The current acceleration of AI has also opened the door for consumers to see how the products they’re feeding themselves and their pets are made.

Processed, an app that scans the barcode or ingredient list of any food product, claims to “fight back against ultra-processed foods”. After scanning, the app uses AI to analyse the ingredients in a given product and categorise it using the NOVA system.

Processed recently expanded its capabilities beyond human nutrition and launched a “paw mode” feature.

“This allows pet owners to also scan pet foods to understand more about the levels of processing in them,” Vlietstra said.