Everything that goes into your four-legged companion’s favorite foods.
An estimated 590 million pounds of companion animal foods contain sustainable pet food ingredients from International Ingredient Corporation’s (IIC). This includes dog and cat kibbles, canned products, and treats. Much of IIC’s menu is sourced by its sister company, Green Field Solutions (GFS). GFS offers food manufacturers a smart, easy and secure way to upcycle their food production co-products. Together, IIC and GFS represent the most comprehensive set of competencies in the consumer foods, animal feed and companion animal food industries.
We asked our Global Nutrition & Quality Manager, Dr. Katie Barry, to share about the ingredients, the regulations and the R&D that go into making our pets’ favorite foods.
How do IIC and GFS bring sustainable pet food ingredients to market?
There are products that IIC needs sourced to produce ingredients for our customers; things like cheese, bacon fat, yeast, sugars and dairy ingredients. IIC and GFS work together on sourcing sustainable pet food ingredients to meet our customers’ needs for current products.





We are always looking for the next new upcycled ingredient. IIC looks for nutritious, tasty and readily available ingredients for pet foods and treats. Our scientists and salespeople look at pet — and human — food trends to see what might be on the horizon, use feedback from customers, and read the latest peer-reviewed science to guide our search.
Meanwhile, GFS’s commercial mangers are tasked with seeking out unique sources that haven’t yet been considered in the pet food industry. Commercial managers also bring food co-products from CPG companies to the R&D team to see how they can be turned into pet food or animal feed ingredients.
Regardless of how it comes to the team, once a potential source is identified, IIC’s team of scientists perform nutritional analyses, looking at protein, fat, fiber and other nutrients. If these tests show there to be a possible ingredient for pet food use, we then decide how to make it into a product for our pet food customers to use.
We prepare product concepts, vet products with our customers and bring it to market. Sometimes the best solution is to take an ingredient directly to a customer because it’s already valuable as it is. In this case, our sales team works with the GFS commercial managers to match potential customers to the upcycled ingredient.

What goes into pet food?
When you look at a dry kibble, it may not look very exciting at first. It is really special, though! Countless hours were spent finding just the right ingredients to make sure the food contains all the right ingredients to keep pets healthy and also make it taste good.
To do that, dry food often includes a coating of fat and palatant — a fancy name for a powder or liquid that tastes and smells great to your pet. The sustainable pet food ingredients IIC offers can come from cheese, bacon fat or other food product leftovers that were created during the production of human foods and snacks. Our highly studied, consistent and nutritious ingredients come from U.S.-based food manufacturers, and can range from aromatic bacon fat to nutritious brewers yeast (and many tasty things in between!).
Each ingredient complies with strict regulations at a state and federal level. We look at safety and suitability, partnering with our internal quality and regulatory team for guidance on how to make sure our ingredients meet or exceed the standards set forth by our government and our customers.
Dried cheeses, for example, must come from actual cheese sources, because that’s the expectation of our customers and regulatory bodies. Each ingredient we introduce to the market undergoes the same level of review to make sure pets get the best quality nutrition, whether we manufacture it or match it with a customer directly.

How do you know pets will like it?
Any time we bring a new ingredient to market, we go through a rigorous process to ensure it is safe, nutritious and flavorful. A pet food may provide the best, most complete nutrition for a pet, but if cats or dogs don’t like it, they won’t eat it.
Once an ingredient is deemed safe for consumption by pets, we take it to the pets for their feedback. We add that ingredient to different foods, then look at which one they gravitate toward and how much of it they eat. These lucky taste-testers are well-trained and have discriminating palettes. Believe it or not, the decision to sell an ingredient or not comes down to what the dogs and cats tell us in these tests.
How is the pet food industry getting more sustainable?
Most pet food companies — and human food manufacturers — have sustainability goals they are trying to meet. Because many of our sustainable pet food ingredients originate from the production of human food, working with companies like IIC and GFS helps them meet those goals and quantify the sustainability piece they are looking to improve upon.
As more people want to feed their pets a sustainable (and, of course, nutritious) diet, it drives major retailers to find and stock products and brands that meet these needs. When the world’s largest retailers ask pet food companies for sustainable products, they come to us.
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Dr. Katie Barry
Dr. Katie Barry is the Global Nutrition & Quality Manager at International Ingredient Corporation. She earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Animal Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is an active member of ASAS, IFT, and AFIA, and participates in AAFCO meetings on behalf of IIC and GFS. She currently serves as secretary on the AFIA Pet Food Committee, and is a past chair and member of the Companion Animal Nutrition Committee of ASAS.