As more people have become more conscious of how they impact their environment with the products they use, one business is helping minimise environmental impact with their pet food.
Planet A Pet Food has just launched what it describes as “Australia’s freshest, sustainable dog food”, which offers a sustainable and “flexitarian” alternative to raw, fresh, and high-meat pet food diet, which has become a hot trend but that is also criticised for its high environmental impact.
Research has revealed that up to a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally come from the food system, and pet food accounts for about 25 per cent of that and growing. In addition, about a quarter of all food grown never leaves the farm, and about 7 million tonnes of food end up being discarded every year.
Planet A Pet Food looks to address both these problems, with nutritionally complete, meat-free food for dogs, that harnesses circular economy ingredients.
“I already had a pet supplement business targeting raw feeders,” Planet A founder Amanda Falconer explained.
“But a few years ago, I’d moved to a vegan diet myself, and I became really uncomfortable about just recommending a high-meat diet for dogs. But what could you feed that was not kibble? I really understood the dilemma food-conscious pet parents were facing.
When I saw the ABC TV show Planet A: Our Climate Challenge, I decided I had to create a better food option.”
Working with small animal nutritionist Dr Anna Sutton, Planet A Pet Food created nutritionally complete meat-free food formulated for dogs. Consumers just add water to rehydrate the food so it remains fresh when they need it.
The Planet A No-Meat Dinners combine food by-product ingredients with sustainably harvested algae and a human food-grade plant protein, developed to have the taste and texture of meat and used in restaurants and food service around Australia.
This story was originally published on Inside Small Business.
