For many pet owners, protein is still king: In a 2024 survey of 1,000 U.S. owners, 52.6% chose “high protein” as the top pet food ingredient attribute. And while novel proteins rise as consumers and businesses alike recognize the need for more sustainable sources, animal protein still matters, at least to 20.8% of these pet owners, who say it should be the first ingredient.
The survey was conducted by Lonnie Hobbs, Ph.D., and Aleksan Shanoyan, Ph.D., with Kansas State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics. An earlier (and much smaller) survey of U.S. pet owners by Bond Pet Foods led CEO Rich Kelleman to say during a Petfood Forum 2024 presentation: “Pet parents aren’t wanting, waiting for new protein solutions,” adding (probably because his company offers such a solution, yeast-based fermented protein), “This is not, unfortunately, a ‘build it and they will come’ moment.”
Specifically, the Bond survey showed the highest awareness of an alternative protein (cricket) was only at about 41%, with others much lower, like Bond’s “brewed” protein (15%) and black soldier fly larvae (6.3%). A question about whether the owners would consider feeding these alternative proteins to their pets yielded similar percentages, with the highest at only about 38% (for cricket protein and microalgae).
In the Hobbs/Shanoyan survey, respondents said they were not willing to pay more for two alternative proteins relative to animal-based proteins — in fact, they’d pay less: US$0.62 for plant-based and US$0.77 for insect-based. A chief reason for pet owners’ unenthusiastic impressions of insect protein centered on their lack of knowledge, with 25% saying they didn’t know about its benefits and more than 27% saying the same about negative aspects.
Obviously, education is important in encouraging pet owners to consider, and ultimately buy, pet foods with alternative protein sources. That, and time; as Kelleman pointed out, other “nascent” concepts started off with similar lack of acceptance. When Post-It notes were introduced in 1980, a consumer commented, “I don’t see how these little notes could be useful. People already have paper and pens for jotting down reminders.” Today, 50 billion Post-Its are sold in 100 countries every year, Kelleman said.
Will pet food experts look back on the usage of non-animal proteins in pet food 45 years from now with the same lens? A lot depends on scalability and cost. Likely the level of acceptance and consumption of alternative proteins in human foods will also play a key role.