How Is Cat Food Made?

Greetings all curious cats… Skye Blake here with the inside scoop on how cat food is made.

Ever wondered what your cat’s food goes through to get to you and your cat?

Let’s follow that trail…

The information here is for general knowledge… always see your vet with questions about your cat’s individual needs.

Who Is Skye Blake?

Skye Blake, Cat Info Detective, is a curious cat researcher (not a veterinarian) who sniffs out expert, reliable sources about cats, studies their information, then passes it on to you!

Sometimes there’s not enough evidence for easy answers, so Skye gives you all sides, explains the situation as thoroughly and clearly as possible, and links you to experts on each page.

All sources are at the bottom of each page so you can do more snooping.

How is Commercial Cat Food Made?

People make claims about how cat food is made (usually that it’s bad), but do they actually know what they’re talking about?

Let’s take a look at the process…

Formulating Recipes

It all starts with formulating complete and balanced recipes that give your cat all the nutrition he needs in each serving.

This is a great deal more complex than it sounds.

Reputable manufacturers, such as Purina®, work with veterinary nutritionists either as consultants or on staff to properly formulate both their kibble and wet canned products.

This is important because recipes can lack essential nutrients if created by someone less knowledgeable in feline nutrition, which can have disastrous effects on your cat.

Ingredient Suppliers

Cat food products are only as good as the ingredients the suppliers sell to the manufacturers.

Pet food companies have inspectors who evaluate the ingredients each supplier offers.

This is especially important with perishables like meat, fish and fats.

Inspections can include a review of quality control procedures and how well they follow good processing and safety practices.

Inspectors also examine the ingredients upon arrival at the manufacturing plant to be sure they meet company specifications.

Since ingredients arrive in different ways, inspections happen according to specific requirements.

Methods of Shipment to Pet Food Facilities

semi trucks - commercial freight haulers

Suppliers get their ingredients to the manufacturing facilities in various ways…

Grains are stored in silos, put in railcars, and shipped by rail
Food-grade oils are shipped in tanker trucks or drums
Meat, poultry and fish are usually shipped in refrigerator or freezer trucks
Vegetables are frozen (just like you find in the grocery freezer section) and shipped in freezer trucks

Testing Ingredients Upon Arrival

Reputable manufacturers follow strict safety standards and testing protocols to be sure their products are free of harmful pathogens such as salmonella, aflotoxin, and E. coli.

Manufacturers have their own inspectors who check and test ingredients after they arrive.

They “[r]eview for safe handling during transportation by inspecting the integrity of container seals and cleanliness of the hopper;
Verify that the tanker truck was washed prior to loading and proper temperature control was maintained, and inspect for the unintended presence of metals;
Ensure compliance with specific nutrient and grading specifications such as protein, fat, moisture and fat content, check for antioxidant levels or for the presence of bacteria, spoilage, infestation or toxins.”¹

The Manufacturing Process for Canned Food

orange, ginger tabby kitten eating, drinking from dish

Manufacturers use the following basic process to make canned or pouched wet food…

(from “How Pet Food Is Made” – Pet Food Institute)

Rendering the meat

“1. Generally, rendering is performed by meat processors.

Rendering entails rupturing fat cells, either by heat or enzymatic- and solvent-extraction, and then drying the residue.”²

Grinding and pre-cooking the meat

“2. The meat products are coarsely ground to the desired texture.

3. To facilitate further processing, the ground meat is cooked in a continuous cooker with live steam at the appropriate temperature.

4. The flesh products are reground after initial cooking to produce a more uniform consistency.

For semi-moist or chunky foods, the batches are deliberately cooked unevenly to create the desired chunky texture.”³

Blending and shaping

“5. The meat mixture is blended with other ingredients such as cereal grains, vitamins, and minerals.

6. Dry and semi-moist foods are usually heated so the mixture will partially dextrinize, or thicken, the starch.”⁴

“To achieve the marbled-look of real meat, the meat mixture may be cooked unevenly and half of the batch colored red and the other white.

Semimoist foods must be stabilized to retain the proper amount of moisture in the dry and semi-moist parts of the food.”⁵

“7. Dry and semi-moist foods may be extruded under high pressure through a device with orificed plates to obtain the shape and size of the specific product, for instance, the form of biscuits, kibbles, meat-balls, patties, pellets, or slices.

An alternative to extrusion is to gelatinize and expand the mixture.

For marbled meat, the mixture of red and white meat is extruded together and broken into chunks.”⁶

Packaging and labeling

“8. Measured amounts of the product are packaged into appropriate containers.

Dry foods are poured into pre-printed containers.

Moist canned foods are vacuum sealed to reduce the oxygen content and prevent spoilage of fats in the food.”⁷

Sterilizing

“9. Cans of pet food are sterilized by passing them through a retort, or heating chamber.

The retort may be either a batch or continuous hydrostatic type.

The cans are heated to about 250°F (121°C) for 80 minutes, though the cooking temperatures and times depend on the contents, steam pressure, and can size.”⁸

“10. The cans are quickly cooled to about 100°FO (38°C).

Next, the cans are dried and labeled.

11. The containers are packaged into corrugated cardboard boxes or shrink-wrapped with plastic in corrugated cardboard trays.

The pet food is ready fo[r] shipping to distributors.”⁹

Vacuum packed canned pet foods have a shelf life of three to five years and are very stable with little or no loss of nutritional value.

The Manufacturing Process for Dry Pet Food

Pet food companies in Europe and the United States use similar processes to make dry products.

Reputable companies invest in improving their technology and consistently innovate and test their methods and products.

Blending/Grinding

The process consists of blending and grinding certain ingredients (meat meals, vitamin mixes, and grains) until they’re a specific size that allows for proper cooking with steam and heat.

Mixing/Cooking

The next step is mixing in meat and liquids like water and fat during the cooking process, getting the mixture hot enough to kill bacteria and pathogens (the “kill step”).

Besides sterilizing the ingredients, the heating process breaks down the food to make it more digestible and removes moisture.

Extrusion

After all that, the fun begins… shaping into pellets in an extruder.

Extrusion is simply a process where a machine pushes the food through a die plate with holes shaped for the specific product (just like making those crazy shapes of pasta).

Scientist holding test tube - vet medicine

As the food goes through the extruder, it cuts each piece to size then transfers everything to a dryer to remove any remaining moisture.

After the food dries, another machine sprays a coating of natural flavors (usually meat or fish) onto it.

Once it cools, the food is ready for packaging!

Monitoring During the Manufacturing Process

Lab tech looking through microscope - vet medicine

Monitoring the whole manufacturing process is very important for safety and efficiency.

It also helps reputable companies continue to improve their technology and products.

Here are some methods manufacturers use to be sure the food is safe through the process…

industry, factory, manufacturing, pet food

“Verification that proper temperature, pressure and pH are maintained

Environmental testing in the facility for the presence of bacteria

Inspection for metals

Verification of correct equipment set-up and function

graphic of factory, manufacturing, pet food, industry

Verification that the correct product size, shape, color, protein, fat and moisture level are being produced

Sanitization of the equipment before the manufacturing of a different product begins”¹⁰

Assuring Proper Product Packaging

Here are some of the methods companies use for testing and inspection during packaging…

“Verification that the proper mix of product is dispensed into the proper package, at the correct weight

Verification of the correct barcodes and date codes for product traceability

Review of integrity of containers, equipment and packaging

Verification of the package/container seal integrity

Environmental bacteria testing

Testing the product to confirm the Guaranteed Analysis

pH testing

Checking for the presence of unwanted moisture or condensation

Reviewing quality factors, such as product consistency

Confirmation that the proper shipping conditions will be maintained”¹¹

Videos

Here are some videos that show the processing for both wet and dry cat food…

“Amazing Food Processing Technology Pet Food Production”, June 16, 2018

“Lenda: Wet Pet Food Process”, April 22, 2019 – Not in English but has subtitles that make it easy to follow.

Virtual tour of Akvatera, a pet food company in Europe

To Sum It Up

Quite eye-opening, isn’t it? It certainly helps to understand the processes involved!

Reputable manufacturers will answer questions about the ingredients and how they operate if it’s not proprietary.

You might want to see more info about nutrition and cat food, so take a look at these related pages…

What’s the Best Cat Food?	How Is Pet Food Made?
What Nutrients Do Cats Need?	What Vitamins Do Cats Need?
Dry Cat Food (Kibble)	Wet Cat Food
Raw Food – Good or Bad?	Raw Meat Diet for Cats – Benefits vs. Risks
Meat By Products	Homemade Cat Food
Can Cats Drink Milk?	Are Carbs Bad for Cat?
The Best Kitten Food	Food for Kittens – Giving Them Good Nutrition

Cat Food Companies – Which Are Best?	How to Feed a Cat
Pet Food Regulations & Oversight	Reading Cat Food Labels
The Best Cat Food Brands	Cat Food Recalls – What Do They Mean?
Cat Food & Water Bowls	Cat Food Puzzles
Fat Cats – Unhealthy or Cute?	Food Allergies & Sensitivities
Dental Care for Cats	What’s a Veterinary Nutritionist?
Big Cat Food Paying Off Vets & Other Myths