Pet food manufacturers face mounting challenges, from stricter regulations and sustainability demands to the need for more cost-effective formulations. As these pressures continue to grow, innovative solutions are becoming essential for staying competitive.
These challenges were the focus of a recent webinar sponsored by Format Solutions and hosted by Petfood Industry. Pet Nutrition & Beyond: How to Leverage Formulation Software, originally held in December 2024, is now available to stream online.
Moderated by Lindsey Beaton, Editor of Petfood Industry magazine and host of the Trending Pet Food podcast, the session featured insights from Format Solutions’ Ian Mealey, Product Marketing Director for Formulation. Mealey explored how advanced formulation software can enhance both the quality and efficiency of pet food production, helping manufacturers navigate an increasingly complex landscape.
Leveraging the Power of Formulation Software
The hour-long webinar explored the secrets behind formulation success, emphasizing the importance of looking beyond nutrition and consider other critical factors such as production and moisture management, optimizing supply chain operations, and addressing sustainability challenges.
Mealey highlighted that many businesses have yet to fully harness the power of formulation software. He outlined how these advanced tools can streamline processes, boost productivity, and ensure consistent product quality. By leveraging formulation software, pet food manufacturers can develop recipes that precisely meet customer and animal needs while improving operational efficiency.
“With so many variables at play—ingredient costs, supply chain fluctuations, and production complexities—formulation software can handle much of the heavy lifting,” Mealey explained.
By adopting an optimization-driven approach, formulas can be more effectively implemented, Mealey explained. Using advanced mathematical algorithms, users can identify the most cost-effective recipe while meeting defined criteria.
So, how can a formulation system help?
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Formulation software organizes and manages the key data necessary to produce recipes.
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It helps with the design of those formulas and allows users to implement them.
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Software provides traceability and transparency – showing what happened to a specific recipe or ingredients over time.
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It maintains quality and controls cost.
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It provides analytical tools that support decision making and how products are designed.
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The software securely stores a business’ intellectual property.
“Formulation systems allow us to quickly find the most practical cost-effective recipe to respond to changing circumstances and assess future scenarios,” said Mealey. “But without it, we're faced with a much more difficult process.”
“We’d have to manually derive a recipe to meet all those situations and criteria, and this manual process will result in more costly recipes and it’s more difficult to respond to, and adapt to, changing circumstances such as the variability of ingredients. We'll miss opportunities and we'll have to build in assumptions to make this work without formulation.”
Why Format Solutions?
Format Solutions' pet food formulation system, Ara Integra-Mix®, has been developed to model reality and formulate products exactly as they're manufactured, said Mealey. Optimization should not mean compromising on quality, he continued.
Formulation software simplifies the management of factors such as ingredient selection, cost, quality, and availability. It also ensures that recipes align with regulatory and production requirements, making them both practical and compliant.
Mealey notes that regional or local variations can further complicate formulation, but advanced software helps navigate these challenges with ease. By providing complete control over recipes, formulation software accounts for critical constraints, including label ingredient order, labeling claims, and production parameters.
Ara Integra-Mix® offers specialized functionality to further streamline the formulation process, Mealey explained. One key feature, Time Periods, leverages real-time data to evaluate different scenarios, enabling users to assess the impact of changes against expectations. With this capability, recipes can be continuously re-optimized using the latest information and validated for approval, ensuring efficiency and accuracy.
A sophisticated formulation tool like Integra-Mix® optimizes the most cost-effective recipe within the quality criteria you set.
“The formulation capabilities we've looked at help us model the real world and obtain more realistic recipes,” said Mealey. “Considering all of the aspects, we're able to plan ahead and respond to changing circumstances more confidently. And we know we are doing this in a more cost-effective way.”
“Without formulation, there would be missed opportunity, inaccuracy, and additional overheads. And I think in this way, formulation applied in the right way does something unique and valuable for our businesses, and I think we have some tools at our disposal which take us to the next level,” he concluded.
To view the full webinar, click here. To learn more about Format Solutions' advanced formulation software, get in touch.
Webinar Highlights:
Below are some of the key takeaways from the session:
3:29 – Webinar overview
8:08 – Why use formulation software?
10:58 – What does a formulation system do?
23:28 – Real world considerations
27:27 – Additional features
30:44 – Ingredient quality and cost variability
46:36 – Applications of advanced formulation increases accuracy
48:52 – Q&A
