Environmental impact and benefit comparison of substituting poultry and ruminant ingredients in North American pet food with Canadian pulse products

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Poster Number:  08 

Main Presenter:    Shaiyan Siddique 

Co-Authors:   Ian Turner     Nathan Pelletier                                          

Dog food production is estimated to account for the majority of the environmental impacts of dog ownership. Animal-origin ingredients are widely recognized to be some of the largest environmental impact contributors for dog food and animal feed production in general. A promising strategy to lower the environmental impacts of dog food production may be to substitute animal-origin ingredients with low impact plant-based alternatives (e.g. whole and/or processed peas and lentils) while maintaining nutritional equivalency. Life cycle assessment studies have been conducted on major Canadian pulse products and their low environmental impacts compared to other major producing countries have been documented. However, there is a lack of studies evaluating the use of Canadian pulse products to substitute animal-origin ingredients in dog food production. Therefore, this study conducts an ISO-14044 compliant life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts and benefits of substituting
animal-origin ingredients in North American dry dog food with Canadian pulse products. Through consultation with a pet food nutrition expert, four dry dog food recipes satisfying macronutrient requirements were developed. The baseline represented the traditional North American recipe. A first reformulation partially substituted animal-origin products and corn with peas, pea flour, and lentils. A second reformulation substituted all animal products with peas, pea protein, pea flour, and coconut oil. For the third reformulation, all animal products were replaced with peas, pea flour, and black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) meal. When the substituted animal products were assumed to be of poultry origin, for each 25 lbs (11.3 kg) functional unit of dry dog food production, compared to the traditional recipe climate burden reductions of up to 6%, 28%, and 18% were seen for the first, second, and third reformulations respectively along with varying amounts of benefits in most of the impact
categories assessed. When the substituted animal products were assumed to be of ruminant origin, climate burden reductions of up to 13%, 84%, and 81% were seen for the first, second, and third reformulations, respectively, along with varying amounts of benefits across all the impact categories. Coconut oil and BSFL meal were identified as the largest hotspots in reformulations that did not contain animal products. Canadian pulse products contributed low impacts across all formulations and substituting both poultry and ruminant-origin animal products with them may substantially reduce the environmental footprint of pet food production. In future studies, the animal welfare aspects of substituting animal products should be assessed.

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