BRUSSELS and LEUVEN, BELGIUM — Mars Petcare and EIT Food have announced the winners of the Fiber Valorisation for Pet Food Challenge, an open innovation challenge designed to identify innovative solutions to transform agricultural processing byproducts into pet food ingredients. BioscienZ, which develops processes using micro-organisms in an applied setting to produce new food and feed ingredients, and CREMER Sustainable Nutrition, which specializes in nutrition, oleochemicals, trading and logistics services, won the challenge. 

Pet food production uses byproducts from across the human supply chain. In an effort to drive innovation in this area, Mars Petcare and EIT Food invited companies to submit solutions for transforming byproducts from agricultural processing into proteins or sugars that could be used as nutritious ingredients in pet food formulations. 

“The pet care market is growing, and it is crucial to find ways to make pet food more delicious, nutritious and sustainable,” said Benoit Buntinx, director of Business Creation at EIT Food. “By making pet food production more circular and the resulting products delicious and nutritious we are directly tackling our EIT Food missions of a net-zero food system and healthier lives through food. It is great to see a global leader like Mars looking externally to rapidly find impactful solutions for their challenges.”

EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. It is one of nine innovation communities established by the EIT, which was set up in 2008 to drive innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe.  

More than 50 applications were submitted from a range of entities including startups, research institutes and established companies. After narrowing down the applications, R&D leaders from Mars Petcare met with nine organizations at a demo day. BioscienZ and CREMER Sustainable Nutrition were then selected as winners to move on to the next phase of conducting proof-of-concept studies, with the potential to develop long-term collaborations in the future. 

“We’re on a mission to create more sustainable pet food solutions and are delighted to be working with BioscienZ and CREMER Sustainable Nutrition,” said Michael Horan, Global S&T Platform Leader Material Science at Mars Petcare. “Together, leveraging their innovative approaches and Mars Petcare’s breadth of expertise, we have a significant opportunity to develop new ingredients and help to support a more circular economy.”

As a winner, BioscienZ will work with Mars Petcare to investigate the value of using enzymatically converted solid fibrous raw materials as ingredients in liquid pet food, by utilizing its proprietary innovative liquefaction process.

CREMER Sustainable Nutrition has developed a process that improves the digestibility and taste of plant fibers in animal feed by combining traditional proven technology with innovate solid-state fermentation. As a winner they will have the opportunity to work with Mars Petcare as they develop this process further and test its applicability in the pet food market.

Read more about sustainability efforts across the pet food and treat industry.