There’s a biosolution for … man’ best friend

Feeding our furry friends is a careful balancing act: Pet food must be irresistible enough that they eat it consistently, yet also provide the nutrition they need to thrive. Crafting food that hits both marks is one of the central challenges of modern pet nutrition — and enzymes and microbes are playing an important role in this equation.

Pets do not choose what they eat. Their daily nourishment depends entirely on what we place in their bowl, and that makes feeding far more than a routine task. To keep pets eating it day after day, pet food must not only be appealing; it must also deliver the essential nutrients they need to function properly and enjoy life with their families.

This audio article is part of The Biosolutions Bulletin. For the text version of this article and to get The Biosolutions Bulletin delivered monthly directly to your inbox, please go to: https://www.novonesis.com/en/biosolutions-bulletin

Transcript

Feeding our furry friends is a careful balancing act: Pet food must be irresistible enough that they eat it consistently, yet also provide the nutrition they need to thrive. Crafting food that hits both marks is one of the central challenges of modern pet nutrition — and enzymes and microbes are playing an important role in this equation. 

In this episode of the Biosolutions Bulletin by Novonesis we will learn how there’s even a biosolution for man’s best friend. 

Pets do not choose what they eat. Their daily nourishment depends entirely on what we place in their bowl, and that makes feeding far more than a routine task. To keep pets eating it day after day, pet food must not only be appealing; it must also deliver the essential nutrients they need to function properly and enjoy life with their families. 

Biosolutions help address these twin challenges using two powerful tools derived from nature: enzymes and microbes. Enzymes help make food more appealing and enjoyable for pets, while microbes help shape their internal environment that supports their overall well-being. 

Let us begin by understanding the role of enzymes. And to understand enzymes, we must first understand proteins, the molecular building blocks that sustain life.  

What are proteins?  

Proteins are essential molecules that perform countless roles in living organisms — from building tissues and carrying nutrients to catalyzing biochemical reactions in cells. 

Proteins form the foundation of most animal-based foods, whether from chicken, beef, or fish. At the molecular level, all proteins are made from chains of small units called amino acids. These chains fold and twist into complex three-dimensional shapes, and how they are arranged determines how the protein behaves — including which flavors and aromas it can release. 

One way to imagine a protein is as a chain of pearls. The chain can fold, twist, and bend into a compact shape, just like a necklace piled into a small box. When the protein chain is broken into smaller pieces, new flavors emerge. Some fragments create savory, meaty notes, while others can taste bitter, depending on how the chain is cut. Think of it like cooking garlic: a whole clove releases a mild aroma, but crushing or chopping it intensifies its flavor. Proteins behave in much the same way. 

Two ways to break down a protein 

There are two processes – Endo cutting and Exo cutting – that transform the protein into smaller pieces, but in very different ways: one rapid and broad, the other slow, precise, and controlled.  

Returning to our chain-of-pearls analogy, imagine the protein as a long, folded necklace. Endo-cutting is like snipping the chain at several points along its length, breaking it into many shorter fragments all at once. Keep cutting those pieces further, and eventually you might be left with individual pearls. 

Exo-cutting, in contrast, is more gradual. Pearls are removed one by one from the ends of the chain, shortening it step by step rather than breaking it apart suddenly. 

Together, the two cutting processes shape how proteins behave, which is fundamental to their digestion and to the release of flavors and aromas in food. 
 

From protein structure to pet food flavor 

Now let us turn to the manufacturing of pet food. Unlike most meat consumed by humans, pet food is not made from muscle meat alone. It often includes organs, bones, skin, fish parts, and even feathers — nutrient-rich animal by-products that might otherwise go to waste.  

These are parts of animals that do not typically align with the culinary or aesthetic preferences of human food, but they can provide valuable proteins and minerals for pet nutrition. Their use is regulated to ensure safety and quality.  

At the same time, using these materials helps reduce food waste and allows animal resources to be used more thoughtfully and efficiently. But there is a challenge. The proteins in these materials are large, tightly folded, and not very accessible. To turn them into food that pets readily accept, these proteins must be broken down into smaller, more digestible, and more flavor-active components. So how do pet food makers carry out the endo-cutting and exo-cutting of proteins? 

Inside the pet food factory 

Inside a pet food production facility, the endo and exo-cutting processes are not just used — they are carefully staged, almost like steps in a recipe to transform dense animal proteins into flavors that pets instinctively recognize as appealing. 

Endo-cutting comes first. It slices large, folded protein structures into many smaller fragments quickly, releasing rich, savory aromas like e.g. the deep umami flavor of slow-cooked broth. In pet food production, enzymes such as Novo-Pro® D carry out this rapid breakdown. But unfortunately, it can also reveal bitter-tasting amino acids. 

Enter exo-cutting which follows as a gentle finishing step. Imagine the pearl necklace again: instead of snapping it into chunks, exo-cutting slides individual pearls off one by one until only the most desirable structure remains. In a process called debittering, enzymes like Flavorzyme® solve the problem by removing or reshaping many of the components responsible for bitterness. 

Enduring tough conditions 
In 1836, German physician Theodor Schwann discovered pepsin, the first enzyme known to break down proteins. Since then, thousands of similar protein-breaking enzymes, called proteases, have been identified and are widely used in industry. In pet food production, these enzymes must not only break down proteins but also remain stable and effective through heat, mixing, and large-scale processing, delivering the same results every single time. 

This is where biosolutions come in. Companies like Novonesis use carefully selected microorganisms to produce specialized enzymes through fermentation, a natural process in which microbes act as tiny biological factories to produce enzymes. This makes it possible to create enzymes designed to work predictably under real manufacturing conditions. 

With this level of precision, pet food producers can transform complex animal proteins into food that is easier to digest, richer in flavor, and far more appealing to the animals that eat it. 

Making food taste good is only the beginning. Once eaten, that food becomes part of a living internal world inside the guts of our pets, a world shaped by trillions of microbes.  

And that brings us to microbes, the gut microbiome, and … probiotics! 

Microbes and the gut 

Microbes such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses do not only exist in the environment around us. They also live inside us, where they play an important role in digestion of food in our body. Together, they form the gut microbiome, a living ecosystem made up of trillions of microscopic residents, that strongly influences both our physical and mental well-being. 

Scientists have also discovered that the gut communicates continuously with other systems in the body. One example is the gut–brain axis, a network through which signals travel between the digestive system and the brain. 

If you would like to know more about this fascinating subject, you can read one of our earlier articles, “Trust your gut, your health depends on it.”  

Animals, including the dogs and cats that share our homes, also carry rich and complex microbial communities inside their digestive systems – their own gut microbiome, which reflects the life they live. 

Studies comparing dogs living in very different environments — from closely managed household pets to free-roaming or village dogs — show that the lifestyle of dogs strongly shapes their gut microbiome. Living conditions, geography, proximity to humans and of course diet all influence which microbes thrive and which decline. In other words, the microbial ecosystem inside an animal can be shaped. 

This is where modern pet nutrition begins to play an interesting role. 

Feeding pets today is about more than just providing proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals. It increasingly involves considering how their diet can support a balanced gut microbiome, which contributes to digestive comfort and overall well-being — allowing pet parents to enjoy more joyful moments and a longer, happier companionship with their pets.  
One approach gaining growing attention is the inclusion of probiotics in pet food, similar to the probiotic foods and supplements many people now consume themselves. A survey of pet owners in the US showed that about 27 percent already give probiotics to their pets, most commonly to support digestive health, immune health, and healthy aging. 

To understand how probiotics fit into pet nutrition, we must first look more closely at what they are.  

What’s the deal with probiotics? 

Probiotics, often referred to as ‘good bacteria’, are specific living microbes (typically bacteria) that support the gut and immune health of humans and animals when consumed in adequate amounts, either through food or as supplements.  

The idea of consuming living microbes may sound modern, but it is not entirely new. Fermented foods containing live microbes have been part of human diets for thousands of years.  

During the twentieth century, researchers began exploring an intriguing idea: could introducing carefully selected beneficial microbes through food help support digestive health and overall well-being? This curiosity eventually led to the development of some of the first commercial probiotic products during the early 20th century, and today this field has evolved into a well-established area. 

As understanding of probiotics in human health expanded, it was natural to consider whether similar principles might apply to animals. In fact, the use of probiotics in animal nutrition is not new; long before they became a topic in pet food discussions, they were already widely used in livestock production. 

This established use in farm animals helped build confidence in both the safety and potential benefits of probiotics, paving the way for their introduction into companion animal nutrition, recognizing that they too could benefit from probiotics tailored to their unique needs. 

Anyone who has lived with a dog or cat knows that digestive health is something pet owners quickly become aware of. One of the simplest signs is something owners observe every day: their pet’s stool. Changes in firmness, colour, or consistency can often signal that something is not quite right in the digestive system. In fact, a recent US study involving 43,517 dogs reported that about 30 percent had experienced at least one owner-reported gastrointestinal disorder during their lifetime.  

This is where probiotics enter the conversation. One area of research focuses on their potential to help support digestive balance by maintaining a stable microbial community in the gut.  

As we’ve learned, the gut microbiome is not a chaotic crowd of random microbes. Instead, it is a carefully balanced ecosystem made up of many different microbes living in the right proportions, much like biodiversity in nature where different species coexist in balance. But like any ecosystem, this balance can be disrupted. This mainly happens when the population of some beneficial microbes declines, if certain unwanted microbes grow too rapidly, or if key microbial members disappear altogether.  

Scientists describe such disruptions in the gut microbial balance as dysbiosis, which has been found to be associated with health problems such as obesity, metabolic diseases, and more serious conditions among humans as well as dogs. 

As the gut microbiome is closely connected to how the digestive system functions, probiotics is one of the ways to help support microbial balance in the gut by introducing selected beneficial microbes into the digestive system. Research has identified several ways probiotics may interact with the digestive system in pets, including supporting digestion and nutrient utilization, producing natural antimicrobial substances, influencing how certain microbes behave in the gut, supporting the intestinal barrier, and interacting with immune-related processes associated with the digestive system. 

But not only that. In recent years, scientists have also been looking at the gut–brain axis — the two-way communication system between the digestive system and the brain — which means gut health may be linked not only to digestion, but also to behavior. In dogs, research has shown that certain probiotic strains may have noticeable effects beyond the gut. In a blinded, placebo-controlled study, dogs given the probiotic Bifidobacterium longum showed fewer anxious behaviors than dogs given a placebo, along with lower heart rate and reduced stress hormone levels. These results suggest that supporting the gut microbiome may also play a role in how dogs respond to stress. 

Fun Facts

1. The superpower inside a dog’s nose: Dogs help humans solve crimes, detect drugs, find missing people, and even identify certain dizeases, all with their noses. How can they do so much just by sniffing? The secret lies in biology. An average dog has over 10 million olfactory receptors, the tiny sensors that detect smell, while humans have only about 6 million. To a dog, the world is not just seen. It is intensely smelled. 
    
    
2. Cats know who is talking to them: Cats can tell when their owner is speaking directly to them, especially when people use that soft, sing-song “pet voice.” But here is the surprising part: they mostly respond only when it is their own owner speaking. When strangers talk to them the same way, many cats simply ignore it. It seems cats pay attention not just to how you speak, but who is speaking.  
    
    
3. Why cats are fussy eaters and dogs aren’t: If you have lived with both dogs and cats, you know the difference: cats inspect food like critics, while dogs treat the floor like a buffet. Cats are obligate carnivores, which means their bodies are built to rely mainly on nutrients from meat, making them more selective eaters. Dogs, on the other hand, are more flexible eaters and can digest carbohydrates from plants as well, which helps

Not just any microbe will do 

German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Labradors, and King Charles Spaniels are all dogs, yet they are clearly not the same. Each breed has its own physical traits, behaviors, and characteristics. 

A similar kind of diversity exists in the microbial world.
Take Lactobacillus, for example, one of the best-known groups of bacteria used in probiotics. It is often spoken of as if it were a single type of microbe, but in reality, it includes many different strains. Each strain has its own biological characteristics, and they do not all behave in the same way. Some have been carefully studied and shown to function in specific environments. Others have not. Some tolerate stress well, while others are far more fragile. 

For this reason, when probiotics are discussed in pet nutrition, the focus is not simply on the type of bacteria, but on the specific strain. The potential benefits associated with probiotics are linked to particular strains that have been studied, characterized, and shown to function in defined conditions. 

Selecting the right strain, however, is only part of the challenge. 

Incorporating probiotics into pet food is not simply a matter of adding beneficial bacteria to a recipe. First, the microorganisms must survive a demanding journey — from manufacturing processes that involve heat, pressure, and drying, through long periods of storage, and finally through the acidic environment of the pet’s stomach before reaching the intestine alive. Not all microbes can tolerate these conditions.  

This is where biosolutions, and companies specializing in microbial science, such as Novonesis, play an important role. They maintain extensive collections of microbial strains, each carefully studied to understand how it grows, withstands stress, remains stable during production and shelf life, and behaves inside the digestive system — work that often takes years of controlled research (measuring the effect of a specific variable while keeping everything else the same).  

Only a small number of strains pass all these tests. These selected microbes are chosen for specific functional properties, and produced using precise fermentation techniques.  
 
The careful selection and study of microbial strains lays the groundwork for future innovations in probiotic solutions for pet health. 

More than just a bowl of food 

Of all this, our beloved cats and dogs have no idea. What they care about is the familiar sound of food in their bowl, the excitement of mealtime, and the comfort of living alongside the people they trust.  

As our relationship with pets continues to deepen in an uncertain world, providing emotional, physical, and mental health support, so too will the science behind how we care for them. Enzymes that refine flavor and digestibility, and probiotics that help support the delicate balance of the gut microbiome, are part of a new generation of biosolutions shaping modern pet nutrition. 

With each new insight into animal biology, the possibilities for developing foods that work in harmony with the bodies of the animals that depend on them expand. In the end, every bowl carries more than nutrients. It carries the quiet promise that the companions who share our homes can live healthier, happier lives by our side.