Royal Canin aims to be carbon neutral by 2025

We are thrilled to read that the ‘big players’ in our pet food industry are making such bold and positive pledges for our future.

The article below appeared in Pet Gazette Industry News in April 2022.

carbon neutral pawprint

Quoted from the article –
Royal Canin has announced its commitment to become certified carbon neutral by 2025, with its first product range achieving carbon neutral certification in 2022.

It said it plans to “work with an independent auditor to certify these brands as carbon neutral and adhere to the PAS 2060 standard for carbon neutrality, widely considered to be the leading standard of carbon neutral specification”.

Royal Canin has identified action areas it will tackle to become carbon neutral by 2025 as:

Transitioning to 100% renewable electricity from its current 72%
Using sustainable ingredients by reformulating products and switching to low-carbon intensity ingredients, such as its 100% ProTerra-certified soy in Europe
Inviting key suppliers to join its ‘pledge for planet’ initiative.
Reducing waste and boosting recyclability, compostability and the use of reusable packaging – including a focus on mono-material packaging and recycled content

Loic Moutault, president of Royal Canin, said: “It’s science-led initiatives and decisive action, not just ambition, which will help us hit our 2025 climate target.

“We believe that making this bold carbon-neutral commitment will inspire and mobilise new and impactful ideas, action and results and make a meaningful positive difference to pets, people and the planet.”

 

Royal Canin’s current Hypoallergenic Soya Based diet

 

Royal Canin hypoallergenic Royal Canin’s Hypoallergenic diet is currently the most ‘sustainable’ food that they offer. They use soya as the protein source which is the same as that used in 2 very high quality brands of vegan dog food that came to the market in 2021 – OMNI and Noochy Poochy. These 2 companies have been able to achieve full sustainability with their ingredients using 100% plant-based sources right down to using Algae oil as a Vit D3 and Omega 3 source rather than non-sustainable fish oils.

Here are the ingredients of Royal Canin Hypoallergenic:
Rice, hydrolysed soya protein isolate, animal fats, hydrolysed poultry liver, beet pulp, minerals, soya oil, fish oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, borage oil, marigold extract (source of lutein). Protein sources: hydrolysed soya protein isolate, hydrolysed poultry liver.

We hope that they are able to achieve full sustainability with their ingredients and packaging quicker than 2025 as these other independent companies have been able to achieve using soya-based ingredients to produce a 100% vegan dog food diet.

 

Vegan Pet Food Startup Wild Earth Partners With MARS Petcare

This news is just so exciting for the future of vegan dog food. Mars Petcare have bought an £8.2 million stake in a vegan US company called Wild Earth which uses Japanese Fungus Koji, that goes into soy sauce, to make a protein that resembles the taste of meat for pet food.

At the time Mars Petcare’s head of ventures, Ben Jacobs, said: ‘We can solve some of the planet’s most pressing problems…. if we efficiently produce protein while reducing the environmental impact of feeding hundreds of millions of pets.’ Daily Mail 15th December

Along with the fungal yeast, the ingredients in the Wild Earth food includes oats, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, blueberries, pumpkin and spinach as well as added taurine and carnitine. These ingredients are healthy and sustainable and we hope that this food can be made and sold in the UK, although we do currently have other independent companies leading the way with balanced vegan dog food in the UK such as Solo Vegetal, OMNI, Hownd, Noochy Poochy, DoGood and The Pack.

 

Lily’s Kitchen Vegan Rainbow Stew & Burrito Bowl

lily's kitchen vegan rainbow stes and burrito bowl

We want to fully support plant-based feeding in dogs in the UK, so we are so pleased that in November 2020, a big UK based company like Lily’s Kitchen brought out a vegan range that is affordable for UK dog owners – Vegan Rainbow Stew.

We did used to like Lily’s Kitchen as it was a family-run business with an excellent reputation, but it was taken over in April 2020 by Nestlé Purina which we are not happy about, as Nestlé does not have the greatest reputation for being sustainable or ethical.

The composition of the vegan stew is Potatoes (10%), Courgettes (6%), Carrots (6%) Millet (6%), Lupin (4%), Lentils (3%), Peas (3%), Pea Protein (3%), Sunflower Seeds (2%), Sunflower Oil (2%), Minerals, Yeast, Chia Seeds (0.3%), Algae, Parsley (0.2%), Basil (0.2%)

We are happy with these ingredients as all nourishing and all healthy. They are however, a company whose main driver is meat-based dog food, so it appears as though they have not researched balanced vegan dog food properly. There is no mention of the addition of Taurine and l-Carnitine which is vital for a fully balanced vegan dog food for heart health.

In 2021, they released a second flavour – Mighty Burrito Bowl.

We imagine that they plan to sell the food to dog owners who want to try Meat-Free Mondays with their pet as the wording describes the food as ‘complete’; not 100% balanced, so not to be fed exclusively to your pet as other new independent companies offer such as Hownd and The Pack.

just be kind vegan dogs