Corn in Pet Food Facts Showcased

Kansas, National Corn At Pet Food Forum

More than 3,000 people from 38 countries were in attendance at the Petfood Forum in Kansas City, Missouri this week. This is the pet food industry’s largest event, with exhibitors and attendees from various backgrounds including research and development, technology and packaging providers, ingredient suppliers and retailers. The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and the Kansas Corn Growers Association had a booth at the event to interact with these stakeholders.

“This was an opportunity for us to discuss the benefits of corn in pet food as well as engage with current customers and potential future partners,” said NCGA Director of Market Development Sarah McKay. “We were able to showcase how corn can be used in treat form and talk about how corn is a key factor in digestibility, the value-added attributes of corn in pet food and the nutritional and energy value of corn to pets.”

Kansas Corn’s Director of Industry Relations Stacy Mayo-Martinez and Market Development Coordinator Emily Koop represented Kansas Corn at the event.

While at the event, NCGA debuted its new corn in pet food materials, including technical research, fast facts, Corn MythBusters and the top 10 reasons to include corn in pet food. The information in the materials came from a study conducted by Kansas State University in which NCGA partnered with the Kansas Corn Growers Association to look at corn in pet food.

Some corn fast facts shared at the event were:

• Corn is highly digestible, with nearly 100 percent disappearance of starch.
• Corn toasts well and forms browning reaction products with rich flavor notes.
• Corn is tasty and preferred over other grains.
• Corn is high in antioxidants, lutein and zeaxanthin.
• Short chain fatty acids found in corn support immune function and homeostasis of the intestine.
• Grains cause less than 1.5-percent of all pet food allergy cases.

To view the Corn in Pet Food materials, go to ncga.com/petfood.