Pet Food Manufacturing & Processing

End-to-end systems for efficiently producing safe, high-quality wet, dry, fresh, frozen, raw, or canned cat and dog foods

These days, our furry friends aren’t just pets — they’re beloved members of the family. As such, pet owners are getting ever more mindful of what they’re scooping into their cats’ and dogs’ food bowls. This revolution in pet dining and nutrition is causing major changes in the pet food sector.

Manufacturers looking to keep up — and fetch some solid marketshare — must be able to accommodate the shifting tastes. This means you have to do more than just continue to grind out canned feline foods and an array of canine kibble. You have to create enticing, wholesome options that range from:

• Wet to dry
• Raw to cooked
• Fresh to frozen
• Canned to bagged
• Vegan to carnivore

That’s not a task to just wag your tail at. It’s a massive and dynamic undertaking.

With JBT on your side, though, this can be a walk in the park. Leveraging our experience in designing, manufacturing, and installation, our pet food processing systems really deliver. We’re leaders of the pack when it comes to:

• Prepping roped and diced foods
• Extruding and Color/Flavor Dosing
• Forming
• Steaming and Cooking
• Filling, closing, and tray sealing of pet food containers
• In-container sterilization of cans, pouches, and trays
• High-Pressure Processing (HPP)
• Chilling and freezing perishable items

JBT equipment enables you to turn out the safest pet foods while helping to maintain peak freshness, nutrition, flavor, and texture. You’ll be helping pet parents provide the highest-quality care to their cherished animals.

Different JBT Pet Food Technology for Different Needs

JBT’s portfolio of pet food processing equipment is ready and able to meet the demands of your operational needs. Whether you’re shopping for one batch retort machine or an entire, from-the-ground-up production line — you’ll find we’ve got the works.

Regardless of what kind of pet food product you’re making, the JBT legacy of excellence means your business will realize meaningful productivity and financial gains — like these: 

• Construction using the best processes and materials
• Compatibility with other manufacturing equipment and systems
• Customizability and configurability to your requirements
• Less time required for deployment
• Minimal training needed to operate
• Reduced risk of human error
• More reliable machines
• Easier and less maintenance
• Fewer and less severe operational issues
• Greater machine longevity
• Higher resale value

Dog Food Manufacturing

Dog food manufacturing has its own special considerations. For instance, Salmonella probably won’t hurt a healthy dog but it can be dangerous to older or ailing canines and to pet owners (due to a risk of cross-contamination). As fresh and raw dog food gains popularity, it’s increasingly necessary to mitigate associated issues. JBT offers many options — like HPP — to help ensure product quality and safety for pups and their people.

Cat Food Manufacturing

The cat food market is dominated by wet foods, primarily in cans. In fact, they’re so ubiquitous that — in an almost Pavlovian manner — many cats instantly recognize and react to the “pop!” sound of their favorite tinned meal being opened. As the largest segment in recent years, wet canned cat food products must be reliably producible at scale. These capabilities are definitely among JBT’s numerous fortes.

Dry Pet Food Manufacturing

Dry pet food products — such as kibble and savory treats — often incorporate freeze-dried meats and dehydrated fruits and vegetables. These inclusions not only make for tastier foods, they amplify the nutritional profile of a pet’s diet. This is a good thing, leading to healthier animals. With JBT technologies, processors can be confident that their meaty and fruity-vegetal ingredients aren’t contaminating finished products with harmful pathogens.

Wet & Canned Pet Food Manufacturing

The Cats and Dogs Wet Pet Food market, which hit almost $25 million in 2020, is expected to grow about 5.5% annually for the next half-decade. While canned foods account for the lion’s share of this category, stand-up pouches, foils, trays, and films are also popular. JBT can help you turn out products that are safe, shelf-stable, scrumptious, and brand-building.

Raw & Fresh Pet Food Manufacturing

In the last few years, the raw and fresh pet food market has tripled. This trend is likely spurred on by pet owners wanting to provide better-quality nourishment to their pets and pets perceiving wet pet foods to be more flavorful than dry foods. Often lacking preservatives or heat-processing, manufacturers need solutions for proper sterilization, packaging, and storage of these perishable pet foods.

JBT Pet Food Processing Equipment are the Cat’s Meow

Grinding & Mixing

With the industry's widest selection of batch or continuous cooking systems, you’ll be able to process countless meat, fish, poultry, vegetable, and ready meal products.

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Formers

Our forming machines performs gram-exact portioning of raw mixtures into the shape of your choice. That’s because the forming plates can be individually designed!

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Fillers

Our wide selection of aseptic and rotary fillers is perfectly suited for a variety of products. Whether low or high velocity, liquid or solid, you’re sure to find the perfect filler for your production line.

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alco HotCook – AHC

Incorporates the principle of cooking the product continuously between two cooking belts since the most effective method of transferring heat between two surfaces is by direct contact.

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Ovens & Cookers

Cooking solutions like versatile ovens, steamers, grillers, smokers, and other cookers for diverse and evolving food products and production processes.

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Can Seamers & Closers

Our state-of-the-art can closers offer you efficient, consistent, flexible processing to ensure product integrity and unmatched shelf life.

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Pasteurizers & Sterilizers

Our pasteurization and in-container sterilization solutions are renowned in diverse markets around the globe for their superior temperature distribution and low utility consumption.

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High Pressure Processors (HPP)

Our Avure HPP solutions ensure your products meet consumer demand for freshness, flavor, nutrition, and safety. They improve shelf-life, taste, and reliability, leading to higher profits.

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Freezers, Chillers, Refrigeration & Proofers

Cooling solutions designed for efficiently, reliably, and safely chilling and freezing a wide assortment of food products.

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Related Solutions

• Filling & Closing Solutions
• In-Container Sterilization Solutions
• High-Pressure Processing (HPP) Solutions
• Tray Sealing Solutions

JBT has the knowledge, experience, and motivation to help you achieve your business goals in the fruit and beverage industries.

Please contact us today for more information on these best-in-breed machines.

Features & Benefits

JBT pet food technology systems come with all the features you need to create a full spectrum of wet and dry pet foods. This enables you to have operations that are predictable, fast, precise, and safe.

• Safety — Various sterilization options neutralize pathogens with means safer food that still maintains taste, texture, and other desirable properties
• Uptime — Intelligent design and robust construction result in reliable high performance
• Adaptability — Able to process a variety of products
• Options — Variety of models, options, and configurations available to create an ideal set-up 
• Savings — Predictability, efficiency, and quality of systems slashes lifetime ownership costs and operational costs
• Sanitary — Hygienic design and installation for enhanced clean-ability
• Innovation — Extensive testing capabilities to help facilitate product development
• Support — Global support staff to help as needed

Want to know more about these features and how they benefit your business — contact us today.

Your End-to-End Food Production Needs Met

JBT’s comprehensive portfolio of world-class products and services handle the infinite and diverse tasks and challenges involved in food production like no other. We offer a full complement of solutions for food preparation, packaging, sterilization, storage, conveyance, and more. Additionally, you’ll find a stellar lineup of detergents, lubricants, replacement parts, and upgrade kits to level up and level out your operations.

If you want competitive edges — like flexibility, adaptability, expertise, variety, quality, and more — JBT systems make it all possible. Plus, we make the process of creating your manufacturing line straightforward and as stress-free as possible.

Your Production Line — Fully Equipped

Regardless of whether you’re buying one new can closer or re-outfitting an entire plant, JBT has the machines you require. We can supply the proper equipment to get all your tasks completed correctly. Thanks to the quality and variety of JBT machinery, you’re able to:

• Conveniently buy everything from a single provider
• Customize your manufacturing line to your specifications
• Mix and match equipment brands for a tailored solution
• Easily replace one-off elements of your existing production line
• Respond more agilely to changes
• Scale your operations more smoothly

JBT, Your Best Friend in FoodTech

Everyone can use a faithful companion, like JBT, at their side. Because JBT can meet all your food production needs, there’s no need for you to fetch another supplier.

Customer Focus, The Path to Success

It’s all about your business. At JBT, we believe this wholeheartedly and, therefore, work hard to build a constructive and enduring relationship with you. This allows us to provide you with even more value immediately and in the future.

R&D Hubs

A JBT-exclusive benefit, our Research & Technology Centers are way more than mere test kitchens or labs. At these unique facilities, you’re able to try out equipment and production line configurations, fine-tune your recipes and processes, and access technical expertise and data.

JBT Experts at Your Service

JBT’s been top dog in the foodtech industry for over 100 years. Let us share the incredible amount of knowledge and experience we’ve amassed. Our unparalleled level of support can make the difference between your business “just surviving” and “totally thriving.” So, feel free to reach out to JBT’s talented specialists — we’re eager to help you succeed!