ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE December 2025 53 presents a good essential amino acid profile. As it is also relatively rich in lysine, it can be combined with cereal proteins to achieve a complete essential amino acid profile. Alongside the concentrate, BENEO’s faba bean range includes a starch-rich flour with a typical 57% starch and minimum 21% protein content on dry matter. In addition, the faba bean hulls are a dietary fibre source for pet food recipe formulations. DELIVERING COST SAVINGS IN WET PET FOOD WITH FABA BEANS Wet pet food benefits from strong consumer appeal as it is often marketed as a more gourmet or healthy option. This positive perception is driving demand amongst pet owners, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6% between 2024 and 2029 predicted in terms of value.vi Plant-based proteins such as those made from faba beans have a key role to play in wet pet food recipe formulation – especially with almost half of cat and dog owners being interested in seeing more plant-based proteins used in wet food like cans or pouches.vii A case in point is the use of BENEO’s faba bean protein concentrate as an alternative to spray-dried animal blood plasma (ABP). ABP is commonly used in super-premium and premium wet pet foods to deliver emulsifying and texturising benefits, however these advantages come at a relatively high cost. BENEO’s faba bean protein concentrate can either fully or partially replace ABP as a binder and emulsifier in pet food loaves (pâtés) and chunks-in-gravy, with cost saving potential of up to 47%.viii Passion4Food, a specialist service provider for the pet food industry, conducted technical trials in pet food loaves using a high protein test recipe and then a commercially scalable one, in which 50% and 100% of the ABP content were replaced with BENEO’s faba bean protein concentrate. The tests showed that partial or total replacement of ABP did not result in any significant changes in the loaves height or weight and led to a comparable texture to the control loaves containing 100% ABP. In the trial, BENEO’s faba bean protein concentrate (FPC) was also benchmarked against pea protein concentrate (PPC), and a test recipe involving the partial (50%) replacement of ABP with PPC was also included. The results showed that the faba bean protein had higher binding capacities in the pet food loaf than the pea protein (Figure 1). Control 1100 1050 1000 950 900 850 800 750 700 2% ABP 2% FPC Texture Analysis of Pet Food Loaves - Hardness 1% ABP 1% FPC 1% ABP 1% PPC Hardness (g) ABP = Animal Blood Plasma FPC = BENEO’s Faba Bean Protein Concentrate PPC = Pea Protein Concentrate Control: Reference recipe without ABP/FPC/PPC Image: BENEO, AI-generated Figure 1
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