Exposing the sustainability of Mars Petcare, Nestlé Purina, and Hills pet foods
CORPORATISATION IS STOPPING INNOVATION AND PROGRESS
I caught a train last night all the way to Bristol Vet School to speak to vet students there about these incredibly important facts in this post below, as corporatisation of veterinary practices (now mostly owned by the large pet food corporates) is so sadly their future.
Thank goodness I was able to balance such negativity of how corporatisation is damaging both the veterinary world and our planet, with the goodness of plant-based dog and cat nutrition! It gives us all such hope for our future 💚
This previously written post exposes the fact that ALL the corporate companies such as Hills, Royal Canin, Nestlé Purina that are registered with UK Pet Foods are selling us the urban legend that it is sustainable to use animal byproducts in their pet food, or these would otherwise go to landfill!
The byproducts of a heavily subsidised animal agriculture industry that exploits every single animal that is slaughtered for the pet food market; still produces the cheapest ingredients for these corporates to use so that they can continue to increase their profits.
Robust recent studies by Nicholles et al May 2025 and Brociek et al September 2025 show us that more animals are being slaughtered and fish caught for their valuable organs and oils to be used in pet food, so the use of animal byproducts is absolutely NOT sustainable!!
It is well known that the ingredients in a pet food account for the highest carbon emissions and all eyes are on Hills, Mars Petcare and Nestlé Purina as they are the three largest pet food companies by far. See the promises they are making of reducing their emissions in this article, but we see no options to achieve this with the current use of only animal products in their pet foods.
They are all completely avoiding the issue of non-sustainable meat and animal products in all of their foods and 'greenwashing' their sustainability credentials by only focussing on the packaging as shown by this article from October 2025. The single biggest impact that we can have on our environment has been shown by researchers at Oxford University is to reduce our consumption of meat and dairy...and that means excluding it from the food we feed our pets such as ALL the corporate pet foods and even Mars Petcare treats Dreamies that are full of cheese!
Sustainable plant-based ingredients are NOT subsidised by any governments and are more expensive to add to a quality complete pet food, so offer less of a return on investment for these corporate companies that compete against one another for their share value on the stock market.
Royal Canin is owned by Mars Petcare
Please read 'Who is Mars Petcare?' which explains their beginnings and where they are now, with owning almost every specialist veterinary practice as they bought out the Linnaeus Group of Vet Specialist practice in the UK, Dreamies cat treats made of cheese, Sheba and Whiskas full of fish; and the Royal Canin range that as yet has NO sustainable options.
A quick search on the nett worth of Mars Petcare below shows that $112 billion is approximately £83,380,864,000 based on the current exchange rate. SO much profit from the slaughter of all these innocent animals to feed our dogs and cats.
Like all the corporates and raw food companies, they hide behind the myth that 'it is sustainable to use the byproducts of the animal agriculture industry', a claim fully discounted through recent robust research shown here.
Please read some hope here with Dr Arielle attending a Royal Canin Webinar entitled Feeding the Future: Alternative Ingredients in Cat and Dog Nutrition by Royal Canin
In February 2025 we had news that Mars Petcare was teaming up with MiAlgae in Scotland that makes Omega 3 DHA from algae instead of using fish as an addition to cat and dog foods. MiAlgae make Omega 3 from the byproduct of the whisky industry so very sustainable.
This can only be applauded as fish should not be used AT ALL in dog or cat foods as our vulnerable oceans and sealife should NEVER be used to feed land mammal such as dogs and cats (6 top reasons NOT to feed fish to cats), and the amount of Royal Canin, Sheba and Whiskas with fish products in them is very concerning (all owned by Mars Petcare)!!
Fish is a primary allergen in cats as shown by this graph from dermatology company Nextmune:
Mars Petcare have set aside a BILLION dollar budget to market their NON-sustainable pet foods (yes you read that amount right - eyewatering isn't it?!), which should absolutely be put towards funding sustainable and innovative solutions rather than marketing their pet foods that result in the death of billions of animals, fish and chickens!
This billion dollar marketing budget will go towards AI marketing which we all know is shown to lead us into a very frightening future with AI eroding truth and trust, and there is nothing we can do about it!
We plead with them to STOP using fish and sealife products in their foods as quickly as possible, and use the highly sustainable Omega 3 from Algae as promised with this association with MiAlgae in Scotland that continues to grow.
The small independents such as Just Be Kind are way ahead with the production of a pure Algae oil rich in Omega 3s for dogs and for cats!! Our Omega 3 Algae oil is unique in that it has higher levels of EPA for joint health compared to DHA, while the Omega 3 used in MiAlgae contains only DHA as shown in this whitepaper that makes no mention of EPA.
What about Nestlé Purina?
Interestingly we had the headline that Nestlé Purina has worked on a dog food containing faba bean protein, insect protein and millet....but this article seems to be stuck in 2020, with NO further development of a sustainable dog food at ALL by Nestlé Purina!!!
Just Be Kind uses faba bean protein as a highly palatable pure source of protein in Give A Dog A Bean and Jumping Jack trays wet food - way ahead of the corporates with sustainability and progress!
Faba bean protein is enormously beneficial to the environment as it fixes the nitrogen in the air and returns it to the soil where it acts as a 'natural fertiliser' and makes an ideal pure protein and highly sustainable ingredient for dog food as used in Give A Dog A Bean shown below.
Not only have Nestlé Purina not worked on this new sustainable option using faba bean protein; but they have launched a whole new range called Beyond that is even MORE full of animal byproducts and fish at a time when we are facing a planet emergency and should be cutting back on the use of animal products in pet food.
Nestle have also pulled out of a dairy methane alliance where they have to declare how they are planning to reduce emissions, so they are more focussed on growing their dairy industry than seeking sustainable alternatives.
They have left a global alliance pledging to curb methane emissions from dairy production as one of the world's largest food companies!
There is one positive with Nestlé Purina and sustainable options! They bought out Lily's Kitchen, and in 2022, Lily's Kitchen released 2 vegan options of dog food which we can only applaud and hope that far more is made!
If only these sustainable healthy options would line the shelves of our supermarkets and be recommended by vets (as Nestlé Purina have a share in veterinary corporate chain IVC Evidensia that owns thousands of veterinary practices).
Realistically, vets working for practices owned by the corporate chain IVC Evidensia, are far more likely to recommend highly processed Purina HA for dogs with allergies that contains hydrolysed soya (no mention of non-GMO so very likely genetically modified), fish oil and added sugars, as this is what vets are taught about and are the products that Purina market heavily as they offer more profit than the superior but more expensive pure plant-based ingredients.
What about Hills (Colgate-Palmolive)?
In February 2024 Hills looked at using hugely sustainable and innovative precision fermentation protein by joining forces with Bond Pet Food, but progress seems to be so slow with this union, and we wait to see when this association may happen!
Thankfully it is the small passionate independents who have already made this a reality with the production of MicroBell truly novel protein dog food in February 2025 (see more below about MicroBell)!
Hills have spoken of reducing emissions by 90% in 2040 in this article, but we see no options to achieve this with their current range.
Hills are the only corporate to bring out a dog food that contains insect-based protein (more expensive and not as popular as plant-based pet food options).
We do have to applaud them for this choice of trying to be more sustainable, but they add a type of fish called pollock which they say is a wild caught Alaskan fish! This is very concerning as an addition to the food, as we badly need to protect our oceans when there are perfect plant-based and algal alternatives!
Thank goodness for complete plant-based pet food!
When we read these statistics and hidden truths about the meat and fishing industry from scientific professionals such as Prof Andrew Knight et al May 2025; it highlights the value of feeding your dogs and cats foods that are ethically and sustainably sourced with pure natural plant-based ingredients to protect not only the health of our planet, but also offers an ethical solution to feeding our dogs and cats.
Please read a latest study from Sept 2025 from the University of Nottingham, showing how plant-based dog food can be nutritionally sound for dogs compared to renal veterinary dog food diets and meat-based diets - such a positive for all of you already feeding your dogs a plant-based diet to have science on your side!! (Note too that these studies were NOT sponsored by any pet food companies!!)
Prof Knight highlights bacterial fermentation as the future for pet food!
In his latest published study May 2025, Prof Andrew Knight highlights the need to focus on using alternative protein sources in dog and cat food, especially that derived from highly sustainable biomass bacterial fermentation.
We are thrilled that he mentions this as we absolutely agree. Not only is this new revolutionary biotic protein source the solution for our planetary health; but it is also a highly nutritious form of protein in our dogs that actively feeds their gut microbiome....and dogs love it which is also SO important - a win-win for our planet and our dogs in the UK!
Read more about groundbreaking biotic protein dog food MicroBell here
This is what I told the vet students that I spoke to at Bristol Vet school - a dream of mine would be for ALL the large pet food corporates - Hills (Colgate Palmolive), Royal Canin (Mars Petcare), and Nestle Purina to use this incredibly innovative Feedkind bacterial fermentation protein in their pet foods - dry and wet!
If they ALL used it to replace animal protein with hugely sustainable bacterial fermentation protein as it is already being produced in vast quantities, the impact that it would have on the health of our dogs and of our planet would be immense.
If they ALL added Omega 3 from highly sustainable microalgae with no heavy metals as in fish oils and fish byproducts, our dogs and cats would be SO much healthier and our oceans would have a chance to 'breath' again and recover.
Yes, their shares may drop slightly as it is more expensive to buy than the byproducts of a heavily subsidised animal agriculture and fishing industry...but if they ALL did it as they compete against each other; then everybody would benefit.
I do remain an eternal optimist. It is individuals such as you who are going to drive the change by choosing plant-based for your dog and being the change we want others to see.
Only individuals such as you reading this article can drive that change and that gives us all hope. (I did have to hold back the tears in the video clip below when speaking at the London Vet Show as a highly sensitive individual with deep concerns for our future)
“First, they ignore you. Then, they laugh at you. Then, they fight you. Then, you win”
– Mahatma Ghandi
“Sustainability is a motherlode of innovation.” – Harvard Business Review
"Delivering value with a new product and capturing value in return as with a profit without regard to environmental and sustainable impact is not innovation, it’s exploitation. Innovation is usually driven by necessity, with our backs up against the wall. It also often emerges from the bottom up, because those on the “frontlines” working directly with customers or clients have the best and most immediate insights into their needs and pain points."
