Halal Cat Food for the World Market

Currently, University Technology Malaysia (UTM) is engaged with a well-known private company in Malaysia to develop halal cat food for the world. A team of scientists from UTM was formed for the development of cat food from preparing palatants to producing canned cat and kibbled cat food formulation on a commercial scale to fulfil the vast market demand, as well as to act as contract manufacturer for this private company. Financial aid is made available by the university and Malaysian government. The promising market potential of cat food is estimated to be over USD27 billion with over 7 million tonnes produced in 2013 (35% of the pet food market). It is expected to grow at 5.5% in value and 2% in volume; and this had driven the project to be initiated by UTM. The idea of halal, itself is a selling point to the Muslim consumers and the world at large.  The world’s Muslim population is estimated to be around 1.6 billion, while the world population is estimated to be at 4.6 billion. The demand for halal products is ever growing with emerging markets in India & China.  In addition, the purchasing power of the Muslims is growing, where between 1990 and 2010, the Growth Domestic Product (GDP) per capita for Muslims globally had risen from a Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.8% in comparison to global GDP per capita which is only at CAGR of 5.0%. Cat food will come in human contact during feeding, handling, cleaning of feeding utensils under the same washing basin and dishwasher. Many times cat food will engage with human food storage facilities such as in the refrigerator and May to some extent affect the human food chain if it is not halal. Most of the available cat feed produce worldwide is non halal and majority are known to contain residues of porcine, dog materials and blood meal, deem unhealthy and unclean by the Muslims community.