Feeding the future: how digital printing supports the evolving pet food industry
Not long ago, pet food production was relatively straightforward. Fewer product types, standard packaging formats, predictable demand. But that picture has changed. Today, producers must keep up with shifting consumer expectations, increased product variety, and stricter regulations, while staying fast and cost-efficient.
Through the words of Atlantic Zeiser’s Product Manager, Alvise Cavallari, we take a closer look at how these changes are reshaping the industry, and how digital inline printing is becoming a key tool to manage complexity and stay competitive.
Personalization and premiumization are driving market growth
Today’s pets are treated as family members, a cultural shift intensified by the pandemic and urban lifestyles. This change has fueled demand for premium, health-conscious, and customized pet foods.
As Alvise Cavallari explains, “Urbanization has shifted human behavior, with pets increasingly regarded as family members. This evolution has led to rising demand, especially for premium or customized products: functional and health-conscious foods (e.g., for gut health, weight management, skin and coat), alternative protein sources (insect-based, plant-based, BARF diets), and personalized nutrition.”
For brands, personalization extends to packaging. Adapting SKUs quickly to reflect dietary needs, life stages, or preferences has become a key differentiator.
Diversification across products, packaging, and channels
Pet food formats now range from bulk bags to resealable single-serve packs and variety multipacks. This diversification affects not only product development but also packaging processes.
“The key theme is diversification,” says Alvise Cavallari, “across brands, products, packaging, and business models. With the rise of direct-to-consumer channels, brands must maintain a strong presence both in-store and online.” This dynamic calls for packaging solutions that can handle varied configurations, localized information, and serialized data.
Automation and digital printing enable agility
To meet these demands, automation in packaging is essential. "Automation is essential to achieve diversification, and to meet the dual demands of market agility and operational efficiency". Inline digital printing allows for rapid SKU changes, shorter lead times, and reduced waste.
Atlantic Zeiser’s DIGILINE Single and DIGILINE Vario are designed for just-in-time customization at high resolutions. DIGILINE Single handles pre-cut cartons with modular flexibility, while DIGILINE Vario prints full-color artworks on continuous web materials. Both systems reduce setup time and simplify versioning, even across markets with different languages or regulatory needs.
Sustainability is a strategic imperative
Environmental pressure and regulations such as the EU's PPWR and U.S. EPR laws are pushing producers to rethink packaging. Alvise notes: "we ensure our printing processes and inks are compatible with new, sustainable packaging materials, and permit deinking within recycling streams. Digital printing also minimizes waste by allowing to produce only the required quantities of packaging, reducing the scrap of unused ink, cleaning solvents and material.”
The company also supports packaging minimization as required by PPWR directive by printing country-specific content directly on smaller formats, avoiding multilanguage oversizing.
Their ink formulations comply with indirect food-contact regulations and are engineered to minimize migration and reduce aromatic taint, an important factor for animals with a keen sense of smell.
Innovation requires agility and technical adaptation
In a fast-moving market, innovation must be both nimble and informed. "Agile innovation and market insight are essential. Additionally, regulatory expertise is increasingly critical to navigate evolving frameworks like PPWR and EPR".
Atlantic Zeiser is responding to the evolving needs of the industry by offering solutions that help manufacturers adapt their processes. For example, the shift from batch processing to more flexible, continuous processes enable pet food producers to handle ultra-fresh ingredients more efficiently. Inline printing plays a crucial role by addressing a key challenge in the industry: it allows packaging to reflect real-time fluctuations in recipe and compliance updates, offering a solution to a persistent, unresolved problem for pet food manufacturers.
“Pet food is a strategic growth area for Atlantic Zeiser” Alvise Cavallari adds. “We are advancing on two key fronts: first, developing inks that meet the sector’s specific requirements; and second, adapting our product portfolio to fit the shapes and processes of pet food packaging.”
Supporting a smarter pet food supply chain
By combining digital inkjet technology, modular hardware, and integration-ready software, Atlantic Zeiser enables producers to transition from static forecasting to on-demand, responsive packaging workflows – supporting both make to order (MTO) and make to stock (MTS) production models. The result: improved traceability, less waste, faster time to market, and packaging tailored to both product and consumer.
Get in touch with Atlantic Zeiser to see how our inline digital printing solutions can support your next step in pet food packaging.