Alfa Laval has deepened its long-standing relationship with UK pet food manufacturer GA Petfoods, supplying processing technologies that underpin the company’s approach to high fresh-meat inclusion in dry kibble production.
GA Petfoods, a family-owned business based in Lancashire, produces private-label pet food for hundreds of brand partners globally. Its manufacturing model is built around using locally sourced meat and fish, with a focus on retaining flavour and nutritional value typically lost during conventional rendering and extrusion processes.
The collaboration between the two companies dates back more than a decade, with Alfa Laval providing separation and thermal processing equipment used across GA Petfoods’ production lines. The technology is central to enabling higher fresh meat and fish content while maintaining throughput and efficiency at industrial scale.
Scott Morley, Head of Design at GA Petfoods, said the company’s processing strategy is shaped by shifting consumer expectations. “What we’re doing at GA Petfoods is driven by increasingly conscious pet owners across the world. Many are no longer content with an off-the-shelf, dry-rendered kibble that’s lacking in flavour and nutritional value,” he said.
“Pet owners are now demanding the same standards for their companions’ food as they are for their own, which means higher fresh meat inclusion. This is something that we have been pushing the boundaries of for many years, and Alfa Laval’s kit has been central to taking this as far as we possibly can to extract every drop of value from our feedstocks.”
At the core of the process is controlled low-temperature cooking, with meats such as Aberdeen Angus beef and Scottish salmon cooked at 82°C. The approach is designed to preserve protein structure and flavour characteristics while ensuring food safety and consistency ahead of extrusion.
Following cooking, the product stream passes through an Alfa Laval OilPlus decanter, separating oil from the meat slurry. This allows precise control over fat content and flavour profiles while improving downstream efficiency. Moisture is then reduced using an AlfaFlash plate flash evaporator, cutting water content from approximately 90% to 50% before extrusion. GA Petfoods says this step delivers a significant efficiency gain by reducing the energy load of the extruder.
The separated oil stream is further processed using a high-speed Alfa Laval separator, producing a purified, human-grade oil. This is later reapplied as a coating to the finished kibble, improving palatability and enabling tighter nutritional specification.
Dan Tasker, Account Manager in Alfa Laval’s Food & Water Division, described GA Petfoods as a reference point for the sector. “GA Petfoods can be seen as the benchmark for the entire pet food manufacturing industry. They lead the way in fresh meat inclusion and nutritional value, which is why so many private-label brands turn to them,” he said.
He added that the partnership continues to evolve as production demands change. “This long and happy partnership existed long before I joined the company, but is one that I have already seen expand and grow in my time at Alfa Laval. It is our pleasure to support GA Petfoods in the production of the world’s finest pet food.”
The collaboration reflects a wider shift within pet food manufacturing towards premiumisation, tighter process control, and greater scrutiny of ingredient provenance, placing increased emphasis on processing technologies capable of delivering consistency without sacrificing nutritional performance.
