Hill’s Pet Nutrition and Bond Pet Foods Reach Milestone Toward Development of a More Sustainable Protein for Pet Foods

Companies also announce second Joint Development Agreement to expand collaboration

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. & BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#BondPets--Bond Pet Foods has shipped its first two metric tons of an animal protein created through fermentation to Hill’s Pet Nutrition, which will begin to formulate test products using the innovative, more sustainable ingredient for regulatory review and market evaluation.

Separately, the companies announced a second joint development agreement to create an additional animal protein for potential use in Hill’s products. The collaboration between Bond and Hill’s, announced in late 2021, aims to develop a source of more sustainable animal protein to fulfill the dietary needs of dogs and cats.

The two metric tons produced by Bond represents a major milestone toward commercializing its fermentation technology for pet food applications. The scale of the delivery will allow Hill’s to formulate a variety of products at its Pet Nutrition Center in Topeka, KS for evaluation. That data will be used for the ingredient’s eventual review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, as well as to prepare prototypes for market evaluation.

“Hill’s is known for its leadership in precise, complete and balanced, science-based nutrition. We are excited to continue our relationship with Bond and support their truly novel approach to produce animal proteins in a more sustainable way that meets our high-quality standards,” said Dave Baloga, Executive Vice President, Science & Technology for Hill's Pet Nutrition.

“Producing tons of product at the 45,000 Liter scale is a major milestone in the Bond-Hill’s collaboration,” said Rich Kelleman, Founder and CEO of Bond Pet Foods. “Additionally, Hill’s commitment to expand on our work together demonstrates the opportunity we collectively see in Bond’s ingredients for their and the pet industry’s food future.”

According to Bond, its precision fermentation platform is safe and established – building off a process that has been around for more than half a century to make everything from enzymes (rennet) for cheese manufacture to vitamin B12.

The process has been carefully reimagined to more efficiently produce proteins like chicken, turkey and beef for pet food applications, without the need to raise and process farm animals.

In the U.S. alone, 74 million dogs and 56 million cats in households currently consume large amounts of animal-based protein. As a result, as noted in a 2017 study published in the scientific journal PLUS One, pets account for up to 30% of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with domestic meat consumption. This represents both CO₂ and additional greenhouse gas emission from animal production.

About Bond Pet Foods

Bond Pet Foods is a Boulder, Colorado-based company using biotechnology to create meat proteins that are nutritionally comparable to their conventional counterparts but without all the bad stuff- so people, pets, farm animals and the planet all win. Using some of the same processes that are employed in craft brewing, Bond produces high-quality animal proteins through fermentation, harvests them to better meet the nutritional requirements of companion animals, and supplies the ingredients to manufacturers for pet food, treat and supplement applications.

Bond's investors include some of the most prominent funds in the alternative protein, biotechnology and ingredient space including Genoa VC, Lever VC, ADM Ventures, Cavallo Ventures (Wilbur-Ellis), Agronomics, Thia Ventures, KBW Ventures, iSelect Fund and Plug and Play Ventures.

For more information on Bond's technology and team visit bondpets.com or follow @bondpetfoods on LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.

About Hill's Pet Nutrition

At Hill's, our decades of science and research guide us in creating nutrition that's a step ahead —so pets and pet parents can enjoy every day together. As the U.S. #1 Veterinarian Recommended pet food brand, knowledge is our first ingredient with 220+ veterinarians, PhD nutritionists and food scientists working to develop breakthrough innovations in pet health.

Hill's Prescription Diet therapeutic nutrition plus our everyday foods, Hill's Science Diet, Hill's Healthy Advantage and Hill's Bioactive Recipe, are sold at vet clinics and pet specialty retailers worldwide. For more information about Hill's, our products and our forward-thinking approach to nutrition, visit us at HillsPet.com or HillsVet.com, or connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram

Contact for Hills:
Kelsey Rockey
Email: kelsey_rockey@hillspet.com
Phone: 913-956-9959

Contact for Bond:
Bob Wheatley
Email: press@bondpets.com
Phone: 312-806-6975