DES MOINES, IOWA — Kemin Industries announced Jan. 11 its pet food and rendering technologies business, Kemin Nutrisurance, is partnering with California Safe Soil (CSS), a sustainable food recovery technology company, to develop high-quality, environmentally friendly pet food products.

Kemin will leverage CSS’s patented Harvest to Harvest™ technology to collect and repurpose food that would otherwise be thrown away by supermarkets and other food industry partners.

According to Kemin and CSS, up to 40% of food in the United States is wasted each year, the equivalent of more than $200 billion in food products. Through this new partnership, the two companies hope to reduce this food waste and repurpose valuable ingredients headed for landfills across the country into nutritious, shelf-stable and safe pet food.

“Pet parents are increasingly demanding natural and sustainable solutions for their companion animals,” said Yannick Riou, president of Kemin Nutrisurance. “We are excited to leverage CSS’s innovative grocery recovery and Harvest to Harvest™ technology with our commitment to providing safe and sustainable pet food ingredients that improve pet nutrition, health and wellbeing. This is an exciting step in offering our industry new solutions to address the ever-changing needs of pets and pet parents, backed by our promise that Kemin is Assurance.”

Since its founding in 2012, CSS has used its technology to recover unsold fruits, vegetables and meat by collecting them before they go bad and incorporating them into other food products.

“We are thrilled to share with Kemin the commitment to being good stewards of our environment through first-rate science and technology,” said Dan Morash, founder and chief executive officer of CSS. “Kemin’s technical expertise and market-leading position will prove invaluable in producing high-quality, consistent products that pet parents can trust. Kemin is the ideal partner to help us achieve this goal.”

Kemin isn’t the only company focused on upcycling food ingredients into quality pet products. In January 2020, Shameless Pets partnered with Treasure8 to incorporate upcycled, dehydrated food ingredients into its sustainable dog treats.

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