Advances in the petfood industry, coupled with extensive research into nutritional needs of our animals, pave the way for huge variety of commercially prepared, nutritionally complete foods. Processing methods have to keep up with the forward development. World production of dry petfood for dogs and cats was estimated in 1992 at approximately 6,4 million tonnes/year, and increases at around 4% yearly. Approximately 90% is extruded, and there is thus considerable pressure on the extrusion industry tokeep up with demands of the final 'consumers'. Traditionally, dry pet food for dogs and cats is kneaded as biscuit dough and then baked. The main constituent is usually cereal flour, for example, wheat flour, to which larger or smaller amounts of animalmeal or Fresh meat and fat are added, depending on the desired protein and fat content. However, a high content of fresh meat (percentages between 20 % and 30 % are possible in dry pet food) requires intensive mixing and kneading. The equipment used needs to cope with diverse mixtures of raw materials ranging from cereal and soya bean flours, animal meal, fresh meat, fats, vitamins, to wet fish offals.
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