BESTMIX at Petfood Forum 2026: Smarter formulation, Predictive AI and the future of pet food production

Pet food production operates in a world of constant variation.

Ingredient composition shifts from lot to lot. Processing conditions change with temperature and equipment settings. Finished product results reflect the combined effect of both.

Formulation tools traditionally manage the nutritional side of the equation. Production teams manage the process. Quality teams verify the outcome. But without a shared data flow between those stages, it’s difficult to understand why a batch behaved differently from the one before it.

That’s why many pet food producers build safety buffers into their formulations, protecting label compliance and nutritional guarantees even when raw materials fluctuate.

These buffers protect label compliance, but they don’t remove variability from the process. It often shows up later as moisture issues, rework, or sometimes even recall.

A more integrated approach allows teams to manage variability earlier in the process, before it becomes waste on the production floor.

• Moisture control: a production variable with nutritional consequences

Moisture is one of the most influential parameters in pet food production.

It affects shelf life, processing stability, and finished product characteristics, but it also changes how nutrient levels are interpreted in the final product. Even small deviations during extrusion or drying can influence the nutritional values measured during quality control.

For formulation teams, this creates a challenge: predicting how processing conditions will affect the recipe long before production begins.

At Petfood Forum, we’ll be demonstrating how predictive models can estimate drying behaviour directly from formulation data, helping teams anticipate moisture outcomes before the product reaches the dryer.

The goal isn’t simply better prediction, it’s reducing the number of surprises that appear during production or final testing. So, less rework, less waste, less stress.

• Managing raw material variability

Raw material variability remains one of the most persistent challenges in pet food formulation.

Protein meals, fresh meats, grains, and other ingredients naturally fluctuate in composition. Analytical testing helps manage that variability, but translating those results into formulation decisions can still involve manual updates and separate excel sheets and tools.

At our booth, we’ll be demonstrating BESTMIX PROCISION, which helps formulation teams optimise recipes based on real analytical data rather than static averages. By incorporating ingredient analytics into optimisation models, it allows to reduce unnecessary safety margins while maintaining compliance and nutritional consistency.

• Connecting formulation, production, and quality

Pet food manufacturing involves multiple teams, each responsible for a different stage of the process.

BESTMIX Software for pet food is designed to connect those stages through a shared data environment.

Formulation changes automatically update labeling and documentation.
Quality testing results link back to ingredient and recipe data.
Production insights can feed back into future formulation decisions.

This approach allows companies to move from isolated data points to the one process across teams.

Instead of discovering issues only after finished product testing, teams gain earlier visibility into the factors that influence product performance.

During Petfood Forum visits BESTMIX booth to explore several key capabilities of the platform:

• AI-based moisture prediction

Predict expected drying behaviour during the formulation stage using ingredient and recipe data.

• PROCISION raw material optimisation

Formulate against real ingredient analytics to reduce unnecessary safety buffers while protecting nutritional targets.

• Recipe management

Manage recipes, labeling and documentation across brands, species and production sites from a single system.

• Quality control integration

Connect raw material testing, in-process checks, and finished product analysis with formulation and production data.

• Cloud-based collaboration

Ensure formulation, purchasing, quality, labeling and production teams are working from the same data in real time.

• End-to-end platform demo 

From raw material purchasing and formulation optimisation to compliant labeling and quality control in one platform.

BESTMIX Director of Customer Solutions Carmen Sook will also present during the Petfood Essentials pre-conference session:

From Nutritionist to Operator: AI as Your Trusted Copilot April 27 | 8:45–10:00 am | KCCC Room 2215

The session explores how AI can serve as a bridge between the formulation team and the production floor. Not by replacing the expertise of scientists or operators, but by giving both teams access to shared, transparent, data-driven insights that were previously out of reach. 

Attendees will learn how production data - often an underutilized asset - can be turned into predictive models that flag process deviations before they affect quality, deliver real-time guidance to operators, and give formulators the trend data they need to continuously refine their recipes. 

It will be a practical, grounded session built around real experience and customer examples. 

After the session, Carmen will be available for further discussion at Booth 1226.

Booth 1226 | Kansas City Convention Center | April 27–29, 2026

Carmen Sook| Petfood Essentials Session | April 27 | 8:45 am | Room 2215

If you’d like to see how formulation, production and quality data can work together in a single system, stop by the booth or schedule a meeting with our team ahead of the event.