January 16, 2019
A British company is trying to change the way your dog eats so it's more sustainable and environmentally friendly...and they're doing it with insects.
Pets consume roughly 20 percent of meat and fish worldwide and is estimated to be responsible for a quarter of the environmental impacts from meat production. It’s this that inspired Yora, the insect-based pet food for dogs.
Yora founder, Tom Neish, mentioned to the Evening Standard that the idea came to fruition five years ago and is “a long time in the making.
“I looked for an alternative to meat to suit animals, because I think it's wrong to put them on vegan or vegetarian diets.”
The food is made from oats, potato, kale seafood, chicory, and ground black soldier fly larvae. As "delicious" as this sounds, your pet probably eats things you don’t want to know all the time any way. So is an insect diet that crazy for a dog? Not really.
"Animals and humans have been eating insects since the dawn of time and we believe Yora is the future of pet food," said Neish. "We have trialled 29 recipes to find the perfect combination of great tasting ingredients and are very proud of the end result."
The company claims that larvae is easier to digest for your dog than even chicken. Around 40 percent of the protein comes from insects. The larvae are humanely harvested by Protix, a protein nutrient company in the Netherlands, and they are fed recycled vegetable matter. After they grow full size, which takes about 14 days, the handlers take the larvae and “gently dry them” to grind them into a protein-rich flour, which is then added to other ingredients. This sustainable grub is also free of hormones and antibiotics.
Yora is currently only available in the UK.
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