Cat Food Around the World

The expanding pet food market has attracted foreign-affiliated firms and domestic/foreign joint ventures, mostly from countries where the pet food industry has reached saturation point. There are still many Japanese cat owners who have not (yet) made the transition from traditional cat food to commercial cat diets. Price competition and competition for outlets is fierce. Industries long associated with pet foods in the USA and Europe and diversifying into the pet food market in Japan e.g. fertilizer manufacturers, livestock feed makers, human food manufacturers and other companies which use a meat or fish rendering process. Japanese manufacturers operate in the USA, Australia and Thailand etc (i.e. close to the raw materials, thus cutting costs).

Since tastes in pet foods mirror people's eating habits and utilize by-products and waste products from the human food industry, fish flavor cat food is most common in Japan compared to meat or poultry flavors in the USA and Europe. Japan is a fish oriented culture although many younger Japanese people are adopting an American-style meat-rich diet (and suffering American-style obesity and health problems). The increased meat trade in Japan means increased meat by-products which can be utilized by the pet food industry. Multinational or franchise manufacturers tailor their products to the country where it is sold - the same brand will taste quite different depending on whether it is intended for the Japanese market or the European or American markets.

The Japanese cat food industry is self-regulated. Like Britain and North America it requires feeding instructions and a list of ingredients to be displayed on the label or packaging. Japanese pet foods have moved away from the expensive gourmet ingredients as canned cat food is no longer a status symbol, but an everyday item. There is more and more emphasis on healthy diets with ingredients added to boost the immune system or prevent oral disease and on natural additives which reduce fecal and urine odor. Life-stage formula foods are also popular.

Where No Can Has Gone Before

What of cats in places where canned and packet foods are either unavailable or unaffordable? Those cats' diets also mirror the human diet, partly because it is composed of "leftovers". Many cats in rural areas of Japan tuck into a mush of fish and rice while those in Italy tackle pasta as part of their diet. In farmland America a mix called "clabber" (partly composed of thickened milk I think) was fed to farm cats prior to convenience cat foods and of course, the "cat's meat man" selling meat scraps was a common sight in London, England. Many British pet cats still eat pet mince and butchers' scraps, though not usually as their staple diet. In Kenya meat scraps are standard fare for pet cats (though most are expected to be largely self-sufficient) since any cat food must be imported and is hence prohibitively expensive. In the Punjab, house cats are given the rind from meat (e.g. from mutton and goat).

Harbor cats learn to like fish while those in the countryside may come to prefer meat. Feral cats everywhere will tackle almost anything edible; they may have come to prefer certain flavors, but they cannot afford to ignore edible offerings from tourists. I've seen Cretan cats tackle grapes and sponge cake in addition to squid and swordfish, Tunisian cats eating plain omelet, Turkish strays scoffing smoked sausage and scrambled egg, Malaysian moggies eating noodles and egg-fried rice and Kenyan cats eating grain-and-meat "porridge". Their diets often come to mirror not cultural tastes, but tourist tastes.

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