AFB International
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1986
- HeadquartersSt. Charles, United States
- Headcount251–500
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
AFB International firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- AFB International
- Legal name
- AFB International
- Website
- https://afbinternational.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1986
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 251–500 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
AFB International industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Pet Food Palatants / Pet Food Ingredients
- NAICS
- Animal Food Manufacturing (3111), Other Animal Food Manufacturing (311119)
- SIC
- Agricultural Prod-Livestock & Animal Specialties (200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Palatants, Flavors & Sweeteners (Intake Enhancers) (AFADAKAL)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Pet Food & Treat Ingredient Inputs (Rendered Meals/Fats, Palatants) (AFANAGAH), Co-Products & Pet Food Ingredients from Meat (Offal, Trimmings) (AFAKALAI)
Keywords
Where AFB International is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- St. Charles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices10 records
Markets served
AFB International business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Supply Chain, Operations, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Palatant Product Sales: AFB International generates revenue by manufacturing and selling palatant ingredient systems (liquid, dry, or combined forms) to pet food manufacturers. These are applied topically to pet food to improve sensory appeal and food consumption. Revenue is derived from product sales with pricing based on formulation complexity, volume, and ingredient specifications.
- Technical Services: AFB provides technical services including R&D support, palatability trials, analytical testing, regulatory affairs guidance, and customer technical insight. These services complement product sales and support customer product development.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels6 records
AFB International product offering
Product offeringCore offering
AFB International manufactures and sells palatants — ingredient systems specially designed to improve pet food consumption by appealing to pets' sensory capacities (olfactory, chemaesthetic, taste, and texture). These palatants are applied topically to pet food in liquid, dry, or combined forms and are supplied to pet food manufacturers worldwide. The company complements its product portfolio with technical services including R&D, behavior assessment, pilot plant co-development, palatability testing, analytical testing, and regulatory affairs support.
Product overview
AFB International is the leader in pet food palatability, providing a comprehensive portfolio of palatant products and services. The core offering consists of palatants—ingredient systems specially designed to improve pet food consumption by appealing to pets' sensory capacities. These are offered in multiple variants including Clean Label, Functional Ingredients, Protein Source, Specialized Diet, Wet Food for Cats, and Sustainable Ingredient formulations. AFB delivers these palatants in liquid, dry, or combined forms applied topically to pet food. Complementing the product portfolio, AFB offers a full suite of services including Research and Development, Behavior Assessment (Performance Beyond Consumption), Pilot Plant capabilities, Technical Palatability Testing, Analytical Testing with electronic sensors, Regulatory Affairs support, and Customer Technical Insight services. Together, the palatant products and supporting services enable pet food manufacturers to optimize food appeal for cats and dogs.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Palatants AFB's core palatant product line — ingredient systems applied topically to pet food in liquid, dry, or combined forms to improve food consumption by appealing to pets' olfactory, chemaesthetic, taste, and texture sensory capacities. Sold to pet food manufacturers.
- Clean Label Palatants Palatant solutions designed to meet clean label attributes with recognizable ingredients, short ingredient lists, and no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. Targeted at pet food brands pursuing clean label positioning.
- Functional Ingredients Palatants Palatants designed to deliver additional health benefits to cats and dogs, applied to the outside of kibble or mixed into wet food. Targeted at functional pet food formulations.
- Protein Source Palatants Palatants that may be meat or non-meat-based depending on desired performance targets, cost requirements, and label claims, including options for novel proteins not commonly found in pet food.
- Specialized Diet Palatants Palatants designed to increase performance of specialized diets that cannot use fat or other typical palatability drivers due to specific formulation constraints (e.g., weight management, senior, limited ingredient diets).
- Wet Food Palatants for Cats Palatant solutions leveraging deep expertise in wet food applications to help brands develop wet cat food products that cats love, addressing the inherent complexity of wet cat food palatability.
- Sustainable Ingredient Palatants Palatants using ingredients with less environmental impact, including upcycled raw materials (e.g., chicken, pork, yeast by-products) to reduce pet food's overall carbon footprint.
- Research and Development Services Global R&D services using scientific approaches and advanced technologies (including AI-driven palatability prediction) to help pet food manufacturer customers maximize pet food performance and accelerate product development.
- Pilot Plant Services Pilot plant process research laboratory featuring a pilot-sized scalable manufacturing platform capable of producing palatants as well as dog and cat food prototypes, located in St. Charles, Missouri, USA. Supports customer co-development projects.
- Technical Palatability Testing Services Palatability trials conducted to measure a pet's acceptance or preference for food, using cats and dogs to evaluate food preferences for customer pet food formulations.
- Analytical Testing Services Electronic nose and tongue sensors used to approximate and quantify the overall smell and taste of food, similar to how animals experience food, shortening flavor development cycles and enabling rapid screening of multiple formulations before palatability trials.
- Behavior Assessment Services Applied Behavior Support team services that quantify pets' behavioral responses to food beyond mere consumption volume (Performance Beyond Consumption), augmenting technical consumption data with deeper acceptance and preference insights.
- Regulatory Affairs Services Global regulatory team services helping pet food manufacturers navigate varying regulations for pet food and pet food palatants across states and countries.
Companies that use AFB International
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
AFB International technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature5 records
AFB International partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- AFB Australia Joint Venture PartnerminorAFB Australia operations are conducted through a joint venture arrangement, representing a minority partnership structure for serving the Australia and New Zealand markets.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
AFB International competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Phodé: Phodé develops sensory and olfaction-based ingredients for animal feed and pet food, including palatability enhancers derived from natural sources. It is a niche, science-led emerging player that overlaps with AFB in functional palatant solutions for feed and pet food.
- Novonesis (Chr. Hansen / Novozymes): Novonesis combines bio-science and enzyme/probiotic capabilities applied to animal nutrition, including palatability and gut-health adjacencies in pet food. It is an emerging bioscience-driven player intersecting with AFB on functional and health-positioned palatant solutions.
- Vitiva: Vitiva is a specialty ingredient supplier with a focus on natural flavors, palatants, and antioxidants for the animal feed and pet food industries. It is a smaller, focused competitor addressing some of the same palatability and clean-label use cases as AFB.
Direct peers
- Mane Group: Mane is a global flavor house that sells into pet food palatability and animal nutrition, offering flavors and taste solutions for pet food and feed manufacturers. Mane is a direct competitor in the sensory/palatant ingredient layer of the pet food value chain.
- Symrise (Diana Pet Food): Symrise's Diana Pet Food division is the closest direct competitor to AFB International, manufacturing palatants, flavors, and functional ingredients for pet food manufacturers worldwide. Both companies compete head-to-head for global pet food manufacturer accounts using similar B2B ingredient models.
- Kemin Industries: Kemin Industries' pet food and rendering technologies business supplies palatants, antimicrobials, and functional ingredients to pet food manufacturers globally. Kemin competes with AFB in palatability enhancers and shares a similar B2B go-to-market selling proprietary ingredient systems to formulators.
Broad incumbents
- Kerry Group: Kerry Group is a large taste and nutrition company with a pet food and animal nutrition portfolio that competes broadly with AFB in flavors and palatants. As a diversified incumbent, Kerry offers overlapping pet food palatant capabilities alongside a much wider food and beverage ingredient portfolio.
- ADM Animal Nutrition: ADM is a global agribusiness and ingredient company that supplies animal feed, pet food ingredients, and rendering products to manufacturers. Its pet food ingredient footprint overlaps with AFB's rendering-derived palatant inputs, though ADM's pet palatant focus is less specialized than AFB's.
- Nutreco / Trouw Nutrition: Nutreco, through Trouw Nutrition and its pet food ingredient activities, supplies specialty feed ingredients, premixes, and palatability solutions to the pet food and livestock industries. It is a broad incumbent with overlapping pet food ingredient capabilities.
- BASF Animal Nutrition: BASF's animal nutrition business supplies vitamins, feed additives, and palatability-related ingredients to the livestock and pet food industries. As a diversified chemical and life-sciences incumbent, BASF competes with AFB at the intersection of feed additives and pet food ingredient systems.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
AFB International social profiles
Digital presenceAFB International compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance7 records
AFB International financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
AFB International leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
AFB International subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries2 records
AFB International funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
AFB International M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about AFB International
What does AFB International do?
AFB International manufactures and sells palatants — ingredient systems specially designed to improve pet food consumption by appealing to pets' sensory capacities (olfactory, chemaesthetic, taste, and texture). These palatants are applied topically to pet food in liquid, dry, or combined forms and are supplied to pet food manufacturers worldwide. The company complements its product portfolio with technical services including R&D, behavior assessment, pilot plant co-development, palatability testing, analytical testing, and regulatory affairs support.
Is AFB International a public or private company?
AFB International is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was AFB International founded?
AFB International was founded in 1986. It employs 251 to 500 people.
Where is AFB International based?
AFB International is headquartered in St. Charles, United States, in the North America region.
How does AFB International make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Palatant Product Sales are the primary driver. The others are technical Services.
Who are AFB International's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Phodé, Novonesis (Chr. Hansen / Novozymes) and Vitiva. Direct peers are Mane Group, Symrise (Diana Pet Food) and Kemin Industries. Broad incumbents are Kerry Group, ADM Animal Nutrition, Nutreco / Trouw Nutrition and BASF Animal Nutrition.
Does AFB International have an API?
No public API is recorded for AFB International.
What industry is AFB International in?
AFB International's product category is Pet Food Palatants / Pet Food Ingredients. Its primary akta.pro industry code is AFADAKAL, Palatants, Flavors & Sweeteners (Intake Enhancers), with a secondary code of AFANAGAH, Pet Food & Treat Ingredient Inputs (Rendered Meals/Fats, Palatants). Its NAICS code is 3111 and its SIC code is 200.