AFB International

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

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

• Pet food palatants
• Pet food ingredients
• Palatability enhancers
• Animal feed additives
• Pet food manufacturing

Headquarters

HQ city

St. Charles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices10 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. 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.
2. 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

Core 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.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• AFB Australia Joint Venture PartnerminorOthersAFB 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

Emerging 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

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCZAVKEWILsmCp5Hb320EcnQ
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/afb-international

Compliance7 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about AFB International