The Origin and Development of Dog Food

    In 1860, James Spratt, an electrician from Cincinnati, went to London to sell lightning rods. When his ship arrived in England, he came across his dog's fondness for biscuits discarded by sailors. Then, he had an idea, quickly took flour, vegetables, meat and water, mix together, began to make and sell dog food. Thus was born the first commercial dog food.

    Sixty-two years later, in 1922, the Chappel Brothers sold the leftovers as dog food back to the United States, in addition to providing canned horsemeat to refugees in France, the Netherlands and Italy. At its peak, the company could slaughter up to 50,000 horses a year.

    In 1954, Ralston-Purina tried mixing rice flour, salt and sugar with ingredients such as emulsified animal liver, skim milk and soybean flour, mixing them into a slurry and drying them on asphalt. It mimics a taste similar to popcorn and is loved by pet dogs.

    In 1957, Americans applied the puffing process in food to pet food, and the world's first bag of puffed dog food was created. Since then, pet food produced by puffing technology has occupied the main position of pet food with its absolute advantages such as comprehensive and balanced nutrition, convenient feeding and time saving. Thirty YEARS LATER, IN 1987, $2.7 billion OF dog food was sold in supermarkets in the United States alone, with sales of 2.64 million tons.