Promoting commercial fishing of Round Goby in the Baltic Sea
RoundGoby

Pilot 6 - Develop round goby pet snacks

01 October 2024
Technical details

Using lab-scale product development techniques, Pilot 6 aims to develop a portfolio of round goby pet snacks that provide additional benefits to pets, e.g. added glucosamine, fibers, omega-3 fatty acids. Our partners TFTAK will experiment with different types of snacks such as dried full-fish snacks, raw snacks, cookies, extruded snacks, and sausage snacks to determine the best combination of ingredients and production methods to produce high-quality and nutritious pet snacks from round goby.  TFTAK will also explore the possibility to use additional components and functional ingredients to create value-added snacks.

Pilot owner: TFTAK

Participating partners: DTU, SUBMARINER, GMU

Method:

During the development process at lab scale, TFTAK will conduct physio-chemical analyses (such as texture analyses, water activity, moisture content, pH), microbiological analyses, sensory studies as well as measuring amino acid profiles, fatty acid profiles, and protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) to ensure the quality and nutritional value of the products. TFTAK will also analyze the nutritional composition of final prototypes.

After developing successful prototypes in the lab, TFTAK will start industrial pilot scale production tests to determine the feasibility and scalability of their pet snacks. Here, our partner will cooperate with local pet food producers, e.g. Pala Pet Food and Petbit.

Finally, TFTAK will conduct shelf-life studies with the industrial pilot scale production prototypes. That includes analysing the prototypes’ shelf-life by using different packages and gas environments. In addition to regular shelf-life, TFTAK will use also accelerated shelf-life studies to evaluate the stability and quality of the snacks faster. They will continue to analyze the physio-chemical and nutritional composition of the products throughout the development and testing process to ensure that the round goby pet snacks meet the highest standards of quality and nutrition.

Progress (April 2025)

RoundGoby partner DTU have contributed with knowhow on, and data from, pilot projects on round goby pet food development done in previous projects. TFTAK has conducted pet food trials where they have made raw snacks, dried snacks and cookies made by whole, minced round goby. In December 2024,  TFTAK did a consumer survey involving 20 dogs and 20 cats to determine what kind of snacks our furry friends like the most. The consumer study was published in January. In March, TFTAK together with their industrial partner Pala Petfood started industrial taste testing of their newly developed round goby-based raw snacks. The sensory test took place at Tallinns international dog show. The treats generated a lot of attention from dogs and their owners. The pet snack tasting will also take place during a workshop at Mission Arena 4, in Sopot, Poland, organised by SUBMARINER Network and co-hosted by the project Baltic Muppets. TFTAK also plans to hold further industrial trials this autumn.