Profiling Italian cat and dog owners' perception of pet food quality in purchasing habits

Introduction. In recent years, consumers' sensitivity towards pet care is growing and also attention on nutrition, seen as a way to guarantee welfare, is increasing[1]. However, there is still some concern about consumers' evaluation of pet food quality and about the labels' clarity. The aim of the study is to profile which pet food characteristics are seen as quality indicators by pet owners in Italy. Animals, material and methods. A questionnaire for dog and/or cat owners was designed and administered by trained staff in different pet stores and during sector fairs in Italy, from March to November 2018. The survey (10 questions) was divided into two sections. The first part was designed to profile the population sample. In the second part, pet owners were asked to score from 1 (not important at all) to 5 (fundamental) the relevance of specific quality-associated characteristics in the decision-making process of pet food choice. Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions were calculated. Multivariate correspondence analyses between scores and specific population segments were then carried out. Results and discussion. In total, 935 surveys were collected. Descriptive statistics showed a higher percentage of female owners (58.8%) among pet food buyers. Participants were divided almost equally between dog owners (36.9%), cat owners (33.4%), or both (29.7%). Almost one-third (31%) of consumers asked for veterinary advice on pet food. An equal percentage (31.7%) relies also in information provided by major brands in their websites. The claim "Contains natural ingredients" received the highest score (4.3 on 5 - Table 1) by consumers, confirming today's market trends [1]. Multivariate correspondence analysis showed differences in decision-making. Elder consumers (>65 y) give less relevance to the presence of recyclable packaging, natural ingredients and to healthy stool appearance. Younger owners (<35 y) put more attention on stool appearance, label clarity, high percentage of protein and presence of recyclable packaging, while pet food appearance and odor are less relevant. Appearance, odour, higher cost and some label indication (high protein and no grain content) are more relevant for wet pet food buyers. Cat owners give more importance to pet food appearance and odour, but less to recyclable packaging, while dog owners focus more on presence of meat as first ingredient in the composition and on healthy stool appearance. Conclusion. Information from this Italian survey can help pet food companies to identify factors that influence the perceived quality of the purchased products for both dog and cat owners.