From Nantes, Fi Europe in Paris is only a two-hour TGV train ride. You show up to the gate 10 minutes before departure (after my seven-minute bike ride), skip the airport shuffle, and land a handful of tram or metro stops from the Versailles Expo Center. It turned 100 years old in 2025 and is surrounded by amazing restaurants, most serving affordable, local and in-season foods.
The sustainability math is equally comforting: high-speed rail in France runs around 3 g CO₂ per passenger-km, making it one of the most sustainable ways to travel, compared to about 87 g for a short inland flight. For context, long-haul cross-Atlantic economy flights sit nearer 195 g, while U.S. domestic legs reach around 188 g per passenger-km.
After last year’s Zoomark tradeshow in Bologna, Italy (trams under construction, packed buses, rideshare cancellations, and forced transport by foot), Fi Europe felt like logistics à la carte instead of an obstacle course.
Ingredients of the Future
Fi Europe 2025 (officially Food Ingredients Europe) is an ingredient show where human trends foreshadow what will soon hit pet. For the event’s 30th anniversary last year, its fairly new pet food section continued to grow for obvious reasons — more than 1,550 exhibitors across three pavilions, with 24,500 visitors from over 150 countries.
This year, sustainability was not a differentiator, it was a given, and alternative proteins weren’t a sideshow, they were center stage. Pulses are getting gentler on digestion thanks to innovative processing, algae ingredients are quietly scaling, and one of the opening presentations set a refreshing trend: “Fiber is the next protein.”
Two sessions stuck with me. A panel on “turning risk into resilience” challenged companies to stop waiting for organic change and to “design for affordability and accessibility” because the consumer base is shifting. Then, one of Mintel’s presentations echoed a headline-grabber: dogs on well-built plant-based diets may live up to 18 months longer than those on meat-based diets, citing research done by the University of Guelph. This is still being heavily debated, but it’s fueling serious formulation talk.
Another presentation proved that postbiotics have moved from concept to outcome, echoed by Cargill’s postbiotics winning the innovation award in 2024 and clinical validation of ADM’s oral care postbiotics earlier in 2025. During the presentation, someone asked if it’s possible to combine different types of biotics. The presenter acknowledged it could bring interesting synergies, and I had to smile a little knowing pet foods and treats with pre-, pro- and postbiotics are already available in the U.S.
Truly new to my formulator ears: spermidine, a fermentation-derived polyamine tied to cellular renewal via autophagy. The name will undoubtfully test marketer skills, but it fits the need for more innovative and science-proven ingredients for our aging and senior pets.
What Retailers are Saying
“Sustainability” alone rarely closes a sale. The European case for alternative proteins is shifting to resilience and function — fewer shocks when poultry or bovine by-products tighten, amino acid coverage without volatile inputs, and visible pet benefits like digestive comfort, hypoallergenic positioning, or calmer stools.
The World Health Organization (WHO) drumbeat for sustainable protein alternatives gives air cover, while FEDIAF’s Insect-based Ingredients in Pet Food Factsheet (free, clear, practical) normalizes the discussion for retailers and vets. This is something AAFCO’s paywalled nutrition guidelines could probably learn from, as quality education is both key and increasingly complex in a tsunami of misinformation that we’re all learning to surf.
On the ground, strategy is adjusting. In the UK, leading retailer Pets at Home publicly admitted parts of its range fell out of favor and that customers are seeking more plant-based, vegan, and organic options. This doesn’t herald a meatless Europe, but it does signal a need for portfolios that flex. Cultivated meat remains pilot-scale, while fermentation-derived microbial proteins gain traction, sold on benefits first, ingredient origin second. C’est la base (it’s the base).
Spotlight on Zooplus
Zooplus is Europe’s largest dedicated online pet retailer, operating local shops across 30 countries with a heavy mix of own brands, subscriptions, and loyalty that drive repeat spend. Its site is built for the way Europeans shop, making it a useful barometer for EU pet trends. Its recent leadership shift matters: Lionel Desclée (ex-executive of Walmart and Tom&Co) took the helm to sharpen execution across a variety of cultures, and we hope he has The Culture Map on his nightstand.
Navigating the platform’s UX confirmed to me how EU retail thinks. Price per kilo sorting sits up front (thank you for the math!), pushing shoppers to cost-per-day or -year logic rather than sticker shock. Discount bands are explicit (>5%, >10%, >25%) and seem to have more importance than ratings, whether by design or by default. Health filters reflect local practice: Zooplus surfaces categories like liver care and lets you sort by country of manufacture. For fun, Germany alone returns 344 dog treat SKUs, followed by the Netherlands (88 SKUS) and Austria (55 SKUs). There are two U.S.-made dog treats available: kudos to KONG Stuff’N Peanut Butter and ProDen PlaqueOff, while most specialty treats by Hill’s Pet Nutrition are listed as made in France.
Compare this to Chewy in the U.S. The online retailer’s “special diets” taxonomy runs wider: around 22 tags for treats (high fiber, human grade, yeast-free, etc.), including both plant-based and vegan (which can double-count; I spotted 11 plant-based versus 39 vegan entries, suggesting a tagging quirk).
On insects, the divergence between these two retailers is starker. Chewy lists roughly eight insect-based dog foods, while Zooplus shows about 28. Many insect-based products in the EU lead with hypoallergenic attributes if only insects are used, but most adopt a mixed strategy, pairing insect proteins with other “traditional” animal proteins to make the switch easier to more skeptical pet parents. Fun find: Wilderness dried rabbit ears with fur, which seems to be a plus here in Europe. Culture wins again and chacun ses goûts (everyone has their own taste), so build your labels accordingly.
2026 Euro Trip?
Hopefully, GlobalPETS Forum in Istanbul was on your must-attend list for early 2026 (last year’s presentation by Musti was a masterclass in retail strategy and ecosystem thinking). And don’t miss Interzoo in Nuremberg, Germany, which runs every other year in May. Pro tip: the last day (the “dead” day at U.S. shows) of Fi Europe 2025 was one of my busiest. Don’t end your attendance of international industry events early!
Lastly, when it comes to travel, remember the EU and the US are pretty much the opposite. Book early (you won’t get great options by “just paying more”), travel by train when you can, and bring fewer buzzwords. Europe is rewarding what’s hard to copy: formulation nuance, true innovation, and packaging that actually recycles where you sell it.
