Vet-Concept
Well-being of pets starts before the bowl
What do dogs and cats need to thrive? This question has shaped Vet-Concept since its foundation. As a development partner for the new Nutrex 7 Series extrusion solution, the company contributed its experience, translating its commitment to quality, safety, and responsibility for animal well-being directly into the production technology of the next generation of extruders.
Katja Hartmann, September 2026
Just a few kilometers from Trier, Germany’s oldest city, Vet-Concept is exploring a modern-day question: what kind of food do dogs and cats need to thrive?
Even in Roman Trier, animals lived closely alongside people – dogs as companions and cats primarily as valued helpers that kept mice and other pests at bay. This relationship has changed significantly over the centuries. Companions have become family members, and food has become an important building block for health and well-being. This is precisely where Vet-Concept comes in. At its site in Föhren, the company produces high-quality food for dogs and cats, tailored to different health needs and stages of life.
Since its foundation in 1999, Vet-Concept has been guided by a clear conviction: nutrition can do more than meet an animal’s daily requirements. It can support animal health, promote well-being, and provide pet owners with guidance and reassurance. This commitment runs through every area of the company – from product development and nutritional advice to pet food production.
At its production site, where two Bühler PolyTwin extrusion lines have already been operating since 2015 and 2017, the twin-screw extrusion system Nutrex 7 Series now marks the next step. The expansion is more than an investment in new processing technology. Vet-Concept has chosen an extrusion solution that it actively helped to develop. The company was able to contribute its requirements for hygiene, flexibility, product safety, and process stability at an early stage and sees them consistently reflected in the new generation of extruders.
An idea born in a veterinary waiting room
Vet-Concept’s founders, Anita Theis and Torsten Hertz, met at a vet practice. Both owned a dog, and both were concerned with the question of proper nutrition. “From the very beginning, we firmly believed that every animal is different, and that specific circumstances and illnesses require a much more individual approach,” says Dr Anne Kinast-Dörries, Head Veterinarian at Vet-Concept, who has been responsible for the company’s scientific and veterinary development since 2003.
This insight gave rise to the ambition to develop food for dogs and cats with different needs – from puppies and kittens to senior animals, as well as animals with illnesses or specific dietary requirements, like lowering blood sugar level or allergies. At the time, veterinary diets were not as widely available in the German market as they are today.
Vet-Concept does not view pet food as a lifestyle product, but as a responsibility towards the animal. Love and appreciation are essential, says Dr Kinast-Dörries. However, it is equally important not to humanize dogs and cats, but to respect their natural needs. “Our animals are members of the family – but they remain dogs and cats with their own species-specific needs.” The focus is therefore on healthy nutrition that meets the needs of the individual animal and its species.
Close collaboration with veterinarians and veterinary practices plays a key role in this. Nutrition can only be tailored to an animal’s needs if you know the animal and its individual circumstances. For Vet-Concept, advice is therefore not an additional service, but an integral part of its holistic nutritional approach. When it comes to raw materials, quality also takes precedence over price. Stefan Spiegel, a certified miller and Production Manager at Vet-Concept, says: “Our aim is to purchase based on quality, not price; only then can we use higher-quality raw materials.” Anyone producing food for sensitive animals and special requirements must take a consistent approach to quality – from the selection of raw materials and production through to the finished kibble.
Our animals are members of the family – but they remain dogs and cats with their own species-specific needs.
Dr. Anne Kinast-Dörries,
Head Veterinarian at Vet-Concept
Small batches, sensitive recipes, exacting requirements
For pet owners, individually tailored nutrition means meeting an animal’s specific needs. For production, however, it presents specific challenges. Alongside larger standard production runs, Vet-Concept manufactures a wide range of specialized recipes in varying batch sizes. Frequent product changes and changeovers are part of everyday production. At the same time, every single recipe must meet the highest standards of process reliability, hygiene, and product quality. Each variety must be produced reliably and reproducibly, with consistently high quality.
Vet-Concept also supports scientific projects in collaboration with universities and research institutions. For some of these projects, batches of just 500 kilograms are extruded to investigate specific questions under real-world production conditions.
“With our products, it is important to produce each variety without cross-contamination and ensure consistently high product quality. That requires planning, cleaning, and a production setup designed for sensitive recipes,” says Spiegel. The sequence in which standard and highly sensitive foods are produced must be planned carefully. Cleaning and short changeover times also play an important role in efficiency.
This is complemented by an understanding of quality that extends beyond the external shape of the kibble. What matters is how the raw materials, recipe, processing, structure and, ultimately, digestion in the animal interact. Particularly with sensitive recipes, this requires precise coordination across every stage of the process.
Achieving this level of precision takes experience. Spiegel has been familiar with these processes since the beginning of his career. As a trained miller, he began working with Bühler equipment early on. Vet-Concept’s former production partners also used Bühler technology. When the company brought production in-house in 2015, it chose two Bühler PolyTwin lines. The initial goal was to produce its proven recipes reliably in-house. In practice, the benefits went further: some challenging recipes, particularly potato-based products, performed better on the company’s own lines. Extrusion had a noticeable effect on the kibble, the degree of processing and, consequently, the animals’ acceptance of the food.
For Vet-Concept, technology is therefore closely linked to its own commitment to quality. At the same time, a growing company needs production capacity that can keep pace with demand without compromising on quality or safety.
“We saw the exacting requirements that Vet-Concept places on the production of small batches and sensitive recipes,” says Andreas Moster, Area Sales Manager at Bühler. “We wanted not only to understand these requirements, but also to incorporate them specifically into the development process. It was therefore an obvious choice for us to involve Vet-Concept in the development of the Nutrex 7 Series at an early stage.”
When practical experience shapes development
Four decades of experience in extrusion and hundreds of installations worldwide provided Bühler with the foundation for developing the Nutrex 7 Series. But the perspective of the equipment manufacturer alone would not be enough for the next generation of twin-screw extrusion. “The benefits of the Nutrex 7 Series are strongly rooted in experience gained in industrial production environments, where equipment must be operated, cleaned, changed over and maintained every day. The key was to take a holistic view of the extrusion system within the food and feed processing chain,” explains David Meile, Project Manager R&D at Bühler.
Bühler approached customers in the food and feed industries to incorporate their experience into the development process at an early stage. Vet-Concept was invited to contribute its requirements and expectations for pet food production. Over the course of several months, meetings and discussions with the Bühler team developed into a productive, practice-oriented collaboration. “We were able to contribute our experience particularly in the area of hygiene. Issues such as better access for cleaning and the arrangement of technical components are crucial in day-to-day operations. Bühler took on board and implemented a great deal of our input,” says Spiegel.
The benefits of the Nutrex 7 Series are strongly rooted in experience gained in industrial production environments, where equipment must be operated, cleaned, changed over, and maintained every day.
David Meile,
Project Manager R&D at Bühler
Technology that simplifies everyday operations
With the Nutrex 7 Series, Bühler is pursuing a holistic approach. “We focused on four main categories: hygienic design, process stability, integrated intelligence and service excellence. The aim of all four is to increase overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE, for our customers,” says Stefanie Hardtmann, Product Management Value Nutrition at Bühler.
For Vet-Concept, these categories are most relevant when their benefits can be felt in everyday operations. A system must not only deliver performance; it must also remain predictable, accessible, and easy to manage. Particularly where product changes are frequent and recipes are sensitive, what matters is how easily processes can be monitored, how quickly operators can respond, and how reliably the system can be brought into a stable production state.
The Nutrex 7 Series is therefore designed for short and efficient cleaning processes. The system is made of stainless steel and designed for wet cleaning both inside and outside. The hygiene concept is complemented by solutions such as the patented cleaning lance, which supports effective internal cleaning while also helping to improve operator safety.
“Externally, we opted for a more streamlined extruder design. The raised base frame provides greater ground clearance, while the hydraulic unit has been moved from beneath the extruder to its side. This provides direct access for cleaning equipment, simplifying the cleaning process and reducing cleaning time,” explains Meile.
The control system has also been redesigned. It provides a schematic overview of the individual process steps – from weighing, preconditioning and extrusion through to cutting. The browser-based control system enables monitoring and operation from any location. Messages and alarms can be identified quickly, allowing operators to respond more effectively.
Another component is StepFlow. When an extrusion process is started, it often initially produces material that does not yet meet the required quality standards. Vet-Concept is also familiar with this start-up material. “We send material like this for biogas production, where it is used to generate electricity,” says Spiegel. But avoiding waste is better than recovering it: every reduction in start-up losses saves raw materials, time, and energy. This is precisely where StepFlow’s strength lies. "The StepFlow function automatically executes the fastest start-up procedure based on predefined production parameters. This can reduce waste by up to 30 percent per production run,” says Adrian Staerkle, Team Manager R&D Automation Software at Bühler.
When you see that your own experience has been taken on board and implemented, it creates trust – and that is an essential prerequisite for an investment.
Stefan Spiegel,
Production Manager at Vet-Concept
Watch this video to learn more about Pet well-being starts before the bowl | Vet-Concept and Bühler
Co-development builds trust
The Nutrex 7 Series is designed as a modular extrusion platform capable of meeting a wide range of requirements in food and feed applications. The Vet-Concept project is a strong example of why Bühler involved customers in the development process at an early stage: many requirements emerge not at the drawing board, but during day-to-day operations.
For Vet-Concept, the collaboration was therefore more than a technical exchange. “It is important to us that a system is designed with real-world production in mind,” says Spiegel. “When you see that your own experience has been taken on board and implemented, it creates trust – and that is an essential prerequisite for an investment.”
The expansion in Föhren therefore brings two developments together: the growth of a company that consistently puts animal health at the heart of its work, and a new generation of extruders co-developed based on practical industrial experience. Vet-Concept’s story began in a veterinary waiting room. Today, it continues in a production environment where quality, responsibility, and technology come together – long before the food reaches the bowl.
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