Pet Food Maker Muenster Milling Opens New Freeze-Drying Facility in Texas

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Muenster Milling Company, an extruded and freeze-dried pet food manufacturer, has announced the completion of its new freeze-drying facility in Denton, Texas. The new, vertically-integrated facility includes raw meat processing capabilities that can produce a variety of protein blends and nutritional profiles, state-of-the-art freeze drying and turnkey retail packaging in many sizes. With the opening of the new facility and warehouse, which occupy nearly 120,000 square feet, Muenster now operates more than 20 freeze dryers, with capacity to add more.

Muenster has in-house product design and formulation capabilities to complement its customers’ development efforts, and its new freeze-drying facility can process and form several popular proteins in a variety of shapes and sizes. Muenster can formulate and produce 100 percent freeze-dried complete and balanced meals, functional freeze-dried treats and toppers as well as single-ingredient treats. Muenster also offers customers a variety of kill step options that meet their brand requirements.

Leveraging Muenster’s existing kibble extrusion capabilities, the facility has automated mixing and blending equipment to produce “Kibble Plus” and “Freeze Dried Plus” product formats, which pair one or multiple different freeze-dried proteins with kibble and freeze-dried vegetables. The facility is also equipped with automated packaging equipment that can run sizes from one-ounce sample packages to five-pound bags. Muenster has invested heavily in its R&D and quality organization to deliver the highest quality pet food products in the market. Muenster’s in-house R&D capabilities include formulation and product development to help customers create products that fit their specific needs and product formats. Additionally, with Muenster’s extrusion facility, customers have a full turnkey contract manufacturer for kibble as a component to their product.

Jim Holdrieth, CEO of Muenster Milling, said, “Freeze dried is a versatile product format that can be a meal, functional treat, inclusion, or topper, and it remains one of the fastest growing categories within pet food, experiencing double digit volume growth and $1 billion of sales in 2023. Many brands are increasingly looking to enter or grow within the category, and they require sophisticated manufacturing partners to help them do so. This new facility has all the capabilities under one roof that brands and retailers need to bring their innovation pipelines to life.”