The Symrise Pet Care Palatants range from Symrise AG - tailored taste for demanding dogs and cats

Reviewed: ad hoc news B2B & Pro desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-27, 17:04. Details in the imprint.

The Symrise Pet Care Palatants range is not something you will ever see on a supermarket shelf, yet you can smell it the moment a dog’s kibble bag is opened and a warm, meaty scent rolls into the kitchen. The powders and liquids cling to each piece of food like a fine coating, turning otherwise neutral croquettes into something animals approach with clear interest. For product manager Dr. Gabriele Gerlach, the job is simple to describe and hard to execute: make pets eat more willingly, without owners noticing anything artificial.

What the palatants do

Symrise Pet Care Palatants are specialized flavor-enhancing ingredients that are applied to dry and wet pet food to increase palatability, or how eagerly dogs and cats accept and consume their meals. They are typically sprayed or dusted onto kibble after extrusion, forming a thin aromatic layer that pets detect as soon as the bowl hits the floor. Instead of changing the nutritional core of the food, the palatants sit on the surface and speak directly to the animal’s nose and taste receptors.

The portfolio spans palatants based on meat, fish, and more neutral savory profiles, plus specific solutions for sensitive formulas, grain-free recipes, and specialized veterinary diets. For a pet food developer, this means being able to match the coating precisely with the recipe’s positioning, choosing chicken, beef or ocean fish notes, or opting for lighter profiles that do not overpower a careful nutritional message. In practice, a dry kibble that smelled flat can suddenly carry a clean, sharp chicken aroma that makes a hesitant dog start crunching within seconds.

How Symrise engineers taste

To build these palatants, Symrise combines expertise from its flavor business with animal nutrition research at its pet food palatability centers. In those facilities, dogs and cats participate in controlled feeding trials where different coated kibbles are offered side by side and researchers measure which bowl they choose first and how much they eat from each. This two-bowl test sounds playful, but it provides hard preference data that guides fine-tuning of each palatant’s aroma profile.

Dr. Gerlach and her colleagues use insights from these trials to adjust reaction temperatures, raw material blends and encapsulation methods until a coating reaches a consistent preference advantage versus benchmark products. A manufacturer might, for example, request a beef palatant that keeps its intensity even after high-temperature drying; Symrise then adapts the process so the resulting powder still releases a robust meaty note when the kibble bag is opened weeks later. That systematic, data-driven approach is what Symrise highlights when marketing its Pet Care Palatants to major pet food brands.

From kitchen bowl to factory line

Palatants from Symrise are sold business-to-business to pet food manufacturers worldwide and integrated into production lines where extruded kibble is cooled and then coated. A typical sequence sees the dry croquettes travel on a conveyor belt while a spray system applies liquid palatant and fat, sometimes followed by a dusting of dry powder for extra aroma. The goal is a tidy, even coverage that does not leave sticky residues on packaging but still delivers a clear sensory signal to the animal.

In a home kitchen, the result is visible and very tactile: a handful of coated kibble feels slightly smoother and more oily than uncoated pieces, and the smell is sharper and more defined. A dog might sniff the bowl, give one tentative bite, then commit, crunching steadily as the meaty notes bloom. For pet owners, that quiet shift from reluctance to eager eating is where the industrial work done by Symrise and its palatant designers becomes tangible.

Balancing taste and nutrition

Symrise emphasizes that its Pet Care Palatants are developed to support, not override, the nutritional concept of modern pet food. That is particularly relevant for segments such as hypoallergenic diets or formulas targeting weight management, where a stronger aroma might be needed to encourage acceptance without altering calorie density or ingredient lists. The palatant provides flavor while the underlying recipe delivers protein, fiber, and micronutrients as specified by the pet food brand.

In recent years, Symrise has also invested in more natural palatant solutions based on identifiable meat sources and clearer ingredient declarations, responding to pet owners who read labels almost as carefully as they do for their own food. That trend plays to Symrise’s broader competence in natural flavors and extracts across human food and beverage categories, allowing cross-pollination of technologies. CEO Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Bertram has repeatedly highlighted pet food as a growth area that benefits from this portfolio synergy in interviews and presentations.

Why this matters for Symrise AG

For Symrise AG, Pet Care Palatants represent a quiet but strategic B2B niche within its Taste, Nutrition & Health segment, adding recurring, contract-based revenue from global pet food manufacturers. The products do not carry the Symrise brand on packaging, but they help large and mid-sized brands differentiate their kibble in a crowded market where repeat purchase often depends on whether the dog or cat truly enjoys the food. That embedded role makes palatants part of the company’s long-term customer relationships rather than short-lived trends.

Symrise AG shares are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange; without a verified current price, investors mainly see Pet Care Palatants as one of several cash-generating building blocks in the group’s flavor and fragrance portfolio.

This article was AI-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without guarantee; prices and availability may change at short notice. No investment advice, no buy or sell recommendation. Stock-market transactions involve risks up to total loss.