Or do you want to reformulate one of your existing products into a new format, like a soft chew?

Success starts with your product and finishes with your team at a trusted CDMO. So whatever your objective, choosing the right soft chew contract manufacturer can help you deliver products that are high quality, scalable, stable, palatable and profitable.

But don’t let your eagerness to go to market prevent you from finding the right partner. According to The Business Journals publications, more than 30,000 new consumer products are launched each year – and about 80% of them fail. How do you make sure you don’t land in that 80%? By working with the best soft chew contract manufacturer.

Experience Matters in Soft Chew Contract Manufacturing

Once you’ve established your objectives and defined your soft chew product’s direction, you’ll want to find a soft chew contract manufacturer with a proven track record.

Manufacturing high quality soft chews is a science. An experienced contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) will understand individual ingredients and how they combine to produce soft chews that are palatable to animals. They’ll know levels of actives to include to maintain efficacy over the shelf life. And they will understand their system requirements so your soft chews will have uniform shape and consistency and content uniformity. This is a precise skill.

Soft chews are easy to administer if they taste yummy. Flavors and flavor enhancers are what make soft chews palatable. Your contract manufacturer should be well versed in this area and have test results showing pet acceptability.

Why Product Development Is Important

Even if you already have a formulation, it should be refined and tested to be manufactured at a specific facility. Your soft chew contract manufacturer should have a robust development team that will work with you to refine your product and the ingredients. In-house testing is also a plus, so you know you are delivering high quality stable products.

In the early development phase, your contract manufacturer will want to understand your goals, budget and timing. Raw material requirements and packaging concepts will inform initial options and pricing. The process continues with the production of test batches for analysis and formula adjustments. Once the formula is finalized and certified for quality, packaging and branding are developed and commercial production begins. From start to finish, creating a new product takes about a year. While the risk may be high, the reward is great if you can successfully create and own a new market niche.

Your first meeting with a Soft Chew Contract Manufacturer

Before you meet with a contract manufacturer, prepare a list of questions to help you decide who would be the best to work on your project.

• What credentials does the CDMO have – FDA, cGMP, EPA, NASC, etc.?
• Does the Contract Manufacturer have a Product Development team and process, as well as Quality Control and Quality Assurance teams?
• Is their soft chew system fully automated? How many units are produce per hour?
• Are there minimum order requirements?
• Is the CDMO fully transparent in the production and formulation of chews?
• Does the contract manufacturer offer turnkey services – from product development to package design and quality controls, to finished goods testing?
• Are the values of the CDMO consistent with your company values?
• If the contract manufacturer sells its own private label products, is there a conflict of interest?

When it comes to pharmaceuticals and supplements for pets, consider Precision Science for your soft chew contract manufacturing needs. For answers to your pet product contract manufacturing questions, explore our FAQs or call us at (623) 492-9190 to see how you can benefit from working with us on your next project.