Tara Zedayko
Chief Scientific Officer
Ollie Pets
Tara Zedayko is the chief scientific officer at Ollie, bringing over 20 years of expertise in life sciences, consumer product innovation and healthcare commercialization. A distinguished health tech executive, innovator and inventor, Zedayko holds more than nine patents spanning human and pet health technologies. Her research has been featured in more than eight peer-reviewed articles, earning hundreds of citations in both engineering and medical journals. Before joining Ollie, she founded and successfully exited DIG Labs, a health technology startup where her groundbreaking AI-driven image analysis helped tens of thousands of users annually. Zedayko is also a registered patent agent, further underscoring her deep technical and regulatory expertise. She earned her bachelor of science and engineering from Cornell University and master of business administration from New York University.
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Tue Apr 29 1:30 PM - 2:35 PM | Pet food market sessions: Market data with health and wellness deep dive KCCC 2103C - 2025 pet economy report — Diana Rosero-Pena, equity research analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence, shares highlights from the company’s recently released “2025 Pet Economy Report,” indicating the global pet care industry will expand more than 45% to exceed US$500 billion by 2030. Regionally, the findings suggest the U.S. will remain the biggest pet food market, and Europe may account for about a third of the world market, though other regions may expand more quickly; and China could grow more than 50% to US$49 billion, with Alibaba dominating e-commerce. Investments from U.S. online pure plays like Chewy could push e-tail up 87% to account for nearly 30% of the pet economy.
- How perceptions of health and wellness impact US pet owner attitudes and pet food spending — Shannon Landry, pet brand manager, Packaged Facts, reviews new consumer research showing that U.S. pet owners who have been freely spending throughout the economic hardships of the past several years may have finally reached their limit, with many starting to economize by changing the types of products they are purchasing. A shift is taking place in the U.S. pet food market, pitting higher-priced superpremium products against lower-priced alternatives, with pet health and wellness at the center of the shift. Landry analyzes pet food trends in this context, including formulations that pet owners gravitate toward; ingredient trends such as functional, sustainability-based and animal-welfare claims; and consumer insights into the use of pet food as part of pet health and wellness care.
- Leveraging a ‘foodback’ loop to integrate real-world pet health data into recipe design, product innovation — Tara Zedayko, chief scientific officer, Ollie Pets, explain how incorporating consumer-driven health insights into pet food product development has become an essential strategy for advancing pet nutrition. She shares insights into Ollie’s unique “Foodback” loop, which helps create data-informed recipes and improve pet health outcomes based on direct customer insights. The Foodback loop connects pet health data, such as digestive, skin and coat, and weight metrics, with dietary information from customers, yielding actionable insights that influence recipe design, marketing language and digital experience.
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