PET FOOD PRODUCT

Abstract

A pet food product comprising a fat component in an amount of from 2.0 wt % to 8.0 wt % by total weight of the pet food product, and a proteinaceous component in an amount of from 6.0 wt % to 14.0 wt % by total weight of the pet food product, wherein said proteinaceous component comprises polypeptides and free amino acids, wherein the ratio of the fat component to the proteinaceous component is from about 0.45:1.0 to about .0:1.0, and wherein the amount of free amino acids in the pet food product is at least 0.5 wt % by total weight of the pet food product.

Claims

1. A method for improving the palatability of a wet pet food product, comprising: providing chunks of reconstituted animal material and a sauce, and adding a proteinaceous additive to the sauce, wherein the proteinaceous additive is added by substituting a portion of a proteinaceous component of an existing recipe for a wet pet food product with the proteinaceous additive to provide the wet pet food product, wherein the wet pet food product comprises a fat component in an amount of from 2.0 wt % to 8.0 wt % and a proteinaceous component in an amount of from 6.0 wt % to 14.0 wt %, by total weight of the wet pet food product, wherein the ratio of the fat component to the proteinaceous component in the wet pet food product is from about 0.45:1.0 to about 1.0:1.0, wherein the proteinaceous component comprises polypeptides and from 12 wt-% to 50 wt % of free amino acids, by total weight of the proteinaceous component, and wherein an amount of free amino acids in the wet pet food product is at least 0.5 wt % by total weight of the wet pet food product.

2. A pet food product comprising a fat component in an amount of from 2.0 wt % to 8.0 wt % and a proteinaceous component in an amount of from 6.0 wt % to 14.0 wt %, by total weight of the pet food product, wherein the ratio of the fat component to the proteinaceous component in the pet food product is from about 0.45:1.0 to about 1.0:1.0, wherein the proteinaceous component comprises polypeptides and free amino acids, the free amino acids in an amount of from 12 wt % to 50 wt %, by total weight of the proteinaceous component, and wherein an amount of free amino acids in the pet food product is at least 0.5 wt %, by total weight of the pet food product.

3. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the pet food product comprises the free amino acids in an amount of greater than 0.5 wt %, by total weight of the pet food product.

4. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the proteinaceous component comprises polypeptides from animal protein, plant protein, or combinations thereof.

5. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the free amino acids comprise alanine, glycine, histidine, proline, serine, threonine, or combinations thereof.

6. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the free amino acids comprise glycine, and optionally one or more other amino acids comprising alanine, histidine, proline, serine or threonine.

7. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the ratio of the fat component to the proteinaceous component in the pet food product is from about 0.5:1.0 to about 0.9:1.0.

8. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the ratio of the fat component to the proteinaceous component in the pet food product is from about 0.65:1.0 to about 0.75:1.0.

9. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the fat component is in an amount of from 4.0 wt % to 7.0 wt %, by total weight of the pet food product.

10. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the proteinaceous component is in an amount of from 7.0 wt % to 12.0 wt %, by total weight of the pet food product.

11. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the pet food product comprises the free amino acids in an amount of from 1.0 wt % to 2.5 wt %, by total weight of the pet food product.

12. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the pet food product is a wet pet food product.

13. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the pet food product comprises a loaf or pate product in the form of a single piece of pet food product.

14. The pet food product according to claim 2, wherein the pet food product is a chunk-in-sauce wet pet food product comprising chunks of reconstituted animal material and sauce.

15. The pet food product according to claim 14, wherein the reconstituted animal material comprises a protein content of from about 5 wt % to about 40 wt % and a fat content of from about 5 wt % to about 40 wt %, by total weight of the reconstituted animal material, and wherein a water content of the reconstituted animal material is from about 20 wt % to about 75 wt %, by total weight of the reconstituted animal material.

16. The pet food product according to claim 14, wherein the ratio of reconstituted animal material to sauce is from about 20:80 to about 90:10.

17. The pet food product according to claim 14, wherein the sauce comprises a water content of at least about 80 wt %, by total weight of the sauce.

18. The pet food product according to claim 14, wherein a proteinaceous additive comprising free amino acids is present in the sauce in an amount effective to provide the pet food product with free amino acids in an amount of from 0.5 wt % to 6.0 wt %, by total weight of the pet food product.

19. The pet food product according to claim 13, wherein the pet food product has a piece of volume of from about 20 cm.sup.3 to about 2,000 cm.sup.3.

20. The pet food product according to claim 14, wherein the pet food product comprises a chunk-in-gravy or a chunk-in-jelly wet pet food product.

Description

EXAMPLES

[0076] Feeding Trial Protocol

[0077] The palatability of the test products (Examples 1-6) were evaluated using a ranking test. The intake (g) of each test product was measured and the mean intake (g) of each test product was determined and analysed.

Examples 1-4 (FIG. 1: Trial A)

[0078] Wet cat food products (Examples 1 to 4) comprising a reconstituted animal material and a gravy, i.e. a chunk-in-sauce type product, were prepared using a typical recipe and conventional preparation techniques. Example 2 is the example according to the invention. Examples 1, 3 and 4 are reference examples.

[0079] Example 1 had a fat to protein (F:P) ratio of 0.7, calculated as the F:P ratio in the whole composition of the pet food product. The F:P ratio in the wet cat food products was varied by increasing the amount of proteinaceous material by addition of protein (Example 3), or by addition of a proteinaceous additive which was glycine (Examples 2 and 4). The proteinaceous additive was added into the sauce.

[0080] The palatability of the four wet cat food products (Examples 1 to 4) were compared in a feeding trial by measuring the amount of the product eaten by cats according to the feeding trial protocol mentioned above. The results are shown in FIG. 1 and demonstrate that there was no direct correlation between improved palatability and increasing the amount of proteinaceous material and reducing the F:P ratio. Surprisingly, however, the data show that there was a statistically significant preference for the product of Example 2 over Example 3, indicating that reducing the total protein content in combination with the addition of a proteinaceous additive improves palatability. The statistically significant preference for Example 2 over Example 4 demonstrates that the proteinaceous additive must be added at relatively higher F:P ratios in order to significantly improve palatability.

[0081] The properties of the pet food products are given in Table 1 below. All examples had the same visual appearance.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4 Total 8.5 to 9.5 9.5 to 10.5 12.0 to 13.0 13.5 to 14.5 Proteinaceous material (wt %) Free amino ≤0.2 1.0 to 2.0 ≤0.2 1.0 to 2.0 acid (wt %) Fat (wt %) 5.5 to 6.7 5.5 to 6.7 4.0 to 5.0 4.0 to 5.0 F:P ratio 0.72 0.58 0.37 0.33 Mean intake (g) 73.47 84.83 64.82 68.72

Examples 5-6 (FIG. 2: Trial B)

[0082] Chunk-in-sauce wet cat food products (Examples 5 and 6) were prepared in the same manner as described above. Example 5 is the example according to the invention. Example 6 is a reference example.

[0083] The product of Example 5 corresponded to Example 1 except that a portion of the proteinaceous material of Example 1 was substituted with glycine. The total amount of the proteinaceous component was the same as in Example 1 so that the F:P ratio in Example 1 and 5 was the same. Similarly, the product of Example 6 corresponded to Example 3 except that a portion of the proteinaceous material of Example 3 was substituted with glycine. The total amount of the proteinaceous component was the same as in Example 3 so that the F:P ratio in Example 3 and 6 was the same.

[0084] In this trial, Examples 1, 3, 5 and 6 were evaluated and the palatability of the four wet cat food products were compared in a feeding trial as described above. The results are shown in FIG. 2 and show that substituting a portion of the protein with free amino acids improves the palatability of the product. However, unexpectedly the effect of improved palatability by substitution of a portion of the protein with free amino acids was only statistically significant when the F:P ratio was 0.7 (Example 5) compared to 0.35 (Example 6) which indicates that cats can distinguish between products of differing F:P ratio and that the F:P ratio is important. The data also show that the product of Example 5 was significantly preferred over Example 3, indicating that reducing the total protein content in combination with the addition of the proteinaceous additive improves palatability. Notably, the improvement in palatability from Example 3 to Example 5 is enhanced compared to the improvement in palatability observed in Trial A between Example 3 and Example 2 indicating that an increased F:P ratio contributes to the improvement in palatability.

[0085] The properties of the products are given in Table 2 below. All examples had the same visual appearance.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Example 1 Example 5 Example 3 Example 6 Total 8.0 to 9.5 8.0 to 9.5 12.0 to 13.0 12.0 to 13.0 Proteinaceous material (wt %) Free amino ≤0.2 1.0 to 2.0 ≤0.2 1.0 to 2.0 acid (wt %) Fat (wt %) 5.5 to 6.7 5.5 to 6.7 4.0 to 5.0 4.0 to 5.0 F:P ratio 0.72 0.68 0.37 0.33 Mean intake (g) 77.92 102.28 67.72 78.07