DRY PET FOOD MANUFACTURING METHOD

Abstract

There is provided a method of manufacturing a dry pet food, comprising receiving (10) unprocessed meat, grinding (11, 14) the unprocessed meat, forming (15) the ground meat into a slab or a plurality of strips, passing (16) the formed meat through a steam cooker and cutting (17) the meat into chunks, and drying out (18, 19) the chunks.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a dry pet food, comprising receiving unprocessed meat, grinding the unprocessed meat, forming the ground meat into a slab or a plurality of strips, passing the formed meat through a steam cooker and cutting the meat into chunks, and drying out the chunks.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising mixing the ground meat with less than 20% by weight dry ingredient prior to the forming of the ground meat and the dry ingredient into the slab or plurality of strips.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the dry ingredient comprises at least one of a dried vegetable, dried carbohydrate, dried cereal, or dried legume and dried fruit preparation.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of grinding the unprocessed meat comprises coarsely grinding the unprocessed meat, mixing the coarsely ground meat with the dry ingredient, and finely grinding the mixture of the course ground meat and the dry ingredient, prior to the step of forming.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of forming the ground meat is performed with an extruder that does not impart any significant heat to the ground meat through friction or shear forces, such that the formed meat is in an uncooked state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the cutting of the meat into chunks is performed after the formed meat has passed through the steam cooker.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising cutting the slab into a plurality of strips prior to the steam cooking by using a slitter.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the cutting of the meat into chunks comprises cutting each strip into multiple separate lengths.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the steam cooker comprises a conveyor belt configured to carry the slab, plurality of strips, or chunks, as the case may be, along and through a steam filled enclosure.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein chunks exit the steam cooker onto a transfer belt, and wherein air fans or water sprays directed towards the transfer belt are used to help cool the chunks prior to the step of drying the chunks.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the drying of the chunks comprises reducing a moisture content of the chunks from greater than 60% by weight to less than 12% by weight.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the drying of the chunks comprises a first stage of outer skin hardening and a subsequent stage of full chunk drying.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the formed meat comprises a moisture content of greater than 40% by weight, preferably greater than 60% by weight.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising coating the dried chunks with a liquid fat or oil.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising packaging the dried chunks into containers, for sale.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising packaging the dried chunks into containers, for sale, and pasteurising the dried chunks before the packaging.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of non-limiting example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0038] FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram of a conventional dry food manufacturing process; and

[0039] FIG. 2 shows flow diagram of a dry food manufacturing process according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0040] The flow diagram of FIG. 2 begins with a step 10 of storing unprocessed meat. The unprocessed meat is preferably fresh but could alternatively be frozen, and is in substantially the same constitution as originally taken from the relevant animal. The step 10 is preferably of short duration, dependant on whether the meat is fresh or frozen. For example, there is preferably less than 72 hours between the slaughter of the animal and the retrieval of the fresh meat from the storage for use in a subsequent grinding step 11. The grinding step 11 coarsely grinds the unprocessed meat so that is can be mixed with some dry ingredients in a mixing step 13. The dry ingredients are stored in a step 12, and in this embodiment comprise dried vegetable and or cereal/carbohydrate matter, but depending on the embodiment may also or alternatively comprise other dry ingredients such as dried fruits and/or other nutritional additives.

[0041] Once the coarsely ground meat and the dry ingredients have been mixed together, they pass through a fine grinding process (emulsification) or a fine mincing 14 to make the unprocessed meat into a pate′ or paste type consistency. In a step 15, the mixture is formed into a plurality of strips by an extruder/former. In this embodiment, the extruder/former has a plurality of orifices which produce a corresponding plurality of sausage-like strips, but in an alternate embodiment the extruder may simply have a single rectangular orifice to produce a slab, and the slab may be followed by a series of blades in a row that is perpendicular to the direction of travel of the slab (known as a slitter), to cut the slab into the plurality of strips. The extruder/former does not exert any more frictional or shear forces on the mixture than necessary to create the slab/strips, and so no significant thermal heating of the mixture occurs when passing through the extruder/former, and the freshness of the ingredients in the mixture is not degraded, neither is the form of the sausage like strips. There is also no requirement to use an extruder to form the slabs/strips, but this is normally the most practical option for continuous processing. The extrusion unit is located immediately prior to the steam cooker, and its only function is to form the strips or slab of emulsion, ready for processing.

[0042] The slab/strips then enter the steam cooker which is used to heat the formed meat (emulsion). The formed meat mix is carried on a continuous belt through the steam cooker, which in this embodiment comprises a conveyer belt that conveys the slab/strips through an enclosure filled with steam, to perform steam cooking 16. The steam cooking 16 preferably raises the core temperature of the slab/strips from beneath 40 degrees centigrade to above 80 degrees centigrade, to cook the slab/strips. In this specific embodiment, the slab/strips enter the steam cooker at around +5° C., and are heated to around 92° C. core temperature to cook them, with a process steam pressure of 3 bar.

[0043] Once the slab/strips have passed through the steam cooker, they are cut into chunks at step 17, to make them into a size that is suitable for the intended type of pet animal to eat. In an alternative embodiment, the slabs/strips are cut into chunks before passing through the steam cooker. The chunks exit the steam cooker/tunnel onto a transfer belt 17a, where air fans or water sprays may be used to help cool the chunks, or in some instances a very long transfer belt may be used to allow natural cooling. The transfer belt is a conveyor belt that transfers the chunks from the steam cooker and/or chunk cutter to the drying stages of the process.

[0044] The cut chunks pass to a step 18, where they are pre-dried in a first ‘case hardening’ drying process to form a hard skin that makes the chunks, less friable, more robust and less likely to break. The pre-dried chunks then pass into a subsequent drying process in step 19, where the chunks are fully dried so as to give an end chunk moisture of no greater than 10%. This subsequent drying process 19 may utilise vibration transport techniques based on the spiral elevator oven principle, or alternatively a conventional horizontal oven, as is known in the art, and the hard skin formed in the first drying process helps the chunks resist the forces present in the subsequent drying process to keep them from breaking. Further drying stages may also be implemented dependant on the final target moisture. The function of the drying step is simply to reduce the moisture level of the chunks to below 10%.

[0045] The dried chunks are then coated/enrobed with a liquid of fat/oil, for example chicken oil, salmon oil, or lamb tallow in a step 20. This helps to ensure nutritional adequacy, enhance palatability and provide a nutritional benefit. The liquid may for example be based on fat or oil or and may include liquid palatability enhancers, i.e. digests or ‘gravies’, to enhance the aromatic and palatability appeal of the chunks to the intended pet animal. The coated chunks are then left to cool in a step 21.

[0046] Then, there is a pasteurisation/sterilisation step 21a, in which the final product is heated to a high temperature of greater than the cooking temperature in the steam cooker, to kill any pathogens prior to packaging.

[0047] Finally, the dried and coated chunks are sieved to remove any fines or dust and finally packaged in a step 22, for example in plastic containers, such as pre-formed multi ply bags or sacks in preparation for their sale.

[0048] Many other variations of the described embodiments falling within the scope of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.