Study: Effects of Preservation of Palatant Starting Material on Palatability3
Production of high quality pet food requires the use of good quality raw materials. The quality of common petfood raw materials, including animal protein meal and fresh or frozen meat or meat byproducts, depends of the freshness of the raw materials before processing and good preservation after processing. Unfortunately, in practical conditions it is very difficult to use fresh raw materials only in a processing plant.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of preservation of poultry viscera on microbiological counts and on the palatability of a palatant made from poultry viscera with different preservative treatment times.
In order to evaluate the influence of poultry viscera treatments on palatant performance, ten palatants were created using the same formula, with the only variable being the treatment of the poultry viscera starting material. The ten palatant variations are listed in Table 1, grouped by variables that were tested head-to-head in palatability trials.