JP7624283B2 - Manufacturing method of puffed dry pet food - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for producing puffed dry pet food.

A known method for producing puffed dry pet food involves adding an appropriate amount of water (10 to 40 parts by mass per 100 parts by mass of the raw material mixture) to a raw material mixture of cereal flour such as wheat flour, starch, soybean flour, oils and fats, chicken meal, beef meal, minerals, vitamins, etc., extruding the mixture from an extruder at 100 to 150° C., cutting it to a specified length, and then drying it until the moisture content is 10% by mass or less.
In this case, if the kneading temperature of the raw material mixture to which water has been added and the extrusion temperature from the die are 100° C. or higher, expanded pet food is generally obtained.
Cereal semolina may be used as the raw material, for example wheat, oat, corn and rice semolina are cited in a method for producing cooked cereal or dry pet food which includes preparing a mixture of water and a dry premix containing mainly cereal flour or semolina, heating the mixture and extruding (see, for example, U.S. Patent No. 5,333,933).

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-298974

When the main ingredient of the puffed dry pet food is wheat flour, the palatability is not very high, and because the food expands easily, air bubbles tend to become large, which in turn leads to large unevenness in the surface. In areas where the surface dough is thin, holes can appear in the dough due to the particles rubbing against each other on the production line, which not only makes the food look bad, but also makes it more likely to produce residue, reducing the value of the product.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing puffed dry pet food which has a smooth surface and is highly palatable.

As a result of intensive research conducted by the inventors in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, they discovered that by using durum semolina of a specific particle size in a specific ratio as a raw material, it is possible to obtain a puffed dry pet food having a smooth surface and good palatability, and thus completed the present invention.
Therefore, the present invention provides a method for producing puffed dry pet food, which is characterized in that 20% by mass or more and 50% by mass or less of durum semolina having a particle size that passes through a 20 mesh standard sieve of the Japanese Industrial Standards and leaves 90% by mass or more on a 170 mesh standard sieve is used as a raw material.

The pet food manufacturing method of the present invention makes it possible to obtain puffed dry pet food that has a smooth surface and is highly palatable.

The present invention will be described in detail below.
In the present invention, the pet food is food given to dogs and cats, and the raw materials other than the durum semolina may be any raw materials that have been conventionally used for pet foods, and are not particularly limited.
Examples include corn, soybean meal, gluten feed, gluten meal, beet pulp, rice flour, rice bran, fish meal, chicken meal, pork meal, animal fats and oils, and the like.
These are mixed and then, if necessary, pulverized before use.
The grinding method is not particularly limited, and any grinding method that has been conventionally used can be used.

In the present invention, durum semolina is used as a raw material in an amount of 20% by mass or more and 50% by mass or less of the raw material. If the proportion of durum semolina in the raw material is less than 20% by mass, the effect cannot be fully obtained, and if it exceeds 50% by mass, roughness that is thought to be derived from the raw material occurs, which is not preferable.
In the present invention, the raw material refers to the raw material before addition of water.

The particle size of the durum semolina used in the present invention is a particle size that passes through a 20 mesh standard sieve of the Japanese Industrial Standards and retains 90% by mass or more on a 170 mesh standard sieve.
Durum semolina having such a particle size can be easily obtained by sieving commercially available durum semolina.
If the particle size is larger than this, the surface becomes rough, which is not preferable.
Moreover, if the particle size is too fine, unevenness will occur on the surface, which is not preferable.

After the raw material is pulverized, water is added to the pulverized material and the pulverized material is extruded using an extruder. Any conventional method for extrusion molding using an extruder can be used, and there is no particular limitation on the method for using the extruder.
As for the method of adding water, a method of adding water to the raw material and then feeding it into the extruder, or a method of feeding the raw material into the extruder and then adding water using steam or hot water inside the extruder can be used.
The drying method is not particularly limited, and any drying method that has been conventionally used can be used.
For example, a hot air drying method can be mentioned.
There are no particular limitations on how the obtained pet food can be used, and it can be given to dogs and cats in the same way as conventional pet foods.

The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.
[Preparation of puffed dry pet food granules for use in palatability tests]
50 parts by mass of corn flour, 16 parts by mass of wheat flour, 12 parts by mass of soybean meal, 8 parts by mass of chicken meal, 7 parts by mass of meat meal, 5 parts by mass of wheat bran, 1 part by mass of minerals (manganese carbonate, zinc carbonate, ferrous sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, cobalt sulfate), and 1 part by mass of vitamins (A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, D3, E, K3, nicotinic acid, pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin) were thoroughly mixed, and then 20 parts by mass of water was added and supplied to a single-screw extruder (Wenger, X-20 type), kneaded at a temperature of 140°C, extruded through a die, cut, and then dried in a hot air dryer (Espec, PH-202) at 120°C for 20 minutes so that the moisture content was 10% by mass, to obtain expanded dry pet food granules.

[Examples 1 to 3, Comparative Examples 1 to 2, Reference Example 1]
Durum semolina, wheat flour, beef tallow and water in the amounts shown in Table 1 were supplied to a single-screw extruder (Wenger: Model X-20), kneaded at a temperature of 140°C, extruded through a die and cut, and then dried in a reduced pressure dryer to obtain expanded dry pet food granules.
In the table, the unit of blend amount is parts by mass.
The durum semolina used had a particle size that passed through a 20-mesh standard sieve of the Japanese Industrial Standards and 90% by mass remained on a 170-mesh standard sieve.
The appearance of the obtained puffed dry pet food granules was evaluated by 10 panelists according to the following criteria. <Appearance>
5 points: The surface is finely and uniformly uneven, very good 4 points: The surface is fairly finely and almost uniformly uneven, good 3 points: Average 2 points: The surface is somewhat rough and uneven, bad 1 point: The surface is extremely rough and uneven, very bad <Preference test>
90 parts by mass of the puffed dry pet food granules used in the palatability test were thoroughly mixed with 10 parts by mass of the puffed dry pet food granules obtained in Examples 1 to 3, Comparative Examples 1 and 2, and Reference Example 1, and this was seasoned with 5.4 parts by mass of beef tallow and 2.2 parts by mass of chicken liver extract to obtain dog food for the palatability test.
As a control, dog food was prepared by adding the same seasoning to the puffed dry pet food granules used in the above-mentioned directionality test.
The dog food palatability test was conducted by separating 20 dogs and housing them individually in individual kennels, and feeding each dog the test dog food in its feeding dish, while simultaneously feeding each dog the same amount of the control dog food in a separate feeding dish as a control, for two hours in an "alternative" palatability test.
Palatability was evaluated as the ratio (mass %) of the intake amount of the test dog food to the total amount of the dog food ingested.
The same test was conducted on two days, and the average value for 20 dogs (average dog food intake rate) was calculated.
The results are shown in Table 1.
Examples 1, 2 and 3 had excellent palatability and appearance.

Claims (1)

This method for producing puffed dry pet food is characterized in that 20% by mass or more and 50% by mass or less of the raw material is durum semolina having a particle size that passes through a 20-mesh standard sieve of the Japanese Industrial Standards and leaves 90% by mass or more on a 170-mesh standard sieve.