Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Fat or oil is basic ingredient other than butter in emulsion...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-21
2004-07-20
Sayala, C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Fat or oil is basic ingredient other than butter in emulsion...
C426S805000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06764708
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pet food or feed reduced in odor due to animal proteins, particularly, meats.
2. Discussion of the Background
The pet food market is on the increase owing to a recent pet boom, which is however accompanied with various problems. Changes in housing situations or life style increases the number of pet owners who keep their pets indoors as well as those keeping them outsides. Under such situations, an offensive odor emitted from remains of a pet food tends to make not only pet owners but also neighbors feel uncomfortable.
With regards to a feed, a heightening of its protein content and calorie has been promoted in order to raise its nutritional efficiency. This accelerates emission of an offensive odor due to proteins, particularly animal proteins. Moreover, the greater the breeding scale or breeding density, the more serious the problem of an offensive odor becomes for neighbors.
A number of deodorants or aromatics for eliminating the odor due to pets such as dogs and cats are now put on the market. Cat litters and litter boxes imparted with a deodorizing function are developed to mask the foul odor of feces and urine. Proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 74455/1988 is a cat food free of unsaturated fatty acids which are causative of the odor of feces and having cyclodextrin incorporated in the food. Although this cat food is capable of controlling the rancid odor derived from fish oil and the odor of feces, it involves problems such as high cost and insufficient effects. Also proposed (in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 284865/1994) is a pet food having cranberry incorporated therein to mask the odor of feces and urine. This pet food is however accompanied with the drawback that cranberry therein emits an odor. No proposals have been made to overcome the problem of an offensive odor emitted by the remains of a pet food in a feeding station. This problem is common to not only pets but also livestock.
On the other hand, spraying of a commercially available deodorant or aromatic directly to a pet food or feed is not preferred from the viewpoint of safety.
A pet food or feed is comprised mainly of meats, grains, oils and fats, and water.
Meats to be used as a raw material are beef, pork, fish meat, chicken, mutton and lamb. In practice, scraps of these meats, meat-and-bone meal and organs are incorporated in a pet food or feed in the form of meat meal or fish meal. As grains, soybean, wheat, rice and corn have been used, while as oils and fats, either animal ones or vegetable ones have been used.
Pet food or feed is usually produced by grinding, kneading and extrusion of such raw materials and provided in the kibble shapes. It is also provided as a bar of jerky or a biscuit, or sometimes as dry powder. A heating process is required for these manufactures. Also in the manufacture of canned food, it is heated after a canned process.
The foul odor of a pet food or feed is presumed to come from animal proteins, particularly meats, or degraded substances thereof. A preparation process of a pet food or feed includes a heating step, which is conducted for the purpose of sterilization and improvement in shelf life.
Upon heating, sulfur-containing compounds (such as thiazines or thiolanes) or nitrogen containing compounds (such as amines, pyrroles or piazines), each a degraded product of animal proteins, are generated from the meat. These sulfur-containing or nitrogen-containing compounds cause much discomfort so that they are presumed to cause an offensive odor of a pet food or feed.
As a deodorizing method of meats in the processing of livestock meats or fishery products, proposed is addition of an enzyme or citric acid thereto (Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open Nos. 44066/1979, 44067/1979, 9468/1985 and 15367/1991). It is not suited for pet food or feed production, because addition of an enzyme heightens the cost and makes the preparation step cumbersome, while addition of citric acid reinforces an acid taste, thereby deteriorating palatability.
It is revealed that addition of a medium chain fatty acid diglyceride to a feed is effective for prevention or treatment of protozoan diseases (U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,967 or EP 0519458B), but its effects against an offensive odor are not sufficient. In Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open Nos. 174342/1989, and 2537/1989, it is described that monoglycerides and diglycerides derived from higher unsaturated fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) or eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) bring about effects for promoting fish appetite or attracting fish. Monoglycerides or diglycerides themselves contain large amounts of DHA or EPA, so that it is difficult to say that in the absence of water, they have sufficient effects against an offensive odor. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,228,195, is proposed a preparation process of a pet food by using fatty acid monoglycerides including succinylated monoglyceride, but it does not refer to an odor.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a pet food or feed reduced in an offensive odor due to animal proteins, particularly, meats without a cumbersome step.
The present inventor has found that an oil or fat containing a specific diglyceride markedly reduces an offensive odor derived from animal proteins, particularly meats.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is thus provided a pet food or feed which contains an oil or fat composition comprising the following components (A) and (B):
(A) 10 wt. % or more of diglycerides which contain, as constituent fatty acids, 50 wt. % or more of unsaturated C
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fatty acids and 40 wt. % or less of unsaturated fatty acids having at least 20 carbon atoms and at least 4 carbon-carbon double bonds; and
(B) 20 wt. % or less of free fatty acids, and
(E) 0 to 10 wt % of monoglyceride,
wherein a weight ratio of the diglycerides to monoglycerides≧1.
In another aspect of the present invention, there are also provided an offensive odor controlling agent of a pet food or feed which contains the above-described oil or fat composition; and a method for ameliorating the offensive odor of a pet food or feed, which comprises incorporating the above-described oil or fat composition in the pet food or feed. In a further aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a pet food or feed which comprises the following components (C) and (D):
(C) 0.2 to 60 wt. % of animal proteins comprising myosin or actin; and
(D) 1 to 30 wt. % of an oil or fat composition comprising 10 wt. % or more of diglycerides which contain, as constituent fatty acids, 50 wt. % or more of unsaturated C
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fatty acids and 40 wt. % or less of unsaturated fatty acids having at least 20 carbon atoms and at least 4 carbon-carbon double bonds, 20 wt. % or less of free fatty acids, and 0 to 30 wt. % of monoglyceride, wherein a weight ratio of the diglycerides to monoglycerides≧1.
The pet food or feed according to the present invention is reduced in an offensive odor due to animal proteins, particularly, meats and therefore, does not cause discomfort. It can be prepared without any cumbersome step, only by incorporating therein a specific oil or fat composition as the part or whole of its oil or fat component.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the present invention, the term “pet food” means pet food for dogs, cats and the like pets, whereas the term “feed” means feed for animals such as pigs, poultry and fish.
The oil or fat composition to be used in the pet food or feed of the present invention contains 10 wt. % (which will hereinafter be described “%”, simply) or more, preferably 15 to 99%, more preferably 30 to 99%, especially 50 to 95%, most preferably 60 to 95% of diglycerides in order to suppress an offensive odor derived particularly from meats.
As constituent fatty acids, the diglycerides contain 50% or more, preferably 70 to 99%, especially 80 to 98% of unsaturated C
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fatty acids. Such diglycerides have marked effects for suppressing an offensi
Otsuji Kazuya
Suzuki Yohichi
KAO Corporation
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Sayala C.
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