Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Plant material is basic ingredient other than extract,...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-28
2002-05-21
Sayala, Chhaya D. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Plant material is basic ingredient other than extract,...
C426S805000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06391375
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a pet food product which comprises chicory in an amount which maintains good faeces quality or improves the faeces quality of a pet and/or maintains good gastrointestinal tract health or improves the gastrointestinal health of a pet. It also relates to the use of chicory in achieving these results, a method for achieving them and a process for the preparation of such a pet food.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The maintenance and improvement of pet health is a constantly ongoing aim in the art. Pet health can be monitored in a number of ways. Two of these are faeces quality and gastrointestinal (GI) tract health. Good quality faeces in pet animals is of two-fold importance. Firstly, it is a good indicator of a healthy pet. It is known that good faeces quality usually reflects healthy colonic structure and function.
Secondly, it is a much favored practicality for pet-owners. Accordingly, the maintenance of good quality pet faeces and the ability to improve the quality of pet faeces is a constantly ongoing aim in the art. It is also an ongoing aim in the art to improve the GI tract health of pet animals. The ability to maintain and improve GI tract health can be beneficial to pet owners because it has an impact on their pet's overall health.
One method for maintaining normal gastrointestinal function and ameliorating chronic diarrhoea in animals has included the addition, in pet food products, of a fibre source which contains a significantly higher proportion of insoluble fibres to soluble fibres, which are either non-fermentable or only moderately fermentable. EP-A-0 674 842 teaches that maintaining normal gastrointestinal function in pets is important and teaches that beet pulp produces the best results. Zentek, J., in J. Anim. Physiol. a. Anim. Nutr. 75 (1996), 36-45, confirms the teaching in EP-A-0 674 842 regarding the use of fairly insoluble fibre sources as advantages on the nutrient digestibility and microbial metabolism of the intestinal tract in dogs and describes that fairly soluble fibre sources such as guar gum and pectin may induce an undesired smeary faecal consistency.
The present invention provides a fibre source, the use of which results in: i) Significantly improved (or maintenance of good) faeces quality and/or ii) Significantly improved (or maintenance of good) gastrointestinal (GI) tract health, in pet animals over the fibre sources of the prior art. The improvement of the faecal quality and/or GI tract health according to the present invention is completely unexpected. One reason for this includes the fact that the fibre used is primarily soluble (compared to the insoluble fibres previously taught to give good faeces quality) and the fibre appears to be more rapidly fermentable than fibres used in the prior art. The rapid fermentation of the fibres has, to date, been considered by a person skilled in the art as a potential cause of diarrhoea in pet animals.
Accordingly, a first aspect of the invention provides a pet food product which comprises chicory in an amount which: i) maintains good faeces quality or improves the faeces quality of a pet and/or ii) maintains good GI tract health or improves it. The present invention demonstrates that the incorporation of chicory fibre into a pet diet, in one facet, results in the maintenance of good faeces quality and/or the improvement in faeces quality in the pet. In a further facet, the incorporation of chicory into a pet food product results in the maintenance of a healthy GI tract or improves the health of the GI tract.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Chicory is a blue flowered plant (
Cichorium intybus
), named ENDIVE in the US, which is cultivated for its salad leaves and its root (roasted and ground for use with, or instead of, coffee). Its primary components are i) inulin and ii) soluble and fermentable fibres. Inulin is a soluble polysacchaiide, composed of polymerized fructose molecules, occurring as stored food material in many plants, such as members of the Compositae species and in dahlia tubers. However, it is not the endogenous inulin of chicory, but rather the fibre, which imparts the advantageous effect in maintaining and/or improving faecal quality in pet animals. This is demonstrated herein by the fact that the chicory plant, which has had the majority of the inulin extracted (resulting in a chicory pulp) provides the most useful and effective form of chicory fibre for the present invention and by experiments by the inventors (data not shown) which have shown that the addition of inulin, without the chicory fibres, does not improve faeces quality in pet animals.
The chicory plant itself can be incorporated into an animal pet food in order to provide a pet food product according to the first aspect of the invention. The quantity of the plant to be incorporated, in order to provide sufficient fibre, can be deteimined in a straightforward manner by measuring plant quantity and feeding to pet animals in order to determine a range of amounts which: i) maintains good faeces quality or improves the faeces quality of a pet and/or ii) maintains good GI tract health or improves it. The quantity of chicory plant to be included may vary somewhat due to a variety of factors such as the plant type, the plant age, the part of the plant etc. The root of the plant is preferred as it provides a higher dry matter content over other parts of the plant, such as the stem, leaf and/or flower which may also be used.
However, the incorporation of the chicory plant itself is not necessary in accordance with the invention. It is actually preferred that the first aspect of the invention is formulated by the inclusion of fibre-containing chicory plant extract (or the remains of the plant following extraction of other material). Suitable extracts/remains include those where some or most of the inulin has been removed (extracted) to leave a chicory pulp. The inulin content may be anything from less than 0.25%, less than 0.5%, from 0.5% to 1%, preferably from about 0.3% to about 0.8% on a dry matter basis of the total pet food product. The exact content of any chicory pulp will depend on the extraction process that has been used. Extraction of inulin from chicory plants is known in the art and has been practised since as long ago as 1927.
The most common extraction process is of chicory root and is similar to the extraction of sucrose from sugar beet (diffusion in water). The extraction removes inulin to leave a chicory pulp. Preferably, according to the invention, as much inulin is removed as possible, resulting in a chicory pulp which has a high fibre content. Typical extraction processes usually result in a chicory pulp containing up to around 45% dietary fibre, as measured by the Englyst method and only around 5 to 10% inulin (remainder of the pulp provides approximately 12% water, 9% protein, 1% fat, 9% ash, and up to 19% carbohydrate). The present invention includes all chicory pulp which can be obtained from chicory plants, including the whole range of possible fibre and inulin content. The pulp is preferably obtained from at least chicory root material. The chicory may be incorporated into a pet food product with the same composition as directly produced from the extraction procedure. Alternatively, the pulp may undergo one or more steps to obtain a pulp of a different composition and/or form. For example, the pulp may be dried and then ground up to provide a dry product of small particle size which may be used to produce a pet food according to the first aspect of the invention. In accordance with the invention, it is the ultimate pet food product, with a chicory fibre content, which is important.
Without limiting the present invention, the addition of chicory fibres into a pet food product is believed to i) maintain good faeces quality or improve the faeces quality of a pet and/or ii) maintain good GI tract health or improve it, either achieved by one or more of the following: the improvement of faeces water binding, the reduction of faecal pH,
Fulbright & Jaworkski LLP
Mars UK Limited
Sayala Chhaya D.
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