Pet food product with coconut endosperm fiber

Details Pet food product with coconut endosperm fiber Pet food product with coconut endosperm fiber

2001-12-27

2003-12-02

Sayala, Chhaya (Department: 1761)

Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products

Treatment of live animal

C426S661000, C426S805000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06656512

ABSTRACT:

The present invention relates to the use of coconut endosperm fibre as a dietary fibre component in a pet food product, to the use of coconut endosperm fibre in the manufacture of a pet food product, to a pet food product which comprises coconut endosperm fibre, to a process for making such a pet food product and to a method comprising feeding such a pet food product to a pet animal. The present invention also relates to the use of coconut endosperm fibre in reducing and preventing intestinal inflammation and in reducing and preventing pathogenic bacterial infection in the large intestine of a pet animal.
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 favoured 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.
Fibre has wide ranging effects on bowel habit, increasing faecal output, reducing transit times and altering colonic metabolism. Many of the beneficial effects of fibre relate to its extensive breakdown in the large intestine. This anaerobic process, termed fermentation, is the principle metabolic event occurring in the colon. Fermentation is a digestive function of the complex assemblage of microorganisms that inhabit the large intestine, which break-down complex carbohydrates and other substrates that have not been hydrolysed and absorbed in the upper intestine. Both the microbiotia and the host benefit from this association.
Many hundreds of bacterial types, varying widely in physiology and biochemistry, reside within the colon. Characterising the individual activities of this multipotent microflora is an immensely complex undertaking and is unclear even in the human field. However, some understanding of the role of the microflora in the colon can be gained by quantifying the fermentation activity of the bacterial population as a whole.
The major complex carbohydrate fermentation products are short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), gases and energy. The energy generated is used for microbial cell growth which routes much of the colonic nitrogen into bacterial protein and increased microbial mass. SCFAs are rapidly absorbed and can influence gastrointestinal function by providing energy substrates to the colonic mucosa and by promoting water and electrolyte adsorption from the colonic lumen. Gas produced during fermentation is eliminated both through the lungs and as flatus. In a carbohyhdrate-limited environment, bacteria will resort to the breakdown of protein which provides much less energy in the form of branched chain fatty acids and also metabolites that are potentially toxic to the host (ammonia, amines, phenols etc.). It is one object of the present invention to incorporate, into pet food products, a useful dietary fibre.
In the production (or manufacture) of commercial pet food products, a small number of different technologies are used. In all cases, product components are mixed together (often, but not necessarily with cooking/heating) with optional other components added later on, and then transported to the various containers to be filled. The process may include extrusion cooking, for example in the production of a dry product. Alternatively, the process may include emulsion milling in the production of “chunks”. A variety of processes will include the pumping of the product from one part of the processing apparatus to another and optionally further into cans. It is always desirable to obtain a combination of ingredients which maximise the processing of the ingredients through to the final product. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a dietary fibre which is particularly suitable in the manufacturing process.
The present invention relates to providing, in a pet food product, a useful fibre source. The fibre source is particularly easy to use in the manufacture of a pet food product.
Accordingly, a first aspect of the invention provides the use of coconut endosperm fibre as a dietary fibre component in a pet food product. The first aspect of the invention includes the use of coconut endosperm fibre as a dietary fibre component in the manufacture of a pet food product.
The coconut endosperm fibre may be used as the single dietary fibre component or in combination with one or more other dietary fibre components, such as beet pulp, chicory, citrus pulp, rice bran, carob bean or gum talha.
Fresh coconut endosperm has a typical nutrient distribution of water (35%), oil (44%), protein (6%), sugars (7%), fibre (3%) and ash (1%). However, the form of the coconut endosperm fibre for use according to all aspects of the present invention is not limiting. The coconut endosperm fibre may be fresh or in any other form such as copra defatted copra (also referred to, amongst others, as copra cake, copra presscake or copra meal) coconut flour, defatted coconut flour, full or defatted desiccated coconut, copra, or degraded coconut endosperm which has been heated or enzymatically treated.
Copra is a particularly suitable source of coconut endosperm fibre for use according to the present invention. Copra is dried coconut endosperm (usually sundried). Defatted copra is also particularly suitable. Defatted copra is the typical result of coconut endosperm which has been dried and had the coconut oil mechanically removed. Defatted copra cake is obtained by first obtaining copra, then crushing the copra through a press or expeller to remove most of the oil. The residue remaining is termed copra cake, copra presscake, or copra meal.
Without limiting the present invention, the addition of coconut endosperm fibre 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, the increased production of beneficial end products and decreased production of detrimental end products of microbial fermention, the enhancement of populations of beneficial bacteria, the enhancement of water/electrolyte uptake in the gastrointestinal tract, the improvement of colonic structure/health and the provision of good water binding features to equalise faecal texture. The present invention is useful for healthy animals, including sensitive animals as well as animals that suffer from poor faeces quality or poor GI tract health. Accordingly, the first aspect of the invention also relates to the use of coconut endosperm fibre in the manufacture of a pet food product for use in maintaining or improving the faeces quality of a pet animal, or for use in maintaining or improving GI tract health. Poor faeces quality is described in Appendix 1
Evaluation of faeces quality and the identification of maintenance or improvement of faeces quality are techniques well known and used in the art. More than one method can be used (alone or in combination). Methods commonly use a panel of trained observers (may be trained members of the public or professionals). Faecal samples from a pet are collected and may be scored according to a rating system outlined in Appendix 1. The evaluation of good faecal quality is determined according to faecal quality which often reflects a normal gastroint

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Pet food product with coconut endosperm fiber does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Pet food product with coconut endosperm fiber, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Pet food product with coconut endosperm fiber will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3097090