Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Products per se – or processes of preparing or treating... – Basic ingredient is starch based batter – dough product – etc.
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-15
2002-01-15
Sayala, Chhaya D. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Products per se, or processes of preparing or treating...
Basic ingredient is starch based batter, dough product, etc.
C426S053000, C426S062000, C426S553000, C426S653000, C426S805000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06338866
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention is in the field of pet foods and pet food flavor enhancers.
This invention relates to foods for mammalian companion animals, including cats, dogs, ferrets, and pot-bellied pigs. Although it may also be useful for livestock, poultry, or other farm animals, or for aquaculture, those options have not yet been evaluated, and this invention does not cover, claim, or relate to such uses.
A well-known class of biological compounds called “essential fatty acids” are comparable to vitamins in two important respects: (1) they are necessary for the health of humans and other mammals; but, (2) mammals cannot synthesize these compounds within their own bodies. Therefore, mammals must ingest essential fatty acids in foods or nutritional supplements. Certain types of fish (especially fish with dark flesh, such as salmon and tuna) are especially good sources of essential fatty acids.
Such fish, in turn, usually obtain their supplies of essential fatty acids from marine algae. Based on that knowledge, several companies that make nutritional supplements for human use or for pet foods have isolated marine algae which synthesize one or more essential fatty acids. Those companies manufacture fatty acids by fermenting such algae (including a species known as
Crypthecodinium cohnii
) under controlled conditions. After the fermentation process is complete, the algal cells are lysed (i.e., ruptured and broken apart) by chemical or physical means, and the fatty acids are extracted from the biomass, using chemical solvents.
If the final product is intended for human ingestion, a series of complex purification steps must be used to ensure that the final product meets the purity and safety requirements for human foods or drugs. If the product is intended for pets, the purification steps are less complex.
Pet owners and pet food manufacturers are especially interested in a specific fatty acid called docosahexaenoic acid (abbreviated as DHA). This compound has 22 carbon atoms (implied by the prefix “docosa-”) with 6 unsaturated bonds (as implied by the name “hexa-enoic”). It is an “omega-3” fatty acid, with a carboxylic acid group at one end (designated as the #22 carbon atom) and an unsaturated bond between the #3 and #4 carbon atoms.
DHA is a valuable additive in pet foods, since it helps promote a lustrous, healthy-looking coat in dogs and cats. Other fatty acids which are useful in pet nutrition and which are synthesized by known strains of algae or fungus include gamma-linolenic acid and arachidonic acid.
In addition to use for mammalian pets, various companies also use algae to manufacture esssential fatty acids for use in poultry feeds, and in aquaculture (i.e., farm-raised fish). Typically, preparations containing entire algae cells (usually killed and often lysed, but with no further purification or other processing) are fed to such poultry and fish.
As noted above, one species of marine algae used in commercial manufacturing of DHA for dogs or cats is
Crypthecodinium cohnii
. Several other microbes (including a fungus called Mortierella alpina) are also believed to generate DHA and/or other essential fatty acids useful in animal nutrition; the Mortierella is also believed to generate a biomass (after the fatty acids have been extracted) which has a noxious odor, and which must be disposed of in a manner comparable to the algal wastes described above.
In addition, certain types of seaweeds and “macroalgae” which produce carrageenan (a sulfated polysaccharide used as a gelling and emulsifying agent) also generate DHA. Such sources are believed to include Rhodophyceae,
Gigartinaceae, Gigartina stellata
, and
Chondrus crispus.
All references herein to “fungus” or “fungi” are limited to non-yeast fungi. Yeast (a subclass of fungus, in the family Saccharomycetaceae) are widely used in foods, and many types of yeast do not have any noxious odors, and are entirely suitable for food preparations. This invention does not relate to yeast; instead, it relates to a new method of using biomass waste material which currently is being discarded as an unwanted solid waste material. This waste material is generated by marine algae and non-yeast fungi which synthesize essential fatty acids, but which also generate noxious odors that have interfered with productive use of any residual biomass that remains after the fatty acids are extracted.
The use of algae or non-yeast fungi to manufacture essential fatty acids for human ingestion, or to manufacture DHA for dog or cat foods, creates large quantities of biomass residue. This residue contains the remains of algae or fungal cells (such remains are referred to herein as “cell carcasses”) that have been killed and then broken apart and chemically treated to extract as much of their fatty acids as economically practical. The cellular residues which remain after the fatty acids have been extracted from marine algae cells must be treated as a noxious and potentially hazardous waste product, for two reasons: (i) it has a pungent, foul, and noxious smell, resembling fish or seaweed that has passed its prime and has begun to rot; and, (ii) since it is a biological waste product, it can support further microbial degradation by a wide variety of other microbes, including potentially pathogenic microbes.
For both of these reasons, under the current and prior art practices, the cellular waste products generated during microbial synthesis of fatty acids must be disposed of properly, using sanitary landfills, incineration, or similar means.
Despite its pungent and noxious odor, efforts have been made in the past to use this type of algal waste product as an additive in animal feeds. This was especially true when the algae were used to manufacture DHA that was intended for dog or cat foods, since it is well-known that DHA is a costly and premium additive in dog and cat foods. In general, people engaged in such efforts hoped that if the semi-rotting fishy odor could be diluted, and properly blended with other ingredients, it might be palatable and perhaps even appealing to dogs and cats, and might offer an inexpensive source of nutritional DHA or other fatty acids.
However, to the best of the inventors'knowledge and belief, none of those prior efforts ever succeeded. Prior to this invention, no one managed to find a satisfactory way to use residual DHA-containing algal biomass waste products (or waste products from manufacturing operations that use Mortierella fungi) in a manner that would satisfy the desires, not just of companion animals such as dogs or cats, but of their owners as well.
It should be emphasized that satisfying the aroma preferences of humans is essential to any successful pet food. Pet owners simply will not buy a pet food that smells foul and noxious to them, regardless of whether their pets might like it.
Accordingly, prior to the current invention, no one ever managed to create a satisfactory pet food or pet food flavoring which contains biomass waste products containing the cell carcasses of marine algae or other microbes used to manufacture fatty acids.
Those prior failures have now been overcome, largely through a serendipitous discovery that involved broken bags of brewer's yeast. The bags containing the brewer's yeast ruptured during shipping, rendering the yeast unfit for its intended use. This problem left the recipient of that shipment with yet another solid waste problem, which had to be handled somehow.
Using his trained judgment developed through decades of working with animal feeds, that coinventor began experimenting with combinations of algal waste mixed with brewer's yeast, “off-spec” (i.e., burned) residues generated during the heating and drying step used to create yeast extract, and various other ingredients. Those experiments resulted in a molded and baked biscuit-type dog food product. That type of product is called a “pet treat” herein.
In general, pet “treats” include food items which are designed to be handled by a human owner and fed to a pet one at a time; s
Criggall James G.
Hutton James R.
Trivedi Nayankumar B.
Applied Food Biotechnology, Inc.
Kelly Patrick D.
Sayala Chhaya D.
LandOfFree
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