An opportunity for soy as a protein source in pet nutrition

The use of soy protein in pet diets is often overlooked due to concerns surrounding anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) and the negative impacts they can have pets.

With ANFs removed, soy protein provides an opportunity to improve consistency of nutrient analysis while providing important benefits that contribute to animal health.

The problem with meat by-product meal

Poultry by-product meal is often listed as the first ingredient in pet food, meaning it is the ingredient that is included in the highest proportion in the diet. The problem with poultry by-product meal, however, is that it is difficult to guarantee which parts of the animal are included in the by-product meal. This leads to inconsistency in the nutrient composition of poultry by-product meal which would greatly influence the final nutrient composition of the pet diet. In order to guarantee nutrition analysis, the inclusion rates of ingredients would likely need to be re-formulated with each batch of poultry by-product meal that a pet food producer receives – something that would increase workload, and processing time substantially.

An opportunity for enzyme-treated soy protein

Soybean meal does not possess the same risk in terms of nutrient variability as meat by-product meals do because it is a single ingredient rather than any number of combinations of different animal parts with varying nutrient compositions. This characteristic ensures that soybean meal is a high-quality, consistent, and balanced protein source. Despite this, soybean meal has been overlooked for pet food diets for years due to the ANFs naturally present in soy. By treating soy with enzymes to remove ANFs, soy has the opportunity to become the protein of choice in pet diets.

The benefits of enzyme-treated soy in pet nutrition

Research trials in dogs in which poultry by-product meal was partially or fully replaced with HP 300 indicate multiple benefits to feeding soy in pet diets. Partial replacement of poultry by-product meal with HP 300 leads to increased total tract digestibility, reduced fecal output, and significantly higher palatability scores.