Kibble production challenges with high meat content for high protein diets

Demand for high-meat pet food is on the rise as pet owners look for options that appear to best meet and support the requirements for their pet to lead a healthy life.

The problem with an increased demand for high-meat kibble is that some of the most common processing equipment has difficulty handling a formulation that has a high meat content.

Kibble is often processed using a single-screw extruder. But, when producing high-quality, high-meat formulations a single-screw extruder can pose challenges. Single-screw extruders are not designed to handle the high fat and moisture content that comes with fresh meat at high inclusion rates.

Enter Hamlet Protein’s HP 300. HP 300 is a specialty soy-based ingredient that can quickly absorb up to five times its weight in water, aiding in the extrusion process and allowing formulations with up to 50% meat to be processed through the single-screw extruder.

High-meat formulation research

Two tests were performed using HP 300 in high-meat formulations that were extruded using a single-screw extruder. The first test sought to determine the effect of HP 300 on kibble density and durability with meat inclusion rates of 25% and 32%. The results indicate that inclusion of 2.5-7.5% HP 300 produced the most desirable kibble and even improved kibble internal structure (Figure 1) while maintaining durability (Figure 2) and requiring less mechanical energy per ton to process (Figure 3). The second test found that the maximum inclusion rate when HP 300 was included in the formulation was 50% meat (Figure 4).

Figure 1. Internal kibble structure with different HP 300 inclusion rates. Figure 2. Effect of HP 300 inclusion rate on kibble durability with 25 or 32% meat inclusion.

Figure 3. Effect of HP 300 inclusion rate on mechanical energy requirements per ton with 25 or 32% meat inclusion. Figure 4. Structure of kibble with varying meat inclusion and HP 300 inclusion rates.

Using HP 300 in premium dry food is easy. When formulating the diet, simply include HP 300 as part of the dry mix and it will work its magic while ingredients mix in the preconditioner.

When using HP 300, high-meat formulas can be extruded with ease on a single-screw extruder while kibble quality is maintained.