STUDY ON LIVER FLAVOR PET FOOD ATTRACTANT

Liu Chao, Bao Qingbin, Kong Ling, Luo Chunfa

Abstract: The production process of a new type of pet food attractant with liver characteristic flavor as the main flavor and meat flavor as the secondary aroma was obtained through the study on biological enzymolysis of animal liver and Maillard reaction technology. The liver flavor of finished product is pure, natural and soft, with a long aroma retention period and good safety, and not easy to deteriorate. It can be widely used in cat food, dog food, canned food and other types of pet food.

Key words: Liver flavor, Pet, Flavoring agent, Attractant

With the continuous improvement of living standards and the acceleration of urbanization, people's consumption concepts and life concepts have undergone earth-shaking changes. People pay more and more attention to the nutrition and function of food, as well as their own mental health, and their lives become more and more quality. Therefore, the role of pets as life partners has been widely recognized, and animal welfare has also been highly valued ^[1-2]. In this way, pet products are rapidly rising and expanding as an emerging industry in China. In recent years, a large number of pet food enterprises have sprung up across China, especially in the rich coastal regions of East and North China. Most of their technologies and equipments are from developed countries abroad, and they have strong technical advantages in pet food nutrition and formulation ^[3]. At present, pet nutrition research has become an independent branch from animal nutriology. Developed countries not only have specialized research institutions in this field, but also have formed independent disciplines in the teaching field. It can be said that China has just started in this field, and the product system, product quality and related research of relevant enterprises are still in the sprouting period ^[4-7]. As the leader of the best feed flavoring agent enterprises in China, our company is determined to carry out research on pet food flavoring agent, according to the development status of pet food industry, and provide comprehensive relevant solutions for pet food enterprises. Under the guidance of this purpose, through the analysis and research to a large number of foreign pet food brands on the market and the collection and summary of relevant R&D information, our bioengineering R&D department has carried out "Project Research" on the liver flavor ^[8], fishy flavor, beef flavor, chicken flavor and other special flavors that are popular with pets (mainly dogs and cats), While carrying out the basic research of biological enzymolysis technology and Maillard reaction technology, we also carried out a lot of practical product R&D work. We hope that our research will provide customers not only with a flavor product, but also with a detailed set of pet flavoring agent application solutions, even pet nutrition and new product R&D solutions.

According to the taste preferences of pets, the investigators made statistics on the flavors of existing pet food products on the market. It is found that among the four flavors (beef flavor, chicken flavor, liver flavor and fish flavor), beef flavor is the most popular among cats and dogs. And chicken meat and fresh liver flavor are also popular with adult cats and dogs. Cats like all kinds of fresh fish flavor. This sample analysis also find that people will pay more attention to the palatability and the mellow and simulation of taste of pet food. In general, the smell of the sample is more soft and delicate, belonging to a light and long aroma. According to the production process of pet food, it has high requirements for high temperature resistance of flavoring agent.

Based on the above analysis, the investigators took the natural liver as the main substrate, and carried out research on the production of liver flavor, main characteristic aroma substances, safety and palatability through the research of biological enzymatic hydrolysis process and Maillard reaction formula and process ^[9].

1.4 Scoring method

The samples of each group were scored according to six factors and given different weights to comprehensively investigate the odor indicators of the samples. Score the intensity of various odors, and the meaning of the scores was（were）: 0=Non-existent, 2=Just recognized, 4=Weak, 6=Medium, 8=Strong, 10=Very strong ^[10-12].

1.6 Results and discussion

Six aroma evaluators scored each group of test products according to the above flavor evaluation methods, and calculated the average score of six evaluators. After processing test design groups by DPS software, the production process of liver flavor products was finally obtained as follows:

(1) After cleaning and removing impurity, the animal liver was mixed with water at a weight ratio of 3:1 and homogenized at high speed in a tissue homogenizer for 8-10 minutes, which can achieve excellent homogenization effect.

(2) The tissue homogenate was enzymolyzed by papain purchased from Pangde company for 4.5-5 hours at a pH of 6-8 at 50℃, in which condition the enzymolysis effect was the best. The addition amount of enzyme was 0.5%-1%. In the process of enzymolysis reaction, it should be stirred regularly, and the best stirring frequency was once every 20 minutes.

(3) Maillard heat reaction process: Let it react for two hours at 150 ℃ and stir every 15 minutes. The pH when reacting was about 6.0. Gelatin was added when the temperature of the reaction system dropped below 60℃, and fully stirred with a glass rod to make it dissolve in Maillard reaction system evenly.

The liver flavor pet food attractant prepared according to the above process and material ratio had pure and soft aroma, with long aroma retention period and was not easy to deteriorate. By GC-MS detection, the chemical substances contained in the volatile components of the samples were common in food-grade meat flavor agent, and the food safety was good.

3 Conclusion

At present, our "Production technology of liver-flavor pet food attractant" has applied for and obtained the national invention patent authorization, and its patent number is ZL201110150933.5. Moreover, the technology has completed the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, and formed a series of pet flavor products charactered by liver flavor, which has been highly praised by customers. In the future, we will further study the pre-treatment of animal liver, enzymatic hydrolysis technology and Maillard reaction control, and continuously improve the nutrition, functionality and characteristic flavor intensity of the final product.

Product development project of Dadhank (Chengdu) Biotech Corp.

 Liu Chao (1980-), male, engineer, master of bioengineering, director of Biological Research and Development Department of Dadhank (Chengdu) Biotech Corp., mainly engaged in the application of biotechnology in feed flavoring. The director of the project.

所有references的journal名称斜体。