The future of pet food kibble: enhancing plant protein bioavailability with enzymatic preconditioning

就宠物本身而言，宠物主人也要求为他们的宠物提供优质的、非转基因的、非过敏性的植物替代品。使用的这些植物性产品不仅必须满足它们心爱的食肉动物的营养需求，而且还必须非常可口，能够被工业高效且负担得起的加工。我们正在开发一种完全以植物蛋白为基础的宠物食品，它是非转基因、无麸质的，与肉类狗肉相比，具有适口性、氨基酸平衡、蛋白质消化率和生物利用率。这项研究将使用由精选的加拿大谷物制成的植物蛋白浓缩物。然而，研究表明，与动物蛋白质不同，所有谷物蛋白质都不能被猫和狗很好地消化，因为它们含有一些抗营养因子(ANF)。此外，来自植物来源的细胞壁纤维(CWF)可以包围和包裹蛋白质，使其更难被消化。我们的研究旨在利用环境友好型技术的组合，最大限度地减少ANF和CWF对蛋白质消化率和生物利用度的负面影响。关于谷物化学和蛋白质的酶转化已经有了丰富的知识，这成为我们这里项目的基础。我们的实验室和中试规模实验将整合目前谷物化学、酶解转化和粗粮挤压技术领域的基础和实用知识。在这项研究的最后阶段，我们将在一系列标准的宠物友好型狗和猫评估中，评估我们的植物蛋白家禽和肉类家禽的适口性、蛋白质生物利用率和潜在的宠物性能。这项研究将帮助我们的加拿大宠物食品行业成为生产成本效益高的以植物蛋白为基础的优质家禽的领先者。更重要的是，这些技术的成功商业化将促进全球对我们自己的加拿大谷物加工业生产的植物蛋白浓缩液的需求。该项目是艾伯塔大学为加拿大快速发展的宠物食品行业培训和教育未来的几位科学家和技术专家的一个重要机会。

As for themselves, pet owners are also demanding superior, non-GMO (non-genetically modified) and non-allergenic plant substitutes for their pets. These plant-based products used must not only satisfy the nutritional demands of their beloved carnivores, but also be highly palatable and capable of being efficiently and affordably processed by industry. We are developing a completely plant protein-based pet food that is non-GMO, gluten-free, and possesses a palatability, amino acid balance, protein digestibility and bioavailability compared to meat kibbles. Plant protein concentrates made from selected Canadian grains will be used in this research. However, research suggests that all grain proteins, unlike animal proteins, are not as well digested by cats and dogs, due to some anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) they contain. Furthermore, the cell wall fibres (CWFs) from plant sources can surround and entrap protein and make it less available for digestion too. Our research aims to minimize the negative effects of ANFs and CWFs on protein digestibility and bioavailability using a combination of environmentally-friendly technologies. A wealth of knowledge exists already regarding grain chemistry and enzyme conversion of proteins; this becomes foundation of our project here. Our lab and pilot scale experiments would integrate this current basic and practical knowledge in the areas of grain chemistry, enzyme hydrolytic conversion and kibble extrusion technologies. At the final phase of this research, we would evaluate our plant protein kibbles to meat kibbles for palatability, protein bioavailability and potential pet performance in a series of standard pet-friendly evaluations with dogs and cats. This research would help our Canadian pet food industry to become a leader in the production of cost efficient plant protein-based, superior quality kibbles. More significantly, the successful commercialization of these technologies would promote the global demand for plant protein concentrates produced by our own Canadian grain processing industry. This project represents a significant opportunity for the University of Alberta to train and educate several future scientists and technologists for the fast growing pet food industry in Canada.