Benefits Of Pet Food Production By Extrusion Technology

The processing of pet food mainly refers to the process of forming multiple raw materials or single raw materials by various means and methods, so as to maximize the improvement of pet nutrition, palatability and digestion and absorption, so as to maximize the potential nutritional value and use value. The processing range of pet food is very wide, including pet snack food, snack, tooth cleaning stick, nutrition agent, nutrition powder, dry food, wet food, semi-dry food, canned food, etc. In order to maximize its nutritional function, different raw materials are processed in different forms and degrees. The processing of puffed food is basically divided into three categories: physical method, chemical method and microbiological method; Chemical methods include starch denaturation, protein degradation, etc; Microbiological law refers to the fermentation of certain raw materials.
Extrusion is a kind of food processing method. It is to put the processed food into an airtight container, and then suddenly decompress after heating and pressurizing. The water in the food will vaporize and expand, causing many small holes in the food to become brittle and become puffed food. The basic principle is to make the raw material expand by sudden decompression under heating and pressure. As a new type of food processing technology, puffing technology began in 1910, and its application in pet food was in the United States in the 1950s. The United States first began to use the extrusion principle to produce pet food, that is, using the screw and screw sleeve in the puffer to extrude the raw material to make it warm and pressurized, and extruding the high temperature and high pressure food out of the mold hole, realizing rapid volume expansion due to sudden decompression.
Advantages of the extrusion process manufacturing method:
1. Improve the palatability of pet food.
2. Change or improve the nutritional value of pet food.
3. Improve the digestion and absorption rate of pet food.
4. Change the content of different nutritional indicators of pet food, such as reducing moisture to improve the shelf life of food, which is conducive to storage.
5. Change the shape and structure of pet food to make it easy for pets to eat.
6. Change the capacity of the food, extrude and granulate, and press to increase the capacity density of the food.
7. Kill all kinds of mold, salmonella and other harmful substances, and improve the safety and hygiene of pet food.
There are two kinds of screw extrusion: one is dry extrusion, the other is wet extrusion.
During the production and processing of dry expansion, it is not necessary to add water to the raw materials. The raw materials do not undergo pre-conditioning treatment before entering the expansion bin. The heat generated during the expansion process is all generated by the raw materials through the screw, shear plate and expansion cavity under the action of mechanical extrusion.
The difference between wet expansion and dry expansion is that the raw materials are modulated in advance before entering the expansion, and the temperature is raised by steam or water to pre-ripen. The so-called conditioning refers to the heating and wetting of pet food raw materials by steam, so that the starch in the raw materials can be pre-gelatinized, protein denatured, and raw materials can be softened, which is conducive to improving the effect of the expansion and granulation of pet food and improving the expansion quality.
According to the screw structure of the expansion equipment, it can be divided into single-screw extrusion and twin-screw extrusion.
The single-screw extrusion process is relatively simple and has a wide range of applications. It can be used for products with high moisture content and fat content of more than 17%, and the starch gelatinization degree can reach more than 90%.
Compared with single-screw extrusion method, twin-screw extrusion method has relatively complex equipment and structure, but it has many advantages such as stable expansion performance, high product yield, high production efficiency, and basically sterile products after expansion.
In the processing technology of pet food, extrusion technology has been widely used in recent years. Especially since the 1980s, it has been rapidly developed in pet dry food, semi-dry food and pet snack food. The extrusion technology has greatly improved the palatability, nutrition, digestion and absorption, health and safety, transportation, storage and other aspects of pet food, and has a significant positive significance.