Fresh Meat Slab Steam Cooking for Dry Pet Food
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional dry pet food manufacturing processes rely on dried, processed meats that are prone to oxidation and nutrient loss, resulting in lower quality and palatability, with limited visibility into the source and freshness of the ingredients, and are limited in their ability to incorporate high fresh meat content due to mechanical extrusion constraints.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the use of unprocessed fresh meat, ground and formed into slabs or strips, cooked using a steam cooker at lower temperatures, and then dried to maintain nutritional content and freshness, allowing for higher fresh meat inclusion and flexibility in formulation without the need for intermediate processing steps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If traditional mechanical extrusion cooking is used to manufacture dry pet food, then the process can handle high moisture content materials and form structurally intact kibbles, but the high temperatures and shear forces degrade meat quality, cause oxidation, and limit fresh meat inclusion to less than 10%
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the cooking function from the extrusion process by using a separate steam cooker. This separates the thermal treatment from the mechanical shearing and pressing operations, allowing gentle steam cooking at lower temperatures that preserves meat quality without requiring high-temperature extrusion cooking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary cooking of the meat mixture in a steam cooker before extrusion. This pre-cooking step gelatinizes the carbohydrates and cooks the meat gently, allowing the subsequent extrusion to occur at lower temperatures and shear rates, thereby preserving fresh meat quality while still achieving proper kibble formation.
2Reliability
If dried rendered powdered meats are used in traditional extrusion, then the process is reliable and produces consistent results, but the meats oxidize and degrade during storage, losing antioxidants and nutritional quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the moisture content parameter of the meat from the typical low moisture of rendered meats to a higher moisture content (40-80%) by using fresh or frozen meat. This parameter change allows the meat to be processed differently - through gentle steam cooking rather than high-temperature extrusion cooking - thereby preserving antioxidants and nutrients while maintaining process reliability.
3Quantity of substance
If high fresh meat content is incorporated into the extrusion mix, then the palatability and nutritional quality improve, but the high moisture and fat content prevent proper chunk formation and cause the extrudate to break down
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary cooking in a steam cooker before extrusion. This pre-cooking gelatinizes the carbohydrates and partially cooks the meat, creating a matrix that will hold together during extrusion. This allows high fresh meat content to be used while maintaining kibble structural integrity, as the gelatinized carbohydrates provide binding without requiring high-temperature extrusion.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical cooking extruder (which uses shear and friction forces for cooking) with a steam cooker system. This substitution allows gentle thermal processing that cooks the meat without the aggressive mechanical shearing that would degrade high-fat fresh meat and cause extrudate breakdown.
4Stability of the object's composition
If traditional extrusion cooking at high temperatures is used, then the carbohydrates are effectively gelatinized and binding occurs, but the high temperatures degrade meat quality and cause oxidation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the cooking function from the extrusion process by using a separate steam cooker. This separation allows carbohydrate gelatinization to occur through gentle steam heating at lower temperatures, eliminating the need for high-temperature extrusion cooking that causes meat degradation and oxidation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces steam as an intermediary heating medium between the heat source and the food material. Steam cooking provides gentle, uniform heating that effectively gelatinizes carbohydrates without the high temperatures and direct contact heat that cause meat degradation and oxidation in traditional extrusion cooking.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach results in a higher quality, more palatable dry pet food with retained nutrients and improved source visibility, enabling higher fresh meat content and flexibility in formulation, while maintaining the convenience and shelf life of traditional dry foods.
Implementation Method 1
cooked using a steam cooker at lower temperatures
Implementation Method 2
dried to maintain nutritional content and freshness
Data Source
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AI summary
There is provided a method of manufacturing a dry pet food, comprising receiving (10) unprocessed meat, grinding (11, 14) the unprocessed meat, forming (15) the ground meat into a slab or a plurality of strips, passing (16) the formed meat through a steam cooker and cutting (17) the meat into chunks, and drying out (18, 19) the chunks.