Dog Food Manufacturing: Equipment and Processes

Modern dog food production is a sophisticated process designed to create nutritious, safe, and palatable food. The core of this process is extrusion technology.

Significance of the Extrusion Process:

• Through shaping treatment, it enhances the nutritional value, palatability, and digestibility of dog food.

• Extrusion improves the gelatinization degree of starch in raw materials, thereby enhancing pets' digestive absorption rate and palatability.

Principle of Extrusion:
Extrusion is a food processing method where ingredients are heated and pressurized before being suddenly decompressed, causing the food to expand and form small pores, resulting in a crispy texture.

Development and Application of Extrusion Technology:
Extrusion technology originated in 1910 and was first applied to pet food in the 1950s in the United States.
It utilizes screws and barrels within an extruder to heat, pressurize, and squeeze raw materials. The materials are then expelled through a die, where sudden decompression causes expansion.

Extrusion Methods:

• Dry Extrusion: Raw materials enter the extrusion chamber without pre-conditioning. The heat generated during extrusion is produced by mechanical friction acting on the raw materials.

• Wet Extrusion: Raw materials undergo pre-conditioning before entering the extrusion chamber, where steam or moisture is used to increase temperature and pre-cook the ingredients. Pre-conditioning in wet extrusion helps soften and shape the raw materials, reduces mechanical wear, increases pellet density, lowers dust generation, promotes starch gelatinization and protein denaturation, improves digestibility and absorption rate, eliminates harmful bacteria, and enhances safety and hygiene standards.

Extrusion Equipment:

• Twin-Screw Extrusion Method: The equipment structure is relatively complex, but it offers stable extrusion performance, high product yield, high production efficiency, and produces essentially sterile products.