Animal Digest in Dog Food - Dog Nutrition DB

Animal digest in dog food is a flavor enhancer made from processed animal tissue. In this blog post, we will explore what animal digest is and why it’s used in so many formulas.

Contents

What is Animal Digest?

Digests are natural flavors. Animal digest is a very common flavor enhancer in the pet food industry^[5].

Digests are made by hydrolysis of undecomposed animal tissue, excluding hair, horns, teeth, hooves, and feathers.

Pork or beef digest can be made from parts such as lung, spleen, kidney, brain, liver, blood, stomach, and intestines. And poultry digest is often made from livers, hearts, heads, feet, or viscera^[5].

To chemically break down the protein and fat components into a liquid manufacturers use enzymes, acids, and heat.

The word “digest” is used because the material goes through a process similar to the natural digestion in an animal’s body.

The enzymes used in animal digest production are generally protease and lipase which digest large chains of protein into shorter peptides and amino acids and fats into free fatty acids, respectively.

With some further processing, fatty acids and amino acids finally react with sugars to form flavorful aromatic substances.

Digests typically have meaty and brothy notes. They are the same as protein hydrolysates.

Protein hydrolysates such as “salmon hydrolysate” are produced as hypoallergenic protein sources for specialty diets. In other cases, hydrolysates are labeled as digest or natural flavor.

The animal tissue to make digest for dog food can come from different sources, including beef, pork, and poultry.

If digest is made from named sources, it has to be specified in the ingredient name, e.g. pork digest or chicken liver digest. But if it’s just animal digest, it can be made from a mixed substrate^[1].

This makes animal digest a mystery ingredient. It is a controversial ingredient because it’s produced from unknown animal sources.

Animal digest in dog food is a palatant that enhances the taste and aroma of pet food, making it more appealing to dogs.

Digests come in both dry and liquid forms. They’re rich tasty powders or sauces often added to kibble as a surface coating.

Digest in Dog Foods

Digest is a flavor additive that makes the dog food more palatable.

It not only adds delicious flavors and increases the dog’s appetite for his food. It can also mask unpleasant tastes and off-flavors.

Palatability is related to how readily a food is accepted and gobbled down. It’s a crucial factor when it comes to pet food.

If your dog doesn’t like his food, you won’t buy it again.

Manufacturers use animal digest in pet food to provide meaty odors and flavors to make a food more desirable to your dog.

Among the taste buds of dogs, the most common units respond primarily to amino acids, sugars, or compounds that occur in raw flesh and in carrion. Dogs have a sensory bias towards some foods which is a legacy of their origins as carnivores^[3].

Dogs are omnivores, they can eat all kinds of foods.

However, if given the choice, they have been shown to strongly prefer meat-rich foods over carbohydrates^[2].

In free-choice studies, adult dogs prefer a protein-fat-carbohydrate ratio of about 30%: 63%: 7%^[4].

While carbohydrates and protein both provide energy, only proteins are an essential nutrient that dogs need in their diet.

The smell of food usually reflects its nutrient content. Digest secretes volatile compounds that resemble those found in real meat.

So if a food smells meaty your dog is tricked into thinking it will provide protein.

In conclusion, to make dogs love low-fat/low-protein/high-carb kibble, manufacturers got creative and invented digest.

And by the way, it’s not just our dogs that think their convenience food is more nutritious than it actually is.

We as pet owners are also fooled into thinking we are feeding our dogs a diet rich in meat just because it smells meaty.

Since ultra-processed dry pet foods are not very palatable to dogs, artificial flavor and flavor enhancers are a necessary evil.

Digest is also used to achieve a certain flavor without using the actual ingredients mentioned in the product name.

For example…

A “chicken-flavored” dog food requires only a tiny amount of “chicken digest.” But it doesn’t need to contain real chicken.

There is a lack of transparency in ingredient labeling.

Manufacturers can actually choose if they label this ingredient as animal digest, as a natural flavor, or as protein hydrolysate.

But in the end, they’re all made the same.

Is Digest in Dog Food Ok?

Manufacturers argue that digest improves “the sensory experience” of pets. Or they try to label digest as a”protein source” although it’s clearly not added for nutritional purposes.

Added flavor is mainly used in low-quality ultra-processed diets high in carbs and low in protein. It’s an artificial flavor made from highly processed animal tissue.

Animal digest is used in dog food to provide meat flavors, making your dog more likely to eat his food.

While animal digest is generally a safe ingredient, it is also not without controversy. The lack of transparency about the source of the animal tissue used to make digest has led some pet owners to question the quality and safety of this ingredient.

But there is an even bigger question:

But what makes a food so boring or unappetizing to dogs that the manufacturer feels it necessary to meddle with its original flavor?

While animal digest is fine for dogs, it’s not really a feature found in more healthy, wholesome, or natural products.

What is Animal Digest?

Digest in Dog Foods

Is Digest in Dog Food Ok?

Further Reading