Royal Canin Nutritional Information

Royal Canin Nutritional Information

The palatability of a food depends on how the dog consumes it, as this translates its perception of the food's organoleptic qualities. A highly palatable food will be consumed with great pleasure, while an unpalatable food may be underconsumed or even refused. (© Renner).

Key Points in the Analysis of: The Dietary Behavior Sequence

Generally speaking, food intake follows the following sequence.

The Search, Identification and Selection Phases

The dog uses its sense of smell to capture the aromas emitted by the food and its sense of touch to judge the food's temperature. Smell is the most discriminating sense in this phase. The dog has 70 - 200 million olfactory receptors, compared with a human's 5 to 20 million receptors (Vadurel & Gogny, 1997).

(© UMES).

When a dog sniffs, the airflow is 1 l /sec, which is ten times faster than in normal respiration (Vadurel & Gogny, 1997). Olfactory acuity is at a maximum when the dog is hungry and falls when the dog is satiated.

The sense of smell declines with age.

The Oral Phase

The dog now perceives the size, shape, texture and taste of the food.

The sense of taste is centered in the gustatory papilla on the tongue, palate and pharynx. Dogs have around 1700 tastebuds, compared with 9000 tastebuds in humans.

Dogs distinguish five distinct flavors: bitter, sweet, acidic, salty and umami, which is the recognition of an essential amino acid, glutamate. Dogs tend to reject bitter flavors and be attracted to sweet flavors. It should be remembered that wild canids also eat fruits and berries.

Conditioning starts before birth, as the puppy's gustative system starts to function just before whelping (Ferrel, 1984). It is sensitive to certain molecules in the mother's food, which are conveyed through the placental circulation and the amniotic liquid (Thorne, 1995). This intrauterine exposure influences the future preferences of the puppy (Doty, 1986).

Digestion Phase

If the dog associates negative sensations with the ingestion of a food (e.g., if it is ill just after it has eaten), it may develop a process of aversion that will lead it to avoid this food the next time (Cheney & Miller, 1997).

Focus on: Food Flavors

The dog is naturally attracted to food with a high fat content. Increasing the quantity of fat in the kibble's coating is the simplest way of increasing palpability, although this strategy may be counterproductive to the nutritional strategy. There is a danger that high fat food will encourage obesity if the owner fails to properly control the quantities given.

The more you try to limit the fat content, the more important flavor is to palatability. Flavors were limited until new ones started to be produced by traditional methods like enzyme hydrolysis and Maillard reactions, as used in the manufacture of cookies. A technological breakthrough has enabled the development of a third generation of flavors, with even better results. The effect is much improved as it is the synergy of the two flavor types that were formerly used for dogs.

The work on flavors involves following their development in time. Palatability must remain satisfying until the final date of consumption stated on the packaging.

Figure 1. The main technologies used un developing flavors.