The curious science behind the pet food you buy
Humans have a long history of converting animals to pets, with the most popular being cats and dogs.
Converting a wild animal to a pet over time changes quite a bit about the animal. One of the changes is that they become dependent on humans for food, particularly if the pet lives completely inside.
The curious case of cat food
Turn on the television and you will see many commercials trying to convince you that your dog would like a certain flavor or type of food.
Of particular interest, cats are often depicted with wild fish, especially tuna. The commercials make it seem like you don’t love your cat if you don’t feed them the salmon and tuna that they crave.
But hold on! Cats evolved about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East's deserts. It goes without saying that tuna and salmon are not your typical desert animals. To be clearer, cats have never naturally caught fish and tuna.
Yet, as far back as 1500 B.C.E., cats are shown eating fish in Egyptian art. Why?
It turns out that cats have taste receptors that are highly sensitive to the flavor called umami. Umami is a meaty and savory deep flavor. Cats do not detect sugars. It turns out that umami flavoring is highly sought after by cats, and it just so happens that salmon and tuna are very high in umami.
What likely happened was that pet cats started eating the fishing scraps of humans and found that they loved it. From that point on, humans decided that cats need fish in their diet.
Commercial pet food science
All pet food started out as a canned meat product with some type of nutritious gravy gel that held it all together. However, during World War II, the tin used for canning was needed for the war and there was a shortage of canning materials.
Companies had to find a way to deliver healthy dog food in a non-canning way. This was the start of the dry dog food revolution.
Dogs and cats need certain nutrients. These nutrients are mixed together to form a nutrient dough. This dough is made into little balls or sometimes (for the humans) is shaped into little fish, bones, or other shapes. The shapes are dried in ovens to produce the hard dog food we have now.
The problem is that while the dog food is quite healthy, it has almost no taste at all.
A book by Mary Roach, "Gulp," describes the next process that provides flavoring to the dry food bits. Strong flavoring syrups are created and sprayed onto the food bits to give them certain flavors they hope pets will enjoy.
Roach points out that this process is not a lot different than how some human foods are made. The very popular Cheetos start off with almost no taste. A liquid flavoring syrup is sprayed onto the puff to give it the flavoring you love. You could take a sip of that syrup and it would taste just like the Cheeto.
The study also pointed out that frozen microwaveable dinners are also similar to the dog food process. The cooking, freezing, and recooking of food takes much of the flavor out of food. Scientists have developed a line of flavor gravies that are added to the food to provide the flavor.
Pet food manufacturers make sure that all the pet’s needs are being met by the food. Years ago, it was discovered there was an increase in blindness in indoor cats and dogs. It was found they were missing a chemical called taurine in their diet.
Taurine is a chemical that is found in meat. However, when meat is processed as dog food, the chemical is degraded away. This chemical helps prevent blindness in our pets. When this was discovered, food companies started putting a man-made version of taurine in the pet food dough balls.
Sometimes the wants of humans get in the way of pet wants and health. Some humans try to vary the type of pet food given to their pets so their pet does not have to eat the same thing every day. After all, you would get sick of the same meal every day.
However, pets are different. It has been found they like the same routine and changing their food only confuses them. Some cat owners who are vegetarians have decided they wanted their cats to be vegetarians too. So a couple pet food companies have made vegetarian cat foods.
The problem is that cats have always been strictly carnivores. Their bodies do not do well with plant materials. So the vegetarian cat foods have not been very successful.
Mike Szydlowski is a science teacher and zoo facilitator at Jefferson STEAM School.
TIME FOR A POP QUIZ
Why is it odd that cats would like fish?
Why is most dog food dry?
How is dog food manufacturing like human food manufacturing?
The article states that some dog food characteristics are done "for the humans." What does this mean?
What is umami and why is it important to cats?
LAST WEEK'S QUIZ ANSWERS
How many months will the scientists have to explore on Mars?
The total mission will be 36 months, with 14 of them being travel. That leaves about 22 months for exploration.
With the exception of the neurotics, scientists believe that a combination of traits will be best. Why do you think they want a combination instead of all agreeables?
A combination of traits (minus the most difficult) can help come up with different solutions to problems.
Why is the consideration of personality types much more critical on a Mars mission than other missions?
A mission to Mars will last for a long time with no opportunity to return early if problems arise.
Why do you think NASA would desire out-of-the-box problem-solvers rather than those driven by routine?
Even more than other jobs, a Mars mission will likely have things come up that were not expected and the success of the mission will be on solving those quickly.
What personality type would you say you are in your work or school group?
No need to share with others — just something to think about.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: The curious science behind the pet food you buy
