Pet Food Machine

• Flexible – Extrusion pet food manufacturing is adaptable, for application to a wide range of input material types. Also, extrusion can produce many different forms of the final product in terms of shape, texture, and color.
• Fast - Pet food extruders operate continuously, yielding high quantities to meet strict production deadlines. Diamond America extruders are designed for fast, easy changeover and cleaning between runs.
• Efficient - The highly repeatable extrusion process is low in cost, especially once conditions have been optimized. Precise process control and automation reduces waste and boosts productivity.
• Consistent - Pet food extrusion and cutting produce a very uniform end product of constant cross-section and size. The process is extremely controllable and reliable, allowing high quality to be maintained throughout.

How Pet Food Is Made?

How Dry Pet Food Is Made

While there are numerous ways to making dry pet food, the most commonly used process is extrusion. This process was adapted for making pet food in the 1950s based upon technology used to make puffed breakfast cereals. The diagram on Making Pet Food by Extrusion illustrates the process:

1. Ingredients are brought together in a mixer. Dry ingredients may be ground prior to introduction to wet ingredients. Once mixed together, they form a moist dough.
2. The dough is heated in the preconditioner prior to introduction to the extruder.
3. The extruder, essentially a giant meat grinder, is where the primary cooking phase for dry extruded pet food products occurs. The dough is cooked under intense heat and pressure as it moves toward the open end of the extruder. At the end of the extruder, hot dough passes through a shaping die and knife (similar to the action of a meat grinder) where the small pieces expand rapidly into kibble once they are under standard air pressure.
4. Kibble is dried in an oven until its moisture content is low enough to make it shelf stables like a cookie or cracker. The drying oven is followed by a cooling phase.
5. After cooling, kibble may pass through a machine that sprays on a coating, which is generally a flavor enhancer.
6. Packaging (bags, boxes, pouches, etc.) is filled during the last step to precise amounts to meet the weight advertised on the label. The final result is finished pet foods or treats.

How Wet Pet Food Is Made

Pet food companies are required to follow the same federal regulations for making wet pet food products (such as products in cans, pouches, and trays) that human food companies must follow for low acid foods (21 CFR Part 113). The diagram Making Wet Pet Food illustrates the process by which products sold in cans, pouches, trays, and similar containers are made:
Ingredients are incorporated in a mixer.

1. Clean empty containers (cans, pouches, trays, etc.) are filled to precise amounts to meet the weight advertised on the label.
2. Lids are applied if used, and containers are sealed.
3. Sealed containers are cooked at a specified temperature, for the desired time, to destroy all living organisms that may be present (bacteria, viruses, mold) that could otherwise grow in the sealed container and cause illness in people or pets.
4. Once cooled, labels are applied to containers, resulting in finished wet products.

Advantages of Pet Food

• Improves protein quality in feed
• Provides eatability of all feed components
• Helps regulate feed weight
• Disinfects harmful microorganisms and anti-nutritional substances
• Widely used in pet feed production line, rabbit feed production line, etc