Premium
Toxicity trials: Palatability of the diet as a factor in experiments on the rate of growth of rats
Author(s) -
Moran T.,
Pace J.,
Hutchinson J. B.
Publication year - 1955
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740060606
Subject(s) - palatability , weanling , food science , appetite , zoology , biology , food consumption , chemistry , endocrinology , agricultural economics , economics
Abstract A comparison has been made of the rates of growth of rats on three diets, A, B, C, which differed only in that Diet A contained fat extracted from untreated flour, Diet B fat from flour heavily treated (300 p.p.m.) with chlorine dioxide, and Diet C fat from flour heavily treated (600 p.p.m.) with nitrogen trichloride. (These levels of treatment are about ten times the commercial level of application of two flour improvers.) It was found that the rate of growth of the group of rats on Diet C was significantly less than that of the other two groups. Daily measurements of the food consumption of each rat were made and it was found that the lower rate of Group C could be largely accounted for by a significantly lower food consumption by that group. In another experiment groups of weanling rats were offered a choice between Diets A and B; Diets A and C; Diets B and C. Daily measurements were made of the amount of each Diet eaten by each rat. It was found that Diet A was preferred to either Diet B or Diet C and that Diet B was preferred to Diet C. The degree of oxidative deterioration of the fats, as measured by chemical tests, increased from A to C. These experiments provide an example of growth rate being reduced through a decreased appetite for a less palatable diet. In this instance, therefore, and possibly in other cases, palatability is an important factor in the interpretation of data on growth rates.