85 Impacts of dietary profile on starch content and gelatinization in canine diets

Starch gelatinization of pet foods can be impacted by several factors, including moisture, retention time, and ingredients used. Starch gelatinization has been associated with effects on digestibility, but isn’t well studied in non-traditional canine diets. The objective of this research was to examine the impacts of dietary ingredient profile (traditional vs. non-traditional) and assess impacts to total starch content and starch gelatinization. Traditional diets (n = 10) utilizing meat-based ingredients including chicken, chicken byproduct meal, meat and bone meal and plant-based ingredients including rice, barley, oats, and corn were examined in comparison with non-traditional diets (n = 10) utilizing meat-based ingredients including alligator, buffalo, venison, kangaroo, squid, quail, rabbit, rabbit and salmon along with plant-based ingredients including tapioca, peas, chickpeas, lentils, potato, and pumpkin. Representative samples were collected via grab sample technique (5 samples/diet) and were assessed for total starch content as well as percent starch gelatinization. Variation between both diet types were assessed with a nonlinear regression using SAS 9.4. Significance was set at P < 0.05. Distribution of total starch content based on ingredient type (traditional vs non-traditional) reveal that mean total starch content is 15% higher in traditional diets as compared to non-traditional diets (P < 0.0001). Conversely, percent starch gelatinization was found to be 10% higher in non-traditional diets (P < 0.0001). Total starch content and percent gelatinization had a highly significant non-linear relationship (P < 0.0001). These novel data reveal important differences between starch content and gelatinization and could impact manufacturing processes for ingredient types as well as feeding recommendations.