Understanding and Managing Lipid Oxidation in Pet Foods

Pet food carries more fat than most human food categories, and much of it is unsaturated. That is good nutrition and bad chemistry: the same double bonds that make omega-3 valuable are the ones oxygen attacks first.

Palatability fails before safety does

By the time oxidation is a safety concern, the animal has usually stopped eating the product. Rejection at the bowl is the commercial failure, and it happens at peroxide values well below any regulatory threshold.

Most oxidation complaints reach us as a palatability problem, not a chemistry one.

Where to measure

Testing only the finished bag tells you what survived. Testing the incoming fat, the post-extrusion product and the finished bag tells you where it was lost — which is the only version that lets you fix anything.

• Incoming fats and oils, on receipt.
• After extrusion and coating, where heat does its damage.
• Finished product at production, and again at the end of stated shelf life.