Gregory D. Sunvold, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Objectives: Vegan-source nutrients are needed for growing interest in vegan pet foods. The objective was to understand the ability of a new vegan-derived vitamin D3 (VVD3) source to survive the extrusion making process and over shelf-life.
Methods: Multiple extrusion process experiments were designed to assess VVD3 loss in a dog food during the extrusion process and subsequent shelf-life. The food making process included extruding the product at up to 116⁰ C and 14.5 bar with a residence time up to 2 min followed by a forced air-drying process up to 100⁰ C for up to 25 min. Shelf-life losses of VVD3 were assessed in accelerated (40⁰C; 75% RH) and ambient (22⁰C; 35 to 45% RH) conditions. One week in accelerated shelf-life was considered equivalent to three weeks of ambient storage. Vitamin D3 was analyzed by saponifying fat soluble compounds, extracting into a hexane solution, separating compounds using HPLC, and quantifying compounds with an MS/MS detector. Trendline analysis and means separation were performed using MS Excel v.2212 with Real Statistics add-in.
Results: Experiments were conducted using a dog food comprised of 28.2 ± 0.54% protein, 11.2 ± 1.26% fat, 4.6 ± 0.54% crude fiber, and 6.52 ± 0.53% ash dry matter basis (DMB). After process loss of VVD3 averaged 46.4% ± 11.3%. VVD3 percent loss during accelerated shelf-life was fitted to a linear regression equation which explained about 77% of the variation with a VVD3 monthly loss of 2.4% (y = 2.4x + 1.08; R2 = 0.77). VVD3 percent loss over ambient shelf-life was fitted to a linear regression equation which explained about 4% of the variation with a VVD3 loss of 0.27 percent every month (y = 0.27x + 2.35; R2 = 0.04). Reduced R2 was likely due to nominal VVD3 loss during ambient shelf-life. Accelerated and ambient regression lines’ slope differed significantly (P < 0.01) indicating differing rates of VVD3 degradation.
Conclusions: Results indicate that VVD3 loss is nominal during ambient food storage conditions. Insightfully, VVD3 experienced most losses during the heating process of extrusion or constant heat exposure during accelerated shelf-life conditions.
Funding Sources: Funding was provided by Cool Springs International, LLC and V-Dog, LLC.
