Raw Ingredients in Cat Food Manufacturing: Palatability, Digestibility and Halal Issues in Malaysia

Abstract

Raw ingredients commonly used in the cat food manufacturing are derived fromvarious sources such as meat, meat by products, fish, poultry, vegetables, vegetables byproducts, cereals, fruits, and bones. Meat meal and meat bone meal are unpopular rawingredients since they are manufactured from carcasses and offal of cows, pigs, goats andsheep and may even contain deleterious and unhealthy ingredients. There is the possibility ofthe occurrence of ingredients containing non halal components. There are several types of catfood in the market which are graded based on their ingredients and nutritive values especiallythe protein content. The biological values of the popular protein sources used in cat foodmanufacturing were highlighted. The importance of carbohydrate content, which is mostlynot available on the packaging pack is emphasized and the method of calculation shown.