Rice starch – the secret to success in clean label pet foods
Consumers want to make healthier choices about what they feed their pets. Rice starch can help manufacturers to achieve the highest quality and have maximum consumer appeal for their pet food products.
Clean label
A survey highlighted that three quarters of pet owners want feed products that contain less, or no, ingredients they dislike, such as artificial colours and flavourings, and actively avoid products with fillers, additives or chemical ingredients. Demand for all natural, recognisable ingredients is high and this is driving a shift in pet food production.
All things natural
Cleaning up the label on wet pet foods is a challenge as, traditionally, these contain guar, cassia or xanthan hydrocolloids, carrageenan or locust beans. These are used to cost-effectively create the appropriate viscosity in the wet pet foods. However, with demand rising for natural and recognisable ingredients on-pack, more manufacturers are looking to replace these gums with clean label ingredients such as rice starches.
In wet pet food
Rice starch offers an ideal replacement for modified starches in veterinary and premium wet pet food products. Natural and recognisable to consumers on pet food labels, rice starch also performs exceptionally. It creates soft gel structures and creamy textures with excellent stability during shelf life and temperature fluctuations (offering freeze-thaw stability). Trials have shown that by adding just 3% of BENEO’s native waxy rice starch to a recipe, a similar viscosity is achieved in wet pet food gravies as those containing traditional gums.
In snacks and hypoallergenic pet foods
Rice starch can optimise extruded pet snacks and treats, as well as baked products. With its high hot set temperature, it improves their porosity and surface, allowing for a good level of crispiness and crunchiness in the final product. Additionally, rice starch has a neutral taste and colour, with good palatability, so that it will not influence negatively the organoleptic profile of the end product. Rice starch is also highly digestible and, being free of most common allergens, it is ideal for use in products aimed at young or sensitive pets and in hypoallergenic pet foods.
Rice starch is well placed to help manufacturers remove artificial preservatives and flavourings from their pet food ingredients’ labels and make the most of this growing clean label trend.