Green banana flour as a novel functional ingredient in retorted feline diets

Green banana flour (GBF) is a novel ingredient which is high in resistant starch and could be a dietary fiber source in companion animal nutrition. In addition, with its light brown color and pectin content, GBF could potentially serve as natural color additive and thickening agent in pet food manufacturing. The purpose of this research is to evaluate different sources of GBF, the effect of GBF on texture and color in canned foods, and its effect on apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD), fecal characteristics and fermentative end-products in healthy adult cats. Pilot diets were made with 4 different sources of GBF to determine their effects on texture and color. The chemical compositions of the 4 GBF sources slightly differed but were all high in resistant starch (28.4 to 40.9%) as well as low in free sugar, fat, and protein. The true metabolizable energy corrected for nitrogen retention (TMEn) calculated from a precision-fed rooster assay was not different among the sources (2.2 to 2.6 kcal/g). The in vitro fermentation study showed an intermediate extent of fermentability of GBF in contrast with beet pulp and cellulose. For the feline feeding trial, all treatment diets were formulated to meet or exceed the AAFCO (2020) guidelines for adult cats at maintenance. Diets were composed of similar ingredients except for the 3 testing carbohydrate sources, rice flour, dehydrated potato, and GBF. There were 5 dietary treatments; Rice control (4% rice flour), Potato control (4% dehydrated potato), 1% GBF, 2% GBF, and 4% GBF, added as a partial or full replacement of rice flour. All experimental diets were analyzed for texture and color. The animal study was conducted using a completely randomized design with 39 adult domestic cats (15 females and 24 males, mean age 5.6 ± 2.11 yr, mean body weight 5.3 ± 1.24 kg, mean body condition score 6.6 ± 0.94). There was a 7-d diet adaptation period followed by a baseline fresh fecal collection to determine fecal score, pH, short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and branched-chain fatty acid (BCFA) concentrations, phenol and indole concentrations, and ammonia concentration. The treatment period lasted for 21 d and a total fecal collection was performed during the last 4 d of this period to determine the ATTD. A fresh fecal sample was also collected during the total fecal collection to evaluate fecal score, pH, and metabolites. A fasted blood sample was taken at d 0 and 21 for serum chemistry and complete blood count analyses to ensure the cats were in good health status. Treatment diets containing GBF had a lower hardness from the texture profile analysis (P < 0.05). For color analysis, the 4% GBF diet was darker in color compared with the Rice diet (P < 0.05). There was no difference in food intake, fecal output, or ATTD of macronutrients among the treatment groups (P > 0.05). There was no interaction of treatment and time or main effects shown in fecal score, fecal pH, or fecal metabolites (P > 0.05). In conclusion, adding GBF in canned diets may affect the texture and color of the product, but GBF is a comparable novel ingredient to traditional carbohydrate sources, rice and potato, from a nutritional aspect.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Animal Sciences

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Hsu, Shih-Pin (Clare)

Contributors dc:contributor

• de Godoy, Maria R. C.
• Fahey, Jr., George C
• Parsons, Carl M

• cats
• color
• green banana flour
• nutrient digestibility
• resistant starch
• texture

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Shih-Pin (Clare) Hsu

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115752

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115752