Methods for making appetizing and dentally efficacious animal chews

A method of forming a chewable matrix for an animal chew, the method comprising combining and thoroughly mixing to form a substantially homogenous mixture:

• i) about 5-20 wt % protein,
• ii) at least about 30-60 wt % starch,
• iii) about 24-30 wt % water and, optionally, a humectant,
• iv) an orally active ingredient, and
• v) an edible saccharidic processing aid;
• heating the mixture to a processing temperature above a gelatinization temperature of the starch to form a melt;
• shaping a portion of the melt into a matrix having dimensions selected to fit within an oral cavity of an animal;
• and
• cooling the matrix below the gelatinization temperature to yield the chewable matrix comprising 30-50 wt % starch,
• wherein the proportions of water and humectant are selected in amounts sufficient to confer chewable plasticity to the cooled chewable matrix and wherein an amount of the orally active ingredient is selected such that the chewable matrix comprises a temporally efficacious amount of the ingredient, and
• wherein the processing aid is included in the mixture in an amount sufficient to reduce the viscosity of the mixture at the processing temperature, relative to the same mixture lacking the processing aid.

An animal chew having a consumable portion, the consumable portion comprising a chewable matrix and having dimensions selected to fit within an oral cavity of an animal, wherein the chewable matrix comprises:

• i) about 9-17 wt % protein,
• ii) about 30-50 wt % starch,
• iii) water and, optionally, a humectant, in amounts sufficient to confer chewable plasticity to the chewable matrix,
• iv) a temporally efficacious amount of an orally active ingredient, and
• v) an edible saccharidic processing aid, and
• wherein the surface-to-volume ratio of the chew is at least 8.

A method of forming a chewable matrix for an animal chew, the method comprising

• combining to form a substantially homogenous mixture:
• i) about 5-20 wt % protein,
• ii) about 30-60 wt % starch,
• iii) water and, optionally, a humectant, and
• iv) an orally active ingredient;
• heating the mixture above the gelatinization temperature of the starch to form a melt;
• shaping a portion of the melt into a matrix having dimensions selected to fit within the oral cavity of the animal;
• and
• cooling the matrix below the gelatinization temperature to yield the chewable matrix,
• wherein the proportions of the water and the humectant are selected in amounts sufficient to confer chewable plasticity to the cooled chewable matrix and wherein the amount of the orally active ingredient is selected such that the chewable matrix comprises a temporally efficacious amount of the ingredient.

An apparatus for forming molded foodstuffs from a moldable extrudate, the apparatus comprising a portioner and a rotary molder, wherein

• the portioner comprises
• a plurality of portioner plates, each bearing a void extending through the portioner plate and being circumferentially attached to
• a rotatable hub at a position at which rotation of the hub causes the portioner plate to pass between a top plate that closely opposes one face of the portioner plate and a bottom plate that closely opposes the opposite face of the portioner plate, thereby defining a billet volume defined by the void through the portioner plate, the opposition between the top plate and the portioner plate, and the opposition between the bottom plate and the portioner plate,
• the hub of the portioner being spaced apart from a nozzle that communicates with the void in each portioner plate as the plate rotates about the hub past the nozzle at a filling position of each plate, whereby extrudate expelled through the nozzle can pass into the void at the filling position,
• each portioner plate being rotatable from the filling position, past the top and bottom plates, into a discharge position, whereby the void contains a billet of extrudate at the discharge position that is equal to the billet volume, and
• a knock-out device for displacing the billet from the void at the discharge position;
• and
• the rotary mold comprises
• a plurality of opposed pairs of upper mold plates and lower mold plates circumferentially attached to a rotatable hub,
• each pair of upper and lower mold plates being movable with respect to one another in the direction parallel to the axis of the hub,
• each upper mold plate bearing an upper molding cavity on the face opposite the lower mold plate and being inclinable between a lowered position substantially perpendicular to the axis of the hub and a raised position substantially parallel to the axis of the hub,
• each lower mold plate bearing a lower molding cavity on the face opposite the upper mold plate and being inclinable between a lowered position substantially perpendicular to the axis of the hub and a raised position substantially parallel to the axis of the hub,
• each pair of upper and lower mold plates being sequentially rotatable between
• i) a filling position in which the upper and lower mold plates are spaced apart from one another and at least one of the upper and lower molding cavities is positioned to receive the billet as it is displaced from the void in the portioner plate,
• ii) a series of compression positions in which both the upper and lower mold plates are in their respective lowered positions and at least one of the upper and lower mold plates is moved toward the other;
• iii) a closed position in which the upper and lower mold plates are closely opposed against one another and the cavity defined by the upper and lower molding plates defines the form of the foodstuff into which each billet is shaped;
• iv) a series of casting positions in which the upper and lower mold plates remain closely opposed against one another as the hub rotates;
• and
• v) a discharge position in which at least one of the upper and lower mold plates is in its raised position,
• whereby the portioner portions the extrudate into billets which are displaced from the portioner, received in a mold plate of the rotary molder, and thereafter shaped in and discharged from the rotary molder.