Dual enzyme digestion for a dog food of improved palatability

A process for preparing a nutritionally-balanced dog food having improved palatability, said dog food comprising fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals and containing of a weight basis from 20% to 80% farinaceous ingredients and from 20% to 80% proteinaceous ingredients, including proteinaceous meaty material at from about 25% to about 55% by weight of the proteinaceous ingredients, said process comprising the steps of:

• (a) preparing a farinaceous slurry comprising from about 30% to 70% water and from about 5% to about 25% of the total weight of said farinaceous ingredients;
• (b) forming a farinaceous reaction product by treating the farinaceous material in said farinaceous slurry with added alpha-amylase and protease enzymes in an amount and under conditions effective to convert at least a portion of the farinaceous material to a mixture of oligo saccharides ranging in size from 1 to 10 monomer units, and at least a portion of the proteinaceous material to a mixture of peptides ranging in size from 2 to 300 monomer units, and effective to reduce the viscosity of the slurry by 50%;
• (c) preparing a proteinaceous slurry comprising water and a major portion of the proteinaceous meaty material;
• (d) forming a proteinaceous reaction product by treating the proteinaceous material in the proteinaceous slurry with protease enzymes in an amount and under conditions effective to convert at least a portion of the proteinaceous material to peptides ranging in size from 2 to 300 monomer units and effective to reduce the viscosity of the slurry by 50%;
• and
• (e) incorporating the farinaceous and proteinaceous reaction products into a dog food in an amount effective to provide a significant increase in the palatability of the dog food to dogs.