Dry lamellar-structure pet food product

The product of a process for preparing a food composition which comprises:

• adding together ingredients comprising cereal, vegetable proteins, animal meal, vegetable by-products and a lipid and mixing the ingredients added together to obtain a mixture which comprises the lipid ingredient and, by weight, between 40% and 70% of the cereal, between 5% and 25% of the vegetable protein, between 5% and 30% of the animal meal and between 10% and 20% of the vegetable by-products and passing the mixture through an apparatus for extrusion-cooking the mixture and for extruding and obtaining a cooked product from the apparatus, wherein the apparatus comprises (i) a screw extrusion device member which is selected from the group consisting of an extruder and an expander for cooking and extruding the mixture to obtain a cooked product and which extends to an exit opening for exit of the cooked product from the screw extrusion device member and (ii) an assembly which consists essentially of (a) a cone member and (b) a die member, wherein the cone member is connected to the screw extrusion device member for receiving the cooked product from the screw extrusion device member exit opening and is configured and arranged positionally for passage of the cooked product through the cone member to a cone member exit opening for exit of the cooked product from the cone member so that upon passage through the cone member to the cone member exit opening, the radial cross-sectional area of the cooked mixture is reduced, and wherein the die member is connected directly to the cone member for receiving the cooked product directly from the cone member exit opening and is configured to discharge the cooked product so that a product which comprises a band having a plurality of distinct layers is obtained, and discharging and obtaining a formed lamellar-structure product, which comprises a plurality of distinct layers, from the die member;
• cutting the lamellar-structure product discharged and obtained from the die member into pieces to obtain pieces having a band-layer lamellar structure comprising a plurality of distinct band layers;
• drying the pieces to obtain a dried product having a moisture content of between 2% and 15%;
• and
• wherein the ingredients are added together in amounts so that the dried product has, by weight, a protein content between 14% and 35%, a lipid content of between 2% and 20% and a carbohydrate content of at least 25% and wherein the ingredients added together and mixed and the cooked mixture and the lamellar-structure product do not comprise an added plasticizer ingredient and wherein the dried product has a density of between 0.3 g/cc l and g/cc 0.6.