Guar gum is one of the most important ingredients of pet foods. This is a naturally derived polysaccharide found in almost every kind of pet food available in market today. Because of invaluable properties of guar gum, it is widely used in human as well as animal foods. The best property of guar gum which makes it a worthy additive for pet food is its capability to thicken the fluids. Guar gum as thickener in pet food is used to give the product required viscosity and suspending properties during the can filling process in order to ensure efficient filling and pet food packaging without spilling and wastage. This as a pet food additive has got a wide functional pH range and therefore can very well give efficient thickening and stabilizing effect even at low concentrations as low as 1%.
Guar gum also known as Gomme de guar or guarkernmehl is derived from Indian cluster bean plant or guar plant. This is widely cultivated in dry arid regions of the country and an important source of animal food. A guar seed essentially contains three components – endosperm, hull and germ. It contains approximately 40% of endosperm, 15% hull and 45% germ. The endosperm is the vital component used for mainly food applications for both human as animal requirements. It is separated from the hull and germ by a guar gum processing method where the guar seeds are grounded into spilts, then pre-hydrated, flaked, grounded and dried. The hull and germ extracted from the guar gum processing is also a rich source of protein and therefore in many cases used to feed cattle for good health.
Use of guar gum in pet foods is not new at all. Since from the early periods guar gum has been an integral part of cattle feed or animal foods. Earlier the guar plants were cut and fed as green forage to the animals. The beans of guar plant were boiled and fed to the cattle as means of high protein source.
The by-product of guar gum called guar meal produced during the manufacturing or processing of guar gum powder in industries is a popular product fed to the cattle and poultry as source of protein. Guar meal being very rich protein can be used as a replacement for protein supplements like oil cakes in ruminants.
There are reasons for why guar gum is such a good thickener for the pet foods. Technically speaking guar gum is a polysaccharide galactomannan containing mannan sugar chains linked with galactose side units. The side chains formed during linking gives guar gum more ability to hold on to the other molecules thereby giving it good thickening property to add on to the product.
Guar gum is the most effective and affordable of all the commercial gums used for thickening applications. Of all the naturally occurring gums used for commercial thickening applications, guar gum powder can produce the highest viscosity required to thicken the products.
In pet foods guar gum acts as a high soluble fiber. It therefore can help to improve amino acid digestibility in animals. It reduces post-prandial plasma insulin and cholesterol by reducing digestion ability and subsequent nutrient absorption in the animals.
Conclusion
Therefore guar gum is a valuable additive for pet foods. For those looking to buy high quality guar gum powder for addition in pet foods, Agro gums can offer the finest quality guar gum at most affordable price.
This article educates reader about uses or guar gum in pet foods.
This article has been written by Biren Patel working at Agro Gums. Agro Gums is a guar and cassia gum manufacturing company offering high quality guar gum powder, fast hydration guar gum powder, cassia powder, guar splits and guar meal to satisfy the production requirements of various industries across the world.
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