High Meat Inclusion Made Easier

High Protein? No Problem with HorizonPSI.

As the pet food market continues to grow, consumers are increasingly selective about what they feed their pets. Meat inclusion recipes are highly desired, but how much meat varies by brand. High meat inclusion recipes (those where at least 30% of the protein is from fresh meat) can offer conveying challenges because of the amount of raw or other wet ingredients involved. HorizonPSI has learned to overcome these challenges, creating solutions that make the manufacturing process more efficient while providing high-quality quality food for beloved pets.

Determining how the high meat inclusion recipes should be mixed, extruded, baked, dried or conveyed is particularly difficult due to the recipe/ingredient variations and percentage of raw or wet ingredients. Engineering and building systems to deliver a consistent, properly shaped and sized, safe, digestible product, while minimizing process fines and breakage is what we do.

Recently, HorizonPSI worked with a Minnesota-based pet food manufacturer to build a facility that can take high-meat inclusion product from pre-mix to extruder. The pre-mixed ingredients get prepared at a different location and delivered by truck. In this facility, a bottom hopper truck unloads a batch of pre-mix, in a fully enclosed bay, directly into a receiving pit. The pit is then configured to pneumatically convey the materials to internal storage silos. The pneumatic design of this process allows for quick truck unloading, efficient site maintenance and convey line sanitation, which decreases the time needed for adding or changing ingredients.

To get to the desired shape, size and consistency of the pet food kibble, we utilized several HorizonPSI innovations in this process. Our Kleen Horizontal Product Separator (HPS) is used in place of a traditional cyclone. It receives the product gently to maintain shape and reduce fine generation. The low-profile Horizontal Product Separator fits into a space that traditional cyclones wouldn’t. This space advantage allows for more ideal placement and access. All the internal product contact surfaces are accessible for cleaning, which is very important for eliminating cross-contamination and pathogens.

Additional transfer steps in the process include coating and cooling the product prior to finished product packaging. During these steps, materials often leave some residue on the interior of the convey line. Our ConTran continuious dense phase conveying by design does not allow for convey line material build up. As an increased sanitation capability that will decrease cross contamination, we included several line pig access ports in the system. One such port was installed after the coater and prior to the vertical cooler. This allows the manufacturer to send a line pig through the line to verify the absence of pathogens. It can also be used to disinfect the line by allowing direct access for sanitization liquids. Keeping the convey line clean, sanitized and verified is essential to good manufacturing process and delivering a quality safe product to the consumer.

If you’re looking for a high meat inclusion solution that works, contact us today and we’ll start putting together a process that’ll deliver the high-quality pet food that pet owners are demanding.