Very little wheat is used as a starch ingredient in mainstream pet food. Today, wheat flour or milling co-products mostly find their way into rotary-molded baked biscuits or treats. This goes back to the first commercial pet products where wheat was an ingredient in the original Spratt’s Patent Meat Fibrine Dog Cakes (Fraser-Miller et al., 2021). The utility of wheat in this application is its unique protein (i.e., gluten) that provides the elasticity necessary for form and the structure needed for stability and texture.
Gluten is formed when water is added in preparing the dough and the two principal proteins, glutenin and gliadin, are hydrated. Some people have a gastrointestinal sensitivity to gluten or an outright allergic reaction to this protein known as Celiac disease. A similar condition has been identified in a subpopulation of Irish Setters, but the incidence is rare and not a factor for the general dog population. Thus, this functional protein can be quite valuable for use in pet products like the rotary-molded baked biscuit.
