For certain types of pet food products, functional or technical ingredients like hydrocolloids are necessary. These ingredients act as thickeners or stabilizing agents and improve the outcome when producing products that are “fluids” somewhere in their manufacturing process. This is especially important for canned pet foods, where keeping all components in the mix fully suspended and achieving the right texture post-retort is vital to product quality, safety and appeal to pet owners.
To perform this role, we often use combinations of hydrocolloid gums and gels to achieve the target filling viscosity and the finished product stability or structure. There has been pressure from critics of the industry to remove guar gum and carrageenan out of unfounded fear that they are unsafe. While untrue, perceptions are hard to dispel the more they get repeated without objection. A gum that does not seem to have become the target of critics — at least not yet — is locust bean gum. This ingredient, also known as carob bean gum, can be labeled either way depending on the company and how they desire to list it on the ingredient panel.
