Humanization of dogs and cats has directed the owners’ preferences for pet food claimed with “human‐grade” ingredients, mainly characterized by the replacement of processed animal proteins with raw animal protein sources (“fresh mechanically deboned meat”, MDM), and usually listed as the first ingredient on pet food labels. The majority of pet owners consider their pets to be family members (63% of pet owners in the United States and more than 71% in Italy). The higher polyamine levels fount in MDM-enriched petfood after 6-months storage, however, may represent a possible hazard, and further studies are still warranted. In conclusion, MDM inclusion in dry dog food is microbiologically safe and it can improve its nutritional quality, at the expense of a reduced palatability.

The Daisy II Incubator was found to be a valid instrument for studying in vitro digestibility also for dogs, providing data simply, quickly, with less variability and costs than in vivo trials. After 6-months storage, the total mesophilic bacterial count ranged between 1.77 and 2.09 log CFU/g feed, while polyamine values were higher in the MDM (0.37 g/kg) than in the MBP (0.27 g/kg). Microbiological risk assessment showed no microbiological hazards for either product. Results indicated that MDM product was characterized by significant higher nutritional value in terms of fatty acids profile, in vitro digestibility (HV-IVD method) and lower palatability than the MBP product. Objectives were: 1) to evaluate the effect of inclusion of MDM in dry dog food on fatty acid profile and in vivo and in vitro digestibility, proposing a new system (Daisy II Incubator) to measure the in vitro digestibility for dogs 2) to compare palatability of dry dog food containing MDM with dry dog food in which meat by-products (MBP) are the only animal protein sources 3) to determine, whether or not, the inclusion of that ingredient changes the microbiology and the storage quality. It is important to determine the scientifically sustainability of this claim and to assess the microbiological safety of MDM inclusion in dry pet food. Fresh mechanically deboned meat (MDM) is usually claimed as high-quality ingredient on dry pet food recipes and this aspect may positively influence consumer choice.

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