Patent Description:
Pet foods are generally classified into three types by their water content: dry pet foods, semi-moist pet foods, and high water content pet foods. Dry pet foods generally have a water content of less than about <NUM>% by weight. Semi-moist pet foods generally have a water content of <NUM>%-<NUM>% by weight. Pet foods with a water content of greater than <NUM>%, and more specifically in the range of about <NUM>-<NUM>%, are classified as high water content or wet pet foods. The phrase "complete and balanced," as used herein, is in general accordance with the description in <NPL>. ; Association of American Feed Control Officials Incorporated, Official Publication (<NUM>); or other industry body in the U. or applicable country. Further, a food is to be distinguished from what is referred to as "snacks" or "treats" by persons familiar with pet food science. Generally, the smallest serving size available for a complete and balanced, semi-moist or wet cat food is about 3oz. - 4oz (<NUM> grams to <NUM> grams).

Pet food, and particularly for the subject of this disclosure cat food, is the subject of research into the general effectiveness at delivering nutrition, which encompasses issues of nutrient content, palatability, freshness, and the like. The inventors have discovered insights into cats' preferred eating habits, especially that cats prefer their meals in small discrete segments. The invention is a manifestation of the inventors' discoveries and insights relating cats' preferences.

Prior art disclosures are for example <CIT> and the products shown on XP002508199.

The present invention, which is defined by the claims, relates to a packaged, multi-meal, unitized cat food product comprising:a plurality of sealed containers, each one of the containers assembled into a single package;each one of the containers including a unit of commercially sterile, complete and balanced cat food having a mass of at least <NUM> grams and no more than <NUM> grams;the cat food having a moisture content of at least <NUM> percent by weight of the food.

An aspect of the present invention is directed to a complete and balanced semi-moist or wet cat food product in a serving size that is suited for consumption according to a cat's natural feeding pattern. Thus, according to the invention, a complete and balanced semi-moist or wet cat food is packaged in a <NUM> - <NUM> serving size. The invention relates to a packaged, multi-meal, unitized cat food product that includes: a plurality of sealed containers, each one of the containers assembled or configured into a single package; each one of the containers including a unit of commercially sterile, complete and balanced cat food having a mass of at least <NUM> grams and no more than <NUM> grams; and the cat food having a moisture content of at least <NUM> percent by weight of the food.

The cat food is shelf stable. The cat food may be filled in aseptic or sterile conditions or retorted in the containers. The cat food preferably has a mass of at least <NUM> grams and no more than <NUM> grams, more preferably, at least <NUM> grams and no more than <NUM> grams, and even more preferably at least <NUM> grams and no more than <NUM> grams.

The present invention may also be used in a method of feeding a cat that includes: providing plural containers, each of which has a capacity of at least <NUM> grams; filling the container with at least <NUM> grams and no more than <NUM> grams of a complete and balanced cat food; sealing the containers; after the filling and sealing steps, heating the container to at least partially cook or sterilize the pet food; and after the heating step, providing the containers of pet food in a package such that each container of the package may be individually opened.

Another method of feeding a cat includes: providing plural containers having a capacity of at least <NUM> grams; filling each container with at least <NUM> grams and no more than <NUM> grams of a commercially sterile complete and balanced cat food; sealing the container; and providing the containers of pet food in a package such that each container of the package may be individually opened.

The containers are sized with a maximum capacity of about <NUM> grams and to enable the cat to finish eating the food before certain characteristics of the food degrade to unwanted levels. The degrading characteristics include decrease in palatability, decrease in moisture content, oxidation of lipids or flavorants, decrease in volatile compounds, loss or degradation of odor components, increase in malodorous compounds, color degradation, and/or loss or degradation of texture components. Preferred container capacities are as provided above.

The multi-meal semi-moist or wet cat food product is configured as a plurality of individually packaged single-serving units that are integrated together into a larger package. Thus, in one embodiment, the multi-meal semi-moist or wet cat food product may be designed to provide an optimal daily diet for a cat in a variety of flavors.

The inventors have studied the natural feeding patterns of cats and discovered that cats on average prefer particular sized servings of cat food. In one study, cats were fed a complete and balanced cat food to examine the cats' natural feeding patterns. The cats in the group ate as many as sixteen meals over a <NUM>-hour period and averaged <NUM> meals per <NUM>-hour period. Further, over <NUM>% of the cats in the group ate between about <NUM> - <NUM> (<NUM>. ) of food per meal and the entire group of cats averaged about <NUM> (<NUM>. ) of food per meal, which equates to an average caloric intake of about <NUM> Kcal per meal. <FIG> is a bar graph summary of the study that shows meal sizes in grams (rounded up to the nearest <NUM> grams) and the respective frequency at which the cats ate, as expressed in percentage of all the meals eaten. Also, the assignee of the invention gathered data concerning how cat owners feed their cats. The data shows that even when feeding from smaller packages (for example <NUM> to <NUM>, 3oz. ) of wet cat food, less than half of the cat owners fed their cats the entire package. In this regard, of the owners who fed their cats wet food packaged in small containers (3oz. - 4oz can or pouch), only <NUM>% fed their cats the full package, <NUM>% fed about three-quarters of the package, <NUM>% fed about half the package, and <NUM>% fed one-quarter or less of the package. The data showed that the average amount of wet cat food that owners fed their cats was <NUM>. Also, the assignee of the present invention gathered data concerning how owners handle the unused portion of the wet cat food. Of the owners who fed their cats only a portion of the cat food package, <NUM>% stored the remaining cat food in the original container and refrigerated it, <NUM>% stored the remaining cat food in the original container and did not refrigerate it, <NUM>% stored the remaining cat food in another container and refrigerated it, <NUM>% stored the remaining cat food in another container and did not refrigerate it.

Accordingly, the inventors concluded that the commonly available, single-serving packages provide more semi-moist or wet cat food than both (i) cats naturally prefer to eat in a single meal and (ii) cat owners prefer to feed in a single meal. Additionally, there are other problems associated with the commonly available single-serving portions of semi-moist and wet cat food.

For example, refrigerated cat food served immediately to a cat has decreased palatability. The assignee of the present invention has studied the effect of serving temperature on the palatability of wet cat food. In this regard, the palatability of wet cat food is reduced when served at <NUM> compared to <NUM>. Thus, the data shows that refrigerated wet cat food, served while still cold, is less palatable than cat food served at room temperature.

Furthermore, pet meals (for example, cat food meals) that are exposed to air at ambient conditions for extended periods prior to consumption by a pet, or the previously opened but unfed portion, often undergo undesirable chemical and physical changes and microbiological contamination. These changes can have a significant negative effect in the palatability of the meal to the pet and the nutritional value of the meal, and pose microbiological hazard to the pet.

Chemical changes to cat food exposed to ambient conditions include nutritional degradation and oxidation. In this regard, pet meals are typically designed to contain several ingredients to provide nutrition, palatability, and overall visual appeal to the pet and/or pet owner. For example, several micronutrients, such as vitamins, and minerals are often added to provide a balanced nutritional meal to the pet. However, once the pet meal is removed from the protective packaging and exposed in a serving dish, changes in these components can take place. Oxygen uptake occurs in pet foods rapidly. For example, a <NUM> gram sample of typical pet food ingredients absorbs <NUM> milligrams of oxygen in approximately <NUM> hours. Also, vitamins (A, E) tend to degrade when exposed to light and oxygen at rapid rates, thereby compromising the nutritional content of the food to the pet. In particular, carotenoid components (Vitamin A) are photosensitive, and tend to degrade when exposed to excessive light.

Pet meals also contain fats, oils and natural or prepared flavorants which are protected from oxidation while sealed in the original packaging. However, when these components are exposed to air and elevated temperatures, the lipid components can undergo oxidation and tend to make the meal less palatable or non-palatable.

Physical changes to cat food exposed to ambient conditions include drying and loss of volatiles by evaporation. In this regard, when wet pet meals are exposed to ambient conditions, the meal components can dry up and therefore decrease the meal palatability to the pet. Specifically, wet meals for pets are traditionally offered in <NUM> formats: loaf and chunks in gravy. These formats will both lose moisture when exposed to air, though a chunk in gravy format will lose moisture from the gravy at a very high rate in addition to the losses that occur from the chunks. The chunks lose moisture and degrade in a manner similar to when a wet cat food in a loaf format is exposed to air. For example, <FIG> illustrates the decrease of moisture content over time for two varieties of commercially available chunk in gravy cat food -- chicken and beef. The table provides the total loss of moisture as a weight percent (dry basis) for each variety over three hours.

Moreover, because a wet meal may dry near its exposed surfaces, the pet food may develop a skin or crust. The crusting or skinning associated with drying may form tougher textures which are not palatable by feline pets, especially because cats, due to their design of teeth and the structure of tongue, are not good chewers of a meal and instead tend to bite and swallow meal components. The formation of a skin or crust can adversely affect the methods loaf format meals can be consumed by a cat. In chunks and gravy format meals, the chunk components can dry out when exposed to dry air conditions. The chunks can in turn become tough textured and lose palatability, to cats especially, due to chewiness in product texture. The gravy component of a meal can dry out fairly rapidly when exposed to dry air conditions, possibly causing the gravy component to become sticky and in turn cause salt and mineral components to crystallize or sediment out of the gravy system with time. Also, fats and oils can be destabilized from gravy systems due to loss in emulsified structure, causing fats to be expressed out with time, and in turn affecting the gravy palatability.

Some ingredients in pet foods are incorporated for pleasant aroma in the pet meal both for the pet's benefit and for the pet owner's benefit. These aromatic compounds in wet meals typically are readily volatilized during exposure to air, and dissipate if exposed to airs for extended times. The wet meals can lose the attractiveness to the pet due to the loss in aroma. This effect can be intensified during extreme dry or heated air conditions, as for example during summer windy days.

Exposed wet meals pose a risk of microbiological contamination. This risk to microbiological growth in exposed cat meals increases rapidly, possibly exponentially, with time. Microbiological contamination to the wet cat meals can arise from several factors. Cats themselves carry a load of microbiological flora in their mouth, which when partly contacted with wet pet meals, can contaminate the pet meals. Some of the pathogenic microorganisms in a cat oral cavity include Pasteurella multocida, Staphylococcus aereus (<NPL>). These microorganisms, when inoculated onto wet pet meals can rapidly grow and pose a microbiological risk to the pet when consumed at a later time. As an example, when a <NUM> microorganism load in a pet meal in left exposed at ambient conditions for a period of less than four hours, the microbiological count on the same food sample can reach in excess of <NUM> million bacterial cells over a period of four hours. This is due to the binary fission of bacterial cells at a very rapid rate at optimum conditions of microbiological growth (<NPL>). Additionally, offensive or unattractive odors are presented to the pet and owner as microbiological or chemical degradation resulting from microbiological growth occurs. Many microbiological organisms produce sulfur or other sensory perceptive compounds as a result of the breakdown of food materials into microbiological by-products.

<FIG> represents cats' preference for freshly opened wet cat food versus wet cat food that has been left open for <NUM> minutes, <NUM> hour, <NUM> hours, and <NUM> hours prior to feeding, illustrating that cats prefer freshly opened food over food that has been left open for a period of time.

The inventors have recognized that the commonly available serving sizes of complete and balanced, semi-moist and wet cat food products are not suitable for the natural feeding patterns of cats because they are generally larger than a cat will cat in a single meal. As a result, current complete and balanced, semi-moist and wet cat food products are seldom entirely consumed by a cat in one meal. Thus, food remnants are either disposed or stored for later consumption. Disposing of remnants is wasteful and costly for the cat owner while storing remnants poses other problems because the food is subject to loss of palatability if refrigerated, and degradation and contamination, as described above, if not refrigerated. Thus, the invention provides a complete and balanced, semi-moist or wet cat food product that minimizes food waste and the need for storing food remnants.

According to one embodiment, a complete and balanced semi-moist or wet cat food is packaged in a <NUM> to <NUM> serving size. Cats have been shown to eat as little as <NUM> per feeding and even less. Thus, <NUM> has been established as the lower limit of the proposed range because it is a small serving size that is still functionally practical with respect to production, packaging, and handling. The <NUM> value has been established as the upper limit of the proposed range to accommodate owner feeding preferences, because owners are accustomed to feeding their cats an average <NUM> of food per feeding from the larger <NUM> ounce (<NUM> gram) or <NUM> ounce (<NUM> gram) container. Because the owner ultimately makes the cat food purchase, there may be some reluctance to purchase a cat food package that is substantially smaller than <NUM>. Thus, although the ideal single-serving portion for cats may be significantly less than <NUM>, it may be necessary, for numerous reasons, to package a cat food product in a larger serving portion so that a cat owner will purchase it. The upper range limit of <NUM> grams is considered to encompass cats' and owners' preferences. The present invention also encompasses wet cat food that is packaged of other sizes, including the range between at least <NUM> and no more than <NUM> grams, at least <NUM> and no more than <NUM> grams, and at least <NUM> and no more than <NUM> grams.

The serving size is presented herein as units of mass. The single-serve container has a corresponding capacity. Such a container would have a volume capable of receiving the desired cat food mass, have a headspace suitable for packaging, retort (if applicable), and other well-known considerations such that a person familiar with pet food packaging technology would understand the meaning of a container capacity.

The single serving (that is, in the mass range provided above) of complete and balanced semi-moist or wet cat food is preferably individually contained and provided in a unit that serves as a single cat meal. The single serving of cat food is placed in a sealed container and is subsequently made shelf stable or commercially sterile. As used herein, "shelf-stable" refers to food stored in a sealed, substantially airtight container without refrigeration required. The container may be made of plastic, metal, or any other suitable material, and may be sealed with a thermoplastic film, a foil, or a foil-plastic laminate. In a preferred embodiment, the container of cat food may be subjected to a retort process or otherwise made commercially sterile. Other well-known methods of making the package shelf-stable, such as aseptic filling, controlling inherent moisture content, moisture reduction and moisture control (e.g. binding of water using humectants, sugars, and salts), irradiation, acidification, adding of yeast and mold inhibitors, adding preservatives, and any combination(s) thereof are contemplated and encompassed by the present invention.

The smaller serving size of the present invention enables a shorter characteristic length from a core portion to the exterior of the container and often enables a larger surface area to volume ratio for a given container shape (compared to larger volumes). These factors facilitate commercial retort and sterilization processes. In this regard, during commercial retort and sterilization processes, food is heated externally through the boundary layers until the core or cold spot is heated to a specified, minimum temperature. Generally, in order for the core of a mass of food to reach a specified temperature, the boundary layers are exposed to high temperature for longer than optimum, which often results in the boundary layer being overcooked or degraded. For a given density of material, the single serving size container, because of its shorter characteristic distance to the central region (and possibly because of its larger surface area to volume ratio) exposes the boundary layer to high temperature for a shorter period of time compared with larger volume containers. Thus, a small mass of food may be commercially sterilized by heating the core to a specified temperature without overcooking or degrading the boundary layer of food in closest proximity to the heating medium.

The inventors surmise that the preference of cats for single serving sizes described herein may be partly due to the diminished drawbacks of heating a single serving size volume compared with heating a larger volume. Moreover, the shorter time exposure to retort temperatures may also, in addition to the undesirable physical, chemical, or microbiological changes of leftover food, be a factor in cats' preference for food ideally portion sized for consumption by the pet in one eating occasion, over food that is packaged in larger portions and portion sized for multiple eating occasions.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a plurality of individually packaged units of cat food may be assembled or integrated into a multi-meal package. For example, a number of individually packaged units of cat food may be bundled together into a single package that serves as a cat's entire daily diet. For example, several single serving containers may be configured together by shrink wrap, living hinges, tear away strips, tape, or any other attachment technology. Furthermore, each individually packaged unit may have a different flavor or different ingredients. Also, multi-mcal packages may be designed for specific dietary needs of a cat, or provide inherently more variety to the diet, or provide inherently more variety to the diet. The present invention encompasses single, individually packaged units of cat food described herein.

In accordance with aspect of the invention, a method of providing a cat food is provided. According to the method, a cat is fed a complete and balanced semi-moist or wet food in a single serving such that the food is consumed before certain characteristics (described above) of the food degrade to unwanted levels. The method encompasses aseptic or sterile filing and/or retorting. The pet food mass and container size are described above. As described above, when wet food is exposed to air, several important compositional and sensory aspects of the food begin to degrade and, over time, will degrade to such levels that the food will lose its appeal to a cat. Primarily, exposed wet food becomes unappealing to a cat over time because of the reduction of certain volatile compounds that have been proven to affect cat feeding behavior. For example, moisture content levels may be reduced, which affects the taste and texture of the food in a manner that is not appealing to cats. Also, fat oxidation may occur, which results in loss of nutrients and creates off flavors that negatively affect the palatability of the food to a cat. Additionally, oxidized fats can have deleterious health effects, such as oxidation of cells, loss of nutrients in the body, and diarrhea.

Claim 1:
A packaged, multi-meal, unitized cat food product comprising:
a plurality of sealed containers, each one of the containers assembled into a single package;
each one of the containers including a unit of commercially sterile, complete and balanced cat food having a mass of at least <NUM> grams and no more than <NUM> grams; the cat food having a moisture content of at least <NUM> percent by weight of the food.