Hill's commitment to the highest palatability

Hill's has been at the forefront of advances in palatability and has breakthroughs in research, development implemented numerous and manufacturing.

Ingredients
Hill's works closely with its suppliers to identify and source the best ingredients to ensure the highest quality products, delivering both high palatability and balanced nutrition.

Formulation
Continual developments in formulas ensure that Hill's products deliver the optimum palatability without compromising their nutritional benefit.

Manufacturing process
Hill's utilises state of the art technology with he minimum of handling, blending and processing. The result is safe, highly nutritious and palatable pet foods. To provide the best dry products, Hill's closely monitors all aspects of processing-before, during and after extrusion. For canned products that give optimal nutrition and palatability the focus is on the pre-blending of ingredients and thermal processing.

Natural flavouring
Most dry foods are coated with a ‘digest’ of flavourings. Hill's only uses animal protein sources for its digests, and its flavour digest system has been shown to be superior to many commercially available digests. These natural flavours help to increase the palatability of food and can improve its nutritional profile. Hill's develops flavours both internally through its Taste Technology Group and externally with suppliers. In fact, Hill's has developed over one hundred proprietary flavour supplements and has utilised many of these in both dry and canned products.

Packaging and storage
Hill's tests its products through each stage of the manufacturing and packaging process with sophisticated monitoring and analysis equipment, and has systems in place to minimise storage.

The scientific measurement of palatability
To compare the palatability of foods it is essential to use a method which is reliable, unbiased and fair. The test procedure most commonly used for pet foods is a pair-comparison test, generally referred to as the Two Bowl Test.

A number of animals, fed separately, are each allowed free access to two bowls which contain the two pet foods being compared. Each bowl must contain an amount greater than that which that the animal would be expected to eat food consumed is then used to determine the individual animal's preference and, from that, the overall preference of the group.

Hill's Pet Nutrition applies rigorous test criteria to ensure absolute accuracy of the test.

To achieve meaningful, statistically significant results it is necessary,
• to feed sufficient animals – at least 20-35 is recommended, Hill's uses more
• to repeat the test on other days – at least 2-3 test periods are necessary
• to alternate the position of the bowls when the test is repeated – to correct for any bias for feeding on the left or the right
• to feed for a sufficient length of time – 30-60 minutes for dogs, 11-23 hours for cats
• to use a variety of animals whenever possible, e.g. different canine breeds
• to exclude animals with a typical eating behaviour – e.g. low consumption, playing with or spilling food
• to conduct the test in a controlled environment – e.g. free from distractions, including competing odours.

This objective test allows Hill's Pet Nutrition to select the most palatable formulations of products and to determine how Hill's foods compare with competitor brands.

In Europe alone, Hill's undertakes extensive palatability testing: 35,000 individuals test results per year.

For more information, contact Pets Corner Sdn Bhd at 03-4043 2420 or visit www.HillsVet.com.