Preparation and evaluation of mushroom () and mealworm () as dog food attractant.

Chicken liver is a main protein source to prepare attractant for dog food. However, animal proteins are costly. Seeking high quality and low-cost protein sources has been a goal for the industry. Mushroom and Mealworm are novel protein sources, showing high potential as raw material of attractants. In this paper, chicken liver, and were used as three different protein sources to prepare attractants. Their palatability to dogs were then compared. Firstly, the enzymatic hydrolysis process of three proteins was optimized, with a degree of hydrolysis of 54.82%, 36.10% and 30.14% for chicken liver, , and respectively. Secondly, volatile compounds of three attractants were identified by HS-SPME/GC-MS and SDE/GC-MS. Using OAV and PLRS method, it was found that bis(2-methyl-3-furyl) disulfide, indole, methional, 2-(methyl thio) phenol, -butyrolacton, furfuryl alcohol, acetic acid and isovaleraldehyde were the key components. Although both attractant showed less palatability than that of chicken liver, they could be readily improved via adding key palatable volatile compounds. The ingestion rate of dog food with attractant showed a similar trend and was higher than that of food without attractant.