Understanding Consumer Acceptance and the Association Between Sensory Properties and Volatile Compounds of Different Chicken Proteins in Dry Adult Dog Foods

ABSTRACT With the demand of dog food production continuously rising, the use of sustainable chicken ingredients must be considered. However, given the current trends, pet owners' preferences for fresh chicken over chicken by‐products is putting a strain on the global demand for overall chicken protein sources. The objectives of this study were to develop a sensory profile, assess consumer acceptance, and separate and tentatively identify volatile compounds from five different dry canine foods. Descriptive sensory analysis, consumer acceptance, and qualitative analysis utilizing gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) coupled with the headspace solid‐phase microextraction (SPME) method was performed on five dry canine foods containing different chicken protein sources. Five highly trained descriptive panelists identified 12 aroma and six appearance attributes for each canine food. For consumer acceptance testing, dog owners were recruited to evaluate the five canine foods for aroma, appearance, and overall liking. Consumers preferred the chicken by‐product meal dry canine food and scored it the highest in overall liking, as well as aroma and appearance. Separation and tentative identification of 13 volatile compounds were determined from the highest probability (≥ 75%) and intensity scoring of each compound found in each sample. The majority of volatile compounds consisted of carboxylic acids and aldehydes. Hexanal, heptanoic acid, 2‐heptanone, and octanoic acid seemed to be related to oxidized oil aromatics while acetic acid, propanoic acid, and butanoic acid correlated closest to the liver attribute. This study showed that dry canine foods containing different chicken protein sources had similar aroma, appearance, and volatile profiles.