I took a look at No Hide Chews trying to backward engineer a salmon chew. From the website we are given that the carb is 11%, fat is 5% and from the label the min protein is 55%, with 17% max moisture
The ingredients are Salmon, Vegetable gelatin, brown rice flour, organic eggs, olive oil banana and bromelain. Vegetable gelatin could be one of any number of things: ager or carageeanan or some other source. in general these are high carbohydrate sources. Ager is reported as 82% carbo, 6% protein and 3% fat. From the USDA nutrient database brown rice flour nutrient content, rounded off, is 12% water, 7.2 % protein, 2.8% fat, 76.5% carb and 4.6% fiber.
The company told us the carb content of the Salmon chew is 11%( the carb content of the pork chew is reported as only 2%) So~8.7 grams of my chew is carbohydrate split between vegetable gelatin and rice as the main carbohydrate sources with there being more agar then rice. If we assume 6 grams vegetable gelatin at 80% carbohydrate that gives us 4.8 grams carbohydrate and the remaining ~ 4 grams carbohydrate would have to come from rice ~ 5 grams of rice flour or about 1 and 1/2 teaspoons. ( the 4 inch pork chew would only have about 1/2 tsp rice flour in it.)
The fat content is reported to be 5%, 4 grams in my chew. Salmon is considered a fatty fish. From the USDA nutrient database dried chum salmon is ( rounded to the nearest percent) 62% protein 14% fat and 22% water. Dried Egg is 48% protein and 43% fat. and oil would be 100% fat. So as not to exceed the reported fat content I can’t use a lot of Salmon, 25 grams dried salmon yields 3.5 grams fat unless it is some type of defatted Salmon and I can’t use much egg or oil either or the fat content is exceeded.
Protein min of 55%, 43 min grams protein in the chew This has to come primarily from salmon, but it would have to be some type of special defatted salmon. Salmon is very deeply colored and the chew is white. Hmm… that doesn’t work does it. Maybe they bleach the salmon.. but the website states no bleaching process had been done. Salmon is pink/red and egg is yellow so you’d expect the chew to be pinkish orange maybe. That color matches the coating on the chew but not the chew.
Well that’s weird isn’t it?? The chews is white…yet except for the rice flour of which there is very little in our chew recipe the ingredients are colored. How can the chew be white when the ingredients to make it are all colored? This isn’t making sense.
I boiled my chew pieces for about an hour. The chew was made of 5 oddly shaped and sized pieces and one rectangular “cover” piece. Oddly though this didn’t change it too much. The sheets shrunk and curled but didn’t fall apart and you couldn’t tear it break it up at all. You’d think salmon rice and vegetable gelatin would fall apart.
I can’t replicate making a “no hide” chew. I can’t make a white chew out of colored ingredients nor can I match the nutrient content the company reports as being in the product if I stick to the ingredients and the USDA nutrient database.
I called and e mailed the company to ask them about the product. When I asked how the product can be so white I was given a different number to call for someone named Chris. I’ve called Chris multiple times but haven’t reached him. I never got a response to my email and it has been about a week since I sent it.
Personally I think there is an “ingredient” missing from the ingredient list and I think it makes up the vast proportion of the product. I found a lab willing to test the product. I will send them a new sealed package of No Hide chews and see if they find anything.
