Food residues are often fed to dogs in private households and might also be a potential “new” ingredient for pet food in the future. As food residues might contain not only digestible, but also fermentable substrates, an effect on the intestinal microbiota can be assumed. In the present study, two batches of dried food residues (DFR) collected from hotels in Crete were microbially fermented in an in vitro batch culture system with canine fecal inoculum: non-sterile DFR including meat (DFRm), sterile DFR including meat (DFRms) and sterile DFR without meat (DFRwms). Different non-digestible carbohydrate sources (beet pulp, wheat bran, inulin, carrot pomace, brewer´s spent grains, cellulose and lignocellulose) were included for comparison. Inulin, cellulose and lignocellulose were only used as raw materials, while the other test substrates were incubated as raw and enzymatically pre-digested substrates. After incubation for 24 hours, the raw food residues markedly increased the concentrations of bacterial metabolites in the fermenters, although smaller effects were observed for the DFRwms. When the enzymatically pre-digested food residues were incubated, the effects were more pronounced for the DFRms and DFRwms. In general, when compared with the other test substrates, the food residues were microbially fermented to a comparable or partly higher extent. Interestingly, high n-butyrate concentrations were measured in the inocula, both after incubation of the raw and pre-digested food residues. In conclusion, the food residues contained enzymatically digestible and microbially fermentable substrates. If considered as a potential future ingredient for pet food, a standardization of the collection and processing of food residues might be necessary in order to reduce compositional variability and varying effects on the intestinal microbiota.
