Why cats don’t have a sweet tooth, and other animal chemistry…

Following the presentations, the attendees were invited to don a lab coat and attend a tour of the facility. The lab coats were provided in order to protect clothing from muddy paw marks during close encounters with some of the friendly dogs resident at the centre, who were very keen to meet and greet visitors!

WALTHAM is located in scenic Leicestershire countryside and is home to a world leading pet nutrition research facility. Tina Blackmore, the Science Engagement Partner, introduced the history of the Mars family business and the site: from acquiring CHAPPIE® in 1935 through the launch of many well-known products and ranges (Whiskas®, Pedigree®, and Royal Canin® to name a few). Tina outlined the diversification of the Mars brands into pet welfare including the range of veterinary hospitals now established in the US.

Creating a better world for pets

Tina highlighted that the drive for the innovative approaches used at WALTHAM is to deliver the Mars petcare business objective, which is ‘to create a better world for pets’. Tina explained that mutuality is a key principle of the Mars business that encourages the sharing of knowledge and drives a willingness to publish research with the aim of benefitting pets. Tina and the other hosts also emphasised that research at WALTHAM also focuses on sustainability, looking into reducing impacts on human food chains and investigating alternatives to animal-based proteins for certain pet food formulations.

Research Manager Dr Scott McGrane provided a fascinating presentation on the flavour and reactive flavour research performed at the centre. Scott explained the extreme differences between flavour and odour receptors for different animals. For example cats do not have a preference for sweet tastes as they do not have the necessary receptors.

Cats prefer the smell of tuna

We also learned the importance of product odour from the pet owner’s perspective: odours that may be very attractive to a pet may be offensive to the owner and reduce the likelihood that the owner will buy the product. It was also interesting to learn that the most attractive odour for cats is that of tuna, which is unlikely to be a preference based on long-term evolutionary pressures, but may reflect the impact of the animal’s innate ability to equate certain odours with nutritional value.

Aside from meeting many of the well cared for pets resident on the site and their attentive carers on our walk around, we also had a chance to view the laboratory facilities and discuss the scientific methods on-site. The state of the art in vitro analysis facility was particularly impressive and the processes used to evaluate the impact of formulations on cell line immune response in vitro were very interesting. The techniques used to train the animals used in scientific assessment of products in-vivo were also explained in detail. We learnt that the techniques used are based mainly on detailed observations of the animal’s behavioural responses to different foods, formulations and tastes.

The care afforded to the animals during their time at WALTHAM was obvious, and many of us were surprised to discover that all pets are re-homed at the end of their careers, with pets preferentially going to live with the carers who have been looking after them throughout their time at WALTHAM.

The Royal Society of Chemistry local section members attendees provided much positive feedback throughout the site visit and afterwards. Many thanks to the WALTHAM centre employees, in particular Kathleen Pinfold, for arranging such a fascinating site visit and allowing us to see the breadth and depth of the role of chemists and other scientists in the pet welfare industry.

More about Mars

The Mars product range now includes pet nutrition brands, petcare products (such as fitness monitors) and veterinary care as well as genomic test kits e.g. for breed identification. The Mars family owned business now boasts approximately 100,000 associates, or employees, worldwide and is the world’s largest petcare company. WALTHAM provides global support to the business and is the ‘Science behind the brands’ providing fundamental research into areas such as the impact of genetics, age and animal size on nutritional requirements and flavour preferences.