“Good boy! Have some soy!”, pet owners should say

“Is there a nutritional difference when using a different flour base while making dog biscuits?” That’s the question Allison Sanders of Global Impact STEM Academy set out to answer with her science project. Sanders compared the amount of macromolecules absorbed from four different flour-based dog biscuits (soy, sorghum, wheat, and brown rice), and determined which base would benefit dogs the most.

Sanders first baked dog treat samples using the four different types of flour, then “digested” them in a beaker of gastric juice on a hot plate. The filtrate resulting from this process was used to determine glucose, starch, and protein levels.

The results? Sanders reported: “The data concluded that compared to the other flour bases, the soy flour based dog
biscuit had the best overall nutritional absorbency readings with the highest Benedict’s test and the lowest amount of calories calculated by the Calorimeter test.”

This project provided some interesting and useful knowledge:
which flour source would be the most beneficial to dogs
which source would be the most cost effective alternative for pet owners
how to calculate the amount of nutrients absorbed from each serving (1 biscuits) to build a product and small business
how changing the flour source affects the properties of a dog biscuit

Sanders won $350 as 3rd place winner of the Ohio Soybean Council State Science Day Award. Congratulations, Allison!