Apples have a healthy and nutritional image for very good reasons when it comes to human consumption, but it is hard to say how healthy they are to dogs and cats given the scarce academic information on feeding apples to pets. There is an abundance of popular articles in which apples are firmly recommended as a treat for dogs. Processed apples typically come as apple puree and juice, the latter predominantly being produced from apples unsuitable for peeling. Browning can be prevented by adding enzymes to help with extraction of the juice, which accounts for 75% of the apple. The remaining part results in apple pomace (fiber).
IQI's functional apple fiber is a plant-based ingredient that is produced from a side stream of the production of apples as human food. Discarded apples are brought to the juicing facility, washed and then ground in a hammer mill. The apple pulp is de-pectinized, dried, and then milled into a powder with no further additives. The product can be used as a clean-label water binder in various wet pet food recipes, with one part of functional apple fiber able to hold up to 25 parts of water.