Extrusion technology offers several benefits for producing pet foods. Other than economic benefits, the most important benefit is in the area of pet food nutrition. Extrusion cooking will improve the digestibility of raw starch and other ingredients, help to improve the functionality of proteins, and destroy or eliminate the anti-nutritional factors found in ingredients used for pet food production. Extrusion cooking also helps to minimize the enzymatic rancidity of the ingredients, and most importantly, the primary function of extrusion cooking is pasteurization of the feed ingredients, reduction of microbial populations, and destruction of pathogenic organisms.