I googled palatants and found this article that explains a little more what palatants are:
http://www.pancosma.com/products/palatants/index.html
I think they are just trying to come up with something to add to dog food to make it taste better.....who knows if it will be 'healthy' for our pets. Not everything that tastes good is good. When is hear from people that feed dog food like Science Diet or Beneful I cringe. There are so many dog foods that are just crap but they taste good to the dogs so the owner continue to feed it. Would you let your child just eat chips, french fries and donuts all the time because that is what he liked.....I don't think so? Not only are are poor dogs guinea pigs, we are also. The FDA allows so many things to be added to the human foods that have been proven to cause health problems. Things like genetically modified soy and artificial sweeteners are in so many products. Most of the time we don't find out about the health risks of a additive or 'new' drug until it has caused death or damage.