We spoke to Anne Desmons, Phileo product manager, at the Hannover based trade show to hear why.
She said Phileo originally developed ActiSaf Sc 47 HR+ to cope with the feed pelleting process ten year ago. However, the company has observed that, over the past few years, feed manufacturers are facing increasing restrictions in terms of safety, regulation and environmental sustainability, while also seeking cost optimization, she added.
“Sometimes [feed producers] have to produce higher quality pellets but with lower quality raw materials. In fact, they have more and more constraints and the pelleting process has become more challenging for active ingredients such as probiotics. That is why we developed the new version of ActiSaf Sc 47 HR+. It is more resistant to the extreme conditions [that products can be exposed to] during pelleting.
“In the past, we used to talk about thermal resistance only [as being the main physical stress factor in the pelleting process]. Now, thanks to our growing expertise and the different trials we have done, we know it is not only about temperature, it is also about humidity, about compression force and friction, and also about compatibility with other additive such as acids.”
She said various trials it undertook with feed technology institutes such as the Feed Design Lab and Zetadec in the Netherlands validated the process improvements made by Phileo on ActiSaf Sc 47 HR+:
“We measured the number of live cells in the product and we see that we have much more recovery with the new version of the product. We have multiplied by 10 the survival of the product in the pellets.”
She said there are learnings for other additives from Phileo’s research in this regard.
Feed tech Service
Phileo wants to share its feed technology expertise and in that context is also rolling Feed tech Service, a new initiative to better support feed manufacturers’ specific needs, said Desmons.
She said providing technical support for customers is not something new for Phileo, but it is now actively encouraging feed manufacturers to take-up its tailored, technical services to ensure optimum production with the new version of its live yeast product.
Phileo, she said, really wants to capitalize further on the knowledge it has gained in the past decade, which enables it to give feed producers a clearer view of the resistance of probiotics to the multifactorial challenges that occur in feed during pelleting,
Meta data analysis of more than 2,000 feed samples, carried out annually, forms the basis of a newly developed internal numerical platform, which will help the company address technical issues at customers, she explained.
By changing just one parameter, Phileo can make a feed producer’s pelleting process more efficient, she said.
“A feed manufacturer can send us a sample and we can measure the CFU, the number of live yeast in the pellets, to make sure there is good recovery.”
The company is also planning to publish a white book highlighting the evolution of feed pelleting process and its impact on yeast probiotics resistance.