Animal Feed Flavors
The tool for maximizing feed attractiveness
Animal feed flavors are a type of feed additive used to provide feed with a desired and pleasant aroma, masking any off-notes and bad odors that the ration can have. They are specifically designed to encourage animals to consume a feed, a treatment, a nutritional supplement, a pharmacological product or even water that, while nutritious and beneficial, may be unattractive for them.
Pancosma animal feed flavors
Pancosma flavor feed additives are marketed under the PAN- Tek brand and are available for use in feed for all major farm animal species
Quality and research behind Pancosma flavor feed additives
Flavoring palatants are complex products, combining up to 50 different aromatic molecules in one single formula. These aromatic compounds are carefully sourced, selected and combined in precise proportions for an effective and stable result. Visit the Pancosma database for quality standards.
Pancosma develops and evaluates its flavor creations in a state of the art research facility in Switzerland.
Watch VIDEO on How Pancosma develops and evaluates flavors for animal feed
Importance of flavor in animal feed
Smell in addition to taste, is recognized as the most important aspect of feed palatability (more about feed palatability). Feed with a non-attractive smell to an animal is considered as low in palatability, risking low intake levels and even refusals.
Hence, optimizing the smell/aroma of feed is critical for animal feed intake and to ensure adequate nutrient uptake in animals. This becomes even more important if animals go through a challenging phase such as weaning, transportation or heat stress.
Smell is not only critical to encourage animals to start eating, but also while feed is being consumed. This is because animals sense the smell a second time while chewing due to the retro nasal olfactory system.
Adding flavors to animal feed can help to optimize or standardize the smell of feed as required.
Other benefits of using animal feed flavors
Although improving feed palatability is the main objective of adding flavors to animal feed, it is not the only one. There are other benefits that come along with the use of flavors:
- Flexibility – for nutritionists and formulators. Flavor supplementation allows to standardize the feed olfactory perception, masking off-notes from the inclusion of new raw materials and mimicking the smell of palatable ones. Maintaining the same smell of feed throughout different production stages reduces the animal’s ability to notice changes in the feed that might otherwise influence feed intake.
- Welfare. The sense of smell is associated with the arousal of emotions and memories, and is the sense that has been linked the most to emotional recognition. Animals as well as humans tend to remember 35% of what they smell in the long term, compared to 15% of what they tasted or only 5% of what they saw. Positive emotional recognition can translate into pleasure and welfare.
- Perception of feed quality. Flavored feed has an improved perception of quality compared to a non-flavored feed.
- Marketing. Finally, it is no secret that providing feed with a pleasant and distinguishable smell is a simple yet effective way of making animal feeds stand out from competitors. Every time a new bag of feed is opened and the customer is met with its familiar aroma, an opportunity to build brand identity arises.
In a nutshell, flavors are versatile additives used to improve the smell and overall palatability of the feed, helping to meet animal needs and productivity objectives of farmers.