Sweeteners

Importance of taste

Taste perception is an essential function that provides valuable dietary and sensory information, which is critical to the survival of animals. It helps animals to make decisions about the ingestion of nutritious foods and avoiding harmful substances. Taste evolved to ensure animals choose advantageous foods for their survival and plays a major role in feed consumption.

There are five sensations for taste: sweet, umami, bitter, salty and sour. Sweet and bitter are the two most important, whereby sweet taste allows the identification of energy-rich nutrients and bitter warns against the intake of potentially toxic compounds. Umami indicates foods that are rich in proteins, whereas salty tastes indicate foods that are rich in sodium and other minerals that are required by animals for optimum biological function.

Under commercial conditions the taste of animal feed is particularly  of significance around critical periods such as weaning, where appetite in animals are generally suppressed and need to be stimulated to ensure adequate feed intakes for optimal gut development and growth.

Why use sweeteners in animal feed?

Taste modifiers are regularly used in animal feed to improve palatability. They help to ensure feed is appetizing and that optimum feed intake is achieved.

Sweeteners are used particularly in young animal feed because of the young animal’s preference for sweet taste. For example, a number of studies conducted in young pigs with a variety of flavors and taste profiles in feed have reported a preference for sweet taste. That is why high intensity sweeteners are used as an incentive to switch from liquid to solid feed in piglets and calves.

In later production stages of the animalweeteners can be used in order to overcome the potential bitter taste of raw materials or medication in animal feed. Furthermore, they are used to maintain intakes during other stressful periods, such as transport.

Science beyond sweetness of Sucram sweeteners

The sweetness Sucram provides to animal feed via the action on taste receptors on the tongue of the animal improves the perceived taste for optimal feed intakes. However, research has shown that it provides additional benefits via the impact on taste receptors present in the gut.

Taste receptors in the gut are located in enteroendocrine cells in the gut epithelium. When the sweet molecules are detected at the enteroendocrine level it triggers signaling pathways which causes the release of gut hormones, which again leads to a higher sodium/glucose transporter 1 (SGLT-1) production. This increases the absorption of glucose, water and sodium. The result is not only an increased uptake of readily available energy in the form of glucose, but also a reduction of energy available for potentially harmful bacteria to grow in the gut, facilitating more optimal gut development.

The functionality of Pancosma sweeteners are further enhanced, by applying the patented Iso Fusion Technology process during manufacturing. This spouted bed spray dry process combines all ingredients into a single particle, which results in a final product with physical characteristics of the highest quality standard with extremely high stability.