by
Mélanie Guédon, Market & Product Manager Aquaculture, Prossential, France
For some years, feather meal has enjoyed growing interest from aquafeed producers. As a protein source, it has indisputable advantages for replacing fishmeal in aquaculture feed: nutritional advantages in terms of protein content and digestibility, but also economic benefits. However, not all feather meals are equal and their quality is closely related to the manufacturing process. Let’s see how to choose the feather meal you need.
We’ll start with the process. Feathers are mainly made of keratin, so they are extremely rich in protein. But as such, they are not bio-available after a simple grinding. There is only one way to obtain a digestible feather meal: hydrolysis, which is literally defined as “a chemical reaction in which water is used to break down a compound”.
Thermal hydrolysis, which is the conventional process, is simple in its principle: it consists in cooking poultry feathers in a quantity of water, at a given temperature and pressure, during a certain time, so as to break down the keratin chains in order to obtain, after drying, a digestible protein powder.
From that point on, it is clear that all feather meals are necessarily hydrolysed, whether they are called "hydrolysed feather meals" or simply "feather meals". It is also useful to know that the name "hydrolysed" does not constitute a distinctive sign of quality between the different feather meals offered in the aquafeed market, since hydrolysis is the only way to produce them.
There are different products on the market in terms of protein levels and digestibility. Why? Which parameters affect the final quality of the products throughout the chain? And how to be certain to make the right choice?
Raw materials matter
To begin with, there is the raw material quality. Feather meal will not be the same depending on whether the manufacturer uses 100 percent poultry feather materials or that its original blend is more heterogeneous and contains, even in small amounts, blood, necks, feet, or other undesirable parts of the animal.
To collect pure poultry feathers, it is crucial to master the sourcing and to have engaged with poultry slaughterhouses—strict quality approaches to eliminate these undesirables. Another important element affecting feather meal quality is freshness and therefore the collection-to-process timing. The shorter it is, the less likely the raw materials will have time to degrade and the best chance to preserve all nutritional qualities.
Read more HERE.
For some years, feather meal has enjoyed growing interest from aquafeed producers. As a protein source, it has indisputable advantages for replacing fishmeal in aquaculture feed: nutritional advantages in terms of protein content and digestibility, but also economic benefits. However, not all feather meals are equal and their quality is closely related to the manufacturing process. Let’s see how to choose the feather meal you need.
We’ll start with the process. Feathers are mainly made of keratin, so they are extremely rich in protein. But as such, they are not bio-available after a simple grinding. There is only one way to obtain a digestible feather meal: hydrolysis, which is literally defined as “a chemical reaction in which water is used to break down a compound”.
Thermal hydrolysis, which is the conventional process, is simple in its principle: it consists in cooking poultry feathers in a quantity of water, at a given temperature and pressure, during a certain time, so as to break down the keratin chains in order to obtain, after drying, a digestible protein powder.
From that point on, it is clear that all feather meals are necessarily hydrolysed, whether they are called "hydrolysed feather meals" or simply "feather meals". It is also useful to know that the name "hydrolysed" does not constitute a distinctive sign of quality between the different feather meals offered in the aquafeed market, since hydrolysis is the only way to produce them.
There are different products on the market in terms of protein levels and digestibility. Why? Which parameters affect the final quality of the products throughout the chain? And how to be certain to make the right choice?
Raw materials matter
To begin with, there is the raw material quality. Feather meal will not be the same depending on whether the manufacturer uses 100 percent poultry feather materials or that its original blend is more heterogeneous and contains, even in small amounts, blood, necks, feet, or other undesirable parts of the animal.
To collect pure poultry feathers, it is crucial to master the sourcing and to have engaged with poultry slaughterhouses—strict quality approaches to eliminate these undesirables. Another important element affecting feather meal quality is freshness and therefore the collection-to-process timing. The shorter it is, the less likely the raw materials will have time to degrade and the best chance to preserve all nutritional qualities.
Read more HERE.
The Aquaculturists
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