Pigments - Animal Feed Additives

Pigments, also known as food coloring, is a substance whose main purpose is to color food, to impart color to food and to improve food color. According to its source and properties, it can be divided into food synthetic pigment and food natural pigments.

Natural pigments are carotenoids extracted or processed from animals, plants and microorganisms. At present, the natural pigments widely accepted and used in the international market mainly include marigold anthocyanin derivatives (lutein) and capsanthin derivatives (capsanthin).Synthetic pigments are mainly carotenoids. Such as β-Apo-8-carotaldehyde (C30H40O) or β-A-Pao-8-carotenoid ethyl ester (C32H44O) and citrin (C33H44O), cantharidin, etc.

Carotenoids in feed are in the form of palm oleic acid diesters. These carotenoids present in the feed are digested by animals and absorbed in the form of free form, mainly combined with low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The absorbed carotenoids enter the blood in a free state, and enter the skin and egg yolk and other tissues along with the blood circulation. Carotenoids are re-converted into palm oleic acid diesters and deposited, making the skin and egg yolks present the color that people like. In addition, as the level of pigment in the feed increased, the proportion of pigment deposited in animal tissues decreased. If each chicken eats 0.3-1.0 mg of pigment per day, about 30%-45% can be deposited in the egg yolk. If the pigment intake is increased to 5 mg or higher, only 15% to 20% can be deposited in the egg yolk. Crustaceans convert carotenoids in plants into astaxanthin and chanterelles by eating green plants and depositing them in their bodies. Fish give their flesh their bright color by eating large amounts of crustaceans and plankton. Goldfish and shrimp can change the composition of the pigment after absorption, such as changing lutein into astaxanthin, and then depositing it in body tissues.

Reasons for adding pigments to feed:

According to the analysis of psychologists, 83% of the impressions from the outside world that people receive by feeling come from vision. It can be seen that the importance of product appearance, among which the appearance color is particularly important. As far as feed products are concerned, the appearance and color of the feed play an extremely important role in determining whether the user uses a certain feed product. For livestock, poultry and aquatic products, especially poultry products, the color of the carcass skin and the yolk color of poultry eggs are very important factors for whether consumers are willing to buy and eat them. The appearance color of livestock, poultry, and aquatic products depends on the pigment content and accumulation of the feed eaten. The traditional extensive breeding method, due to the long breeding period, accumulates more pigments and flavoring substances in the animal body, the appearance and color of the final product are very pleasant, consumers are willing to accept it, and the price of the product is also high. On the contrary, due to the rapid development of modern breeding and feeding technology, the growth rate of livestock, poultry, fish and shrimp, etc. is very fast, the feeding period of the products is very short, and the accumulation of pigments obtained from natural feed is very little, thus losing the appeal to consumers force.

Purpose of adding pigments to feed:

The addition of pigments is increasingly common in the feed industry and livestock and aquaculture. It has 2 purposes:

1. Change the color of the feed through the pigments. Especially in the case of increasing use of non-traditional feed ingredients, coloring agents are added to cover up the bad color of some non-traditional feed ingredients, cater to the psychological habits of users, and increase market competitiveness. At the same time, it also plays the role of stimulating appetite and attracting food. The pigments that plays this role can be called feed pigments.

2. Use pigments to improve the color of livestock, poultry, and aquatic products to increase their commodity value. For example, the addition of pigments makes the meat of broiler chicken skin, poultry egg yolk, milk butter, fish and shrimp and other aquatic products more vivid, beautiful and of better product quality, catering to the psychology of consumers. Pigments that perform this function may be referred to as cultured product pigments.

Polifar has been devoting itself to the research of animal nutrition, and pigments is one of our main products. If you have demand for canthaxanthin, β-Apo-8'-Carotene Ethyl Ester and other products, please contact us.