Egg powder
for
Animal feed
An egg is basically an encapsulated source of macro and micronutrients that are perfectly in balance to meet all requirements for embryonic development up to hatching of a chick.
What is egg powder?
Egg powder is a natural, sustainable and highly digestible protein and fat source used within pet food and animal feed. Different grades of egg powder are being produced such as whole egg, egg white and egg yolk powder.
What is the nutritional value of egg powder?
Egg powder is a very interesting natural ingredient as it combines different functionalities. First of all egg powder supplies dietary essential nutrients like amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamins A, D and choline. Egg powder is also a rich source of bio-active components with health promoting properties like the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, bioactive lipids, antimicrobial proteins and immunoglobulins. Finally, egg powder is also a technical aid in pet food and animal feed production thanks to its emulsifying and gelation properties.
Why do we use egg powder in animal feed?
Egg powder is a sustainable and safe ingredient full of bioavailable nutrients and biologically active components providing passive mucosal immunity against viral and bacterial pathogens. In addition, egg powder offers interesting functional properties in pet food and animal feed manufacturing.
Egg powder is a source of highly concentrated dietary essential amino acids, fatty acids and vitamins that greatly meet the nutritional requirements of animals. The chemical integrity of essential nutrients are preserved by the gentle drying technique of spray drying during the production of feed grade egg powder, whilst anti-nutritional factors are greatly reduced.
In addition, egg powder doesn’t impede pet food and animal feed formulation as crude ash, crude fiber and carbohydrate contents are very low. Different egg powders are produced with varying ratios of crude protein to fat through the separation of egg yolks and egg whites, which further facilitates formulation flexibility of pet food and animal feed nutritionists.
The biggest market for egg powder is pet food. However, increased use of egg powder is noticed in piglet starter feed thanks to the benefits for piglet health.
How to produce egg powder?
The raw material for the production of feed grade egg powder is sourced from by-products of various actors within the egg and poultry production industry. In order to produce high quality egg powders, liquid egg fractions are pasteurized and spray dried to guarantee microbiological safety and to inactivate anti-nutritional factors present in raw eggs.
