Sharp increase in use of plant extracts
The use of plant extracts and essential oils (‘extracts’) by feed companies in the EU has risen from 55% before the January 2006 EU ban on antibiotic growth promoters in animal feeds to 75% since.
The figures come from a survey of feed manufacturers in seven EU countries
carried out by the specialist ingredients manufacturer Pancosma. It also found
76% of participants said they believed extracts would become more important in
the future.
A key issue behind this trend is a growing acceptance of and
confidence in the performance-enhancing properties of extracts, according to
Pancosma spokesman Gavin Raper.
He says an essential component of
introducing new extract-based products to the market is employing rigorous
scientific-methodology during their development.
“In the early days of
introducing plant-based feed supplements, the development of some products may
have owed more to herbalism than science,” he says. “Today though, we research
and develop plant extract-based performance enhancers with the same precision
and scientific rigour as amino acid supplementation.”
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