Animal Feed
The global production of animal feed is approx. 615 million tonnes per year. Parallel to the annual increase in the global population of approx. 1.3% the need for animals for human food and subsequently the need for animal feed increases. The annual increase in animal feed production has thus averaged 1.8% over the past ten years. The amount of pure protein in animal feed is 18% on average, which amounts to a global demand of more than 110 million tonnes of pure protein per year.
The market for protein concentrate – including UniProtein – is approx. 150 million tonnes.
The main protein types for animal feed are fish meal, soya protein, whey and skimmed milk protein.
Whey and skimmed milk powder both contain milk proteins and are by-products from the production of cheese and butter. Both products have a relatively low content of protein.
Concentrated soy protein is mainly used in human foods, due to the higher prices obtainable in this segment. Today soy beans mostly come from genetically modified plants. Soy protein in animal feed is mainly used as a milk substitute for calves.
Fishmeal is produced from whole fish unsuitable for human food. Fishmeal is mainly used as food for fish, since the use of fishmeal in larger quantities for other animals will cause the taste and smell of fish to transfer to the final product. There is an increasing need for after-treatment of fishmeal due to the high concentration of dioxin in the fish used.
As much as 5 kg of fresh-caught fish is required to produce growth of 1 kg of aquaculture fish. The global production of fishmeal cannot be increased significantly due to depleted stocks. According to a recent Norwegian study, it will be uneconomical to produce fishmeal beyond 2048 due to the depletion of the fish stock.
Fishmeal
The amino acid profile of the protein content is nutritionally favourable with a high content of the important amino acids cysteine, methionine, threonine, lysine, tryptophan and arginine of 0.7%, 3.1%, 5.2%, 7.2%, 2.5% and 6.9%, respectively, expressed as the ratio of amino acid to the total amount of amino acids. The fatty acids are mainly the saturated palmitic acid (approx. 50%) and the monounsaturated palmitoleic acid (approx. 36%). The mineral content of the product is favourable with high amounts of phosphorus (approx. 1.0% w/w), potassium (approx. 0.4% w/w) and magnesium (approx. 0.2% w/w). The product is virtually free from heavy metals due to the controlled production process and the fact that all minerals used are of food grade.
The low moisture content, the fact that it is not hydroscopic, and the low level of unsaturated fatty acids make UniProtein® a chemically stable product, which can be stored for a long period of time. UniProtein® is easily mixed into other compounds.
A method for reduction of nucleic acids to less than 1% has been developed.
See a graphic illustration here