Amidst a persistently challenging economy for animal husbandry professionals, characterised by volatility and uncertainty, livestock and aqua producers are seeking ways to ensure more profitable operations. When selecting animal nutrition products, it remains key to balance animal health, productivity, and growing costs.
Phosphea has established itself as a specialist in providing mineral-based solutions for the animal nutrition sector for 40 years. They believe that this strong foundation is essential for gaining market recognition, enabling Phosphea to address current animal nutrition challenges through comprehensive R&D, close collaboration with institutes, and their team of animal nutrition experts. Feedinfo sat down with Benjamin Ribeiro, Product Development Manager at Phosphea to discuss their long term R&D strategy, how they have advanced their capabilities since 2018 and why they have made these business-critical decisions.
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[Feedinfo] To start, why is R&D important to Phosphea? What are some of the different issues where Phosphea solutions can be applied, beyond simply supporting feed efficiency? [Benjamin Ribeiro] At Phosphea, our commitment to innovation goes beyond traditional R&D, driving a transformation in mindset to achieve what was once thought impossible. |
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It is really ambitious for the feed phosphate world, but we are convinced we can meet current and future animal nutrition challenges. Notably, we go beyond feed efficiency and support customers in manufacturing feeds that contribute to better animal health and welfare, or aid customers in meeting their green agendas.
[Feedinfo] How does this attention to R&D distinguish you from other actors in the functional feed ingredients space, in your opinion?
[Benjamin Ribeiro] Traditionally when asked about functional ingredients people think of feed additives. While very commonly added on top of the formula to improve performance, health, and welfare, they are not always deemed to be essential. On the other hand, essential raw materials providing key nutrients to the animal can be a missed opportunity as people prioritize availability and competitive pricing. Therefore, at Phosphea we have developed the concept of functional raw material that leads our R&D efforts. Our latest organic-mineral complex HumIPHORA reflects this idea. By understanding crystalline structures, we have developed competitively priced and specific molecules that provide essential nutritional elements to animal diets and that maximise the performance of animals and reduce phosphorus release in the environment.
[Feedinfo] What does an increased commitment to R&D at Phosphea look like? Have the resources dedicated to R&D increased in recent years?
[Benjamin Ribeiro] We committed to R&D internally many years ago, but 2023 was the year that work truly came to fruition with more than 10 institutional in vivo trials and more than 40 fields trials in the poultry, swine, ruminant and aqua sectors. We presented our results through posters and oral communications at 4 conferences this year, the next presentation will be in November during the Pig Research Summit in Denmark. Some of this work is under scientific review for future publication so keep an eye out! Furthermore, to boost our R&D projects we aim to participate in national and European projects to build even stronger partnerships with research institutions.
[Feedinfo] Tangible examples of your R&D work can be seen in your expanding swine portfolio. Can you talk though the data which supports the use of products like HumIPHORA, MAG26, and CALSEAPOWDER Advance in swine?
[Benjamin Ribeiro] Our new swine portfolio is a great example to understand the concept of functional raw materials; we provide essential nutrients and improve animal welfare. This R&D allows us to better understand how the product may act in other species, for example with our MAG26 product. In vitro trials at the Centre Mondial de l’Innovation Roullier (CMI) show the specific design of this magnesium phosphate molecule improves the antioxidant capacity and cell viability compared to a simple mix of monocalcium phosphate and magnesium oxide. On an animal scale MAG26 resulted in better stress management in piglets, demonstrated by reduced occurrence (-20%) and severity (-66%) of tail lesions. MAG26 provides essential nutrients, and moreover improves piglet welfare, which consequently improves the economic performance of the farm.
An example in sows is CALSEAPOWDER Advance, providing marine calcium and in addition reducing lameness (-20%) in gestating sows compared to those supplemented with limestone. These studies also showed improved management of hyperprolific sows.
Recent data in swine confirms the specific organic-mineral complex of our product HumIPHORA contributes to provide available phosphorus and calcium but also to improve global utilization of phosphorus in the diet, leading to better performance and reduced phosphorus release to the environment.
[Feedinfo] I understand that this dedication to R&D can also be seen in the context of a larger transformation at Phosphea, going back to at least 2018, with the aim of deepening your links with the animal nutrition industry. What can you tell me about that effort?
[Benjamin Ribeiro] Since 2018 we have built our technical department step by step and reinforced our relationship with Groupe Roullier’s research centre - CMI. The Phosphea R&D team’s innovation is made possible through the combined efforts of 9 internal engineers and 15 scientists from CMI who possess expertise in industrial processes, analytics procedures, metabolomics, proteomics, microbiota, and cell culture. Through the development of new products such as HumIPHORA, as well as the expansion of our product portfolio with more functional raw materials we are able to understand what our customers need and provide them with bespoke solutions. Many exciting changes have been implemented and we continue to drive our bold innovation to establish ourselves as specialists in mineral-based solutions for animal nutrition.
Published in association with Phosphea