INTERVIEW FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE February 2024 53 business accountability. This is dependent on the team constantly cultivating relationships to help the company understand the needs of customers. One might come to Nutreco with a vague idea of a problem they need to have solved, and after multiple conversations to understand more, they start working with their phytochemists to get down to a molecular level. The team is a powerhouse of expertise, with people who have 10 to 30-plus years of expertise in phytotechnology. The Nutreco Exploration team is the company's empowerment tool for its two business lines. “The team couldn’t exist without this business connection,” says Dr. Wall. “We’re not replacing our R&D teams; we want to empower them throughout the product development process with knowledge, tools, and these PhytoComplexes that can help them address customers’ issues in new and exciting ways. Our business lines continue to own the product and the trials. We involve them in the discovery phase as soon as we have a positive result.” This unique approach creates value for livestock and aquatic species, for Nutreco's customers, and for them. "Nutreco is really making history with our Garden of the Future, and we believe it will change the industry as we know it," states the Nutreco team. The grand opening of the facility will take place this spring, with a media day on June 5 and a customer tour on June 6. fix the complex problems faced by animals. THE SOLUTION: PHYTO-COMPLEXES Dr. Bravo said that the Nutreco Exploration team is creating a brand-new type of phytogenic he calls PhytoComplexes, and they are completely different from anything the industry has produced in the past. Nutreco is including them in functional feed, smart mix solutions and feed additives. Phytogenics boomed in recent decades in response to the need to remove antibiotic growth promoters from feed, leading even sceptics to accept their value. “Today there is scientific evidence and practitioner acceptance of the benefits to animal performance of, for example, dietary additions of essential oils,” emphasizes Dr. Bravo. However, he says these products were mostly selected for their antimicrobial effect. PhytoComplexes are different because they are not trying to kill pathogens; they trigger a systemic response that could lead to, for example, decreased inflammation or increased nutrient absorption, improving the production performance of the animal. “We are talking about a very specific, complex combination of active molecules in a particular plant that can defeat complex problems such as the inflammation farm animals produce in reaction to their environments,” explains Dr. David Bravo. UNLEASHING THE POWER OF NATURE Nutreco’s PhytoComplexes are a combination of active molecules expressed by the entire genotype of a plant. Instead of extracting one compound, the team uses an entire part – the root or the leaf, for example. “The full effect of the Phyto-complex comes from the complete profile of active molecules in the plant. When we use a single compound to solve a health challenge, its effect is fairly narrow. When we use the whole plant, we achieve a more powerful effect with much lower concentrations. Phyto-complex can target the resolution of very specific problems through a combination of many compounds. We are truly harnessing the power of nature and preserving its complexity – using the full set of defences a plant has developed for itself to target challenges in the animal world,” says Dr. Bravo. Read more>> Dr. David Bravo
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