ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE December 2025 33 to finished product processing. While both types play essential roles in maintaining product quality, liquid antioxidants are selected for approximately 80% of applications due to their versatility and strong performance across diverse production scenarios. ADVANTAGES OF LIQUID ANTIOXIDANT FORMULATIONS Liquid antioxidants offer significant benefits in terms of homogenization and distribution: • Fresh meat and animal by-products (ABP): Liquid antioxidants form stable emulsions, ensuring uniform penetration. • Processed Animal Proteins (PAP): Effective dispersion across dry matrices via advanced spray technologies. • Liquid/liquid systems: When applied to animal fats, static mixing technologies enable optimal blending and antioxidant molecular interaction. Spray application remains the predominant method for dry matrices, where air-assisted spray systems achieve fine particle coverage. Liquid Antioxidant Formulation Complexity Liquid antioxidant solutions are engineered for: • Synergistic molecular activity to enhance oxidative stability. • Metal-binding properties to neutralize pro-oxidant catalysts. • Enhancing molecule efficacy through tailored carrier systems. • Viscosity optimization to ensure compatibility with diverse application technologies. These formulations represent a balance of antioxidant functional performance, chemical stability, and process adaptability, making them indispensable for modern pet food manufacturing. These liquid solutions have specific and different viscosity values, based on their formulation. CHALLENGES: UNDERSTANDING VISCOSITY AND ITS ROLE Viscosity, as defined by Newton’s law, is the resistance of a fluid to flow—caused by molecular interactions and friction. It is measured in units such as Pascal-second (Pa·s), or Centipoise (cP). Here’s the key principle: • Higher viscosity = slower flow • Lower viscosity = faster flow And temperature plays a major role: as temperature increases, viscosity decreases. This means that the same antioxidant solution behaves very differently at 10°C compared to 25°C as described in Figure 2. 2500 2250 2000 1750 1500 1250 1000 750 500 250 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Viscosity cP Temperature in °C SAOX 1 SAOX 2 NAOX 3 Figure 2. Viscosity in Centipoise follows up at different temperatures in ° Celsius of three different antioxidant solutions. Synthetic antioxidant (SAOX) 1 is BHA/BHT solution on vegetable carrier, SAOX 2 is BHA/ Propyl Galate/ citric acid solution on specific carrier and Natural antioxidant (NAOX) 3 is Mix Tocopherols / Rosemary extract on vegetable carrier.4
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