Specific citrus extracts can be an efficient tool to support animal performance. This plant-based additive has a low carbon footprint as it’s a co-product from the food industry. A recent peer reviewed article (Bui et al., 2023) assesses the environmental footprint of a citrus extract thanks to a rigorous method. This work illustrates how a citrus based feed additive can contribute to a more sustainable meat production.
Marketing Director
Nor-Feed
With the global population growth, the meat consumption is expected to increase by 14% by 2030 compared to 2018-2020 (FAO), as pork and chicken are projected to increase by 13.1 and 17.8% respectively. In 2020, poultry meat represented almost 40% of global meat production with a global chicken population over 33 billion birds, and pork meat represented 36% of global meat production with more than 670 million pigs.
Today, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG in CO2 equivalent) from meat production represent more than 50% of the total emissions from agriculture in 2018-2020. It’s estimated that meat production consumes 70 percent of water use and 30 percent of ice-free surface land worldwide. These numbers clearly illustrate the coming challenge of the meat industry: how to increase meat production and limit carbon foot print impact?
Many studies have been run on meat production life cycle assessment, more than 250 peer reviewed articles (PubMed) have been published on that specific topic, 80% during the past decade only. Amongst the many solutions being investigated, some feed additives are of interest as they permit to improve animal performance and thus indirectly reduce the quantity of resources needed for meat production up to 10% (Blonk et al., 2021). Feed additives based on food co-products are even more beneficial, as they permit to provide natural solutions and to reduce waste from the food industry. Citrus extract is an interesting candidate that has been widely studied for its animal performance benefits and recently for its environmental interest.
The ban of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in the European Union leads to the development of many alternatives aiming to support animal health and performance. Exogenous enzymes, organic acids, prebiotics, probiotics, and plant extracts are now widely used (Huyghebaert et al., 2011). In the plant extract category, citrus extract-based feed additives are used in animal nutrition for several years to improve animal performance, thanks to their high concentration in pectic-oligosaccharides and citroflavonoids. Most of the available studies on citrus extract indicate an effect on gut microbiota leading to various positive impacts on performances (Gómez et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2019). For instance, in 2020, Cisse et al., concluded that a citrus extract-based feed additive (Nor-Spice® AB, Nor-Feed, France) allows to enhance zootechnical performances of peripartum sows, possibly due to the modulation of the microbiota transmitted to the piglets. Nevertheless, as for many natural food by-products, a high variability in terms of composition and concentration of active compounds can be observed in citrus extract mainly due to the variability of cultivar, crop management, extraction methods and other factors. This is why in 2022, Dr. Cisse’s team performed a fine characterization of the same citrus extract in order to be able to standardized a well performing one. Complementary data on broiler growth have also been published in 2022, as a significant higher body weight was measured on broiler fed with citrus extract compare to the standard diet alone.
A recent work by Bui et al., published in the “Animals” journal, assessed the environmental footprint of the same commercial citrus extract feed additive. The lifecycle assessment of this citrus extract feed additive has been carried out, according to ISO 14040 and 14044 standards in partnership with an independent partner (Evea, France). This rigorous method permits to quantify the resources used and the emissions thanks to a deep inventory, impact assessment and interpretation. The study concludes that the production of 25kg of this citrus based feed additive generates 13.1kg of CO2 equivalent and requires 66 liters of water and 5.3m2 year-round land surface. This environmental footprint is relatively low as it is a co-product from the juice industry. More interestingly, the use of this specific citrus extract on farms allows to reduce the carbon foot print of meat production thanks to the improved animal performance. Indeed, the use of this citrus extract in feed provide benefits on the three environment threats that are climate change, land occupation and water consumption compared to a standard diet. The main saving in resources comes from the reduced feed needed to produce meat, as this citrus extract allows to improve growth.
A meta-analysis of the different trials conducted with this particular citrus extract, concludes that this additive supplementation provides an increase of ADG by 10.9% and 4.3% and reduces the FCR by 7.1% and 2.4% in swine and broiler respectively. Thus, characterized and standardized citrus extract can be an efficient tool to reduce the environmental footprint of animal production thanks to its benefits on animal performance.
Furthermore, the life cycle assessment used by Nor-Feed was extended beyond this single plant extract, as the published methodology has been systematically applied to all of its main plant-based products. Their primary objective is to eliminate the use of synthetic molecules, such as antibiotics and pesticides in animal feed, and to participate to the reduction of animal production footprint.
