Processing
Increasing product safety
by expanding technology
Will safe feed automatically turn into safe
food? Does unsafe food occur because of
dangerous feed (from feedmills)? To avoid or
answer these questions feedmillers should
follow the basic principle of ISO-quality
management. Guarantee the product quality
by a proven process quality. Expanding
technology can help in killing the final germ.
By Prof. Dr. Ing. Habil. Eberhard Heidenreich,
IFF-Research Institute Feed Technology, Braunschweig,
Germany
T
here are several ways of qualifying the compound
feed quality. Energy content, nutrients, essen-
tial quantity elements and trace elements, amino
acids, lipid acids, vitamins, enzymes, sensoric proper-
ties and so on define the nutritional physiological char-
acteristics. But there is more. Hygienic quality and
health harmlessness, such as content of perishable
agents, germs, non-desired and toxic materials as well
as prohibited materials define another type of quality.
But that is not all. Homogeneity and stability of the mix-
ture, tendency to carry over, flowability, pellet durability,
bulk density, or dusting behaviour are technical char-
acteristics that concern quality. And finally the envi-
ronmental pollution after animal feeding also is part
of the quality definition. In short the definition of
quality can be summarised into “fulfilment of the cus-
tomer’s requirements or satisfaction”.
For this article we focus on the product safety of feed.
This means the feed is hygienic risk-free with regard to
toxins and heavy metals, toxic metabolism, mycotoxins,
pathogenic germs, disease causing agents and perish-
able-causing agents. The feed should not contain ma-
terial parts that have weakening effects on the immu-
nity system or that support resistances. Contamina-
tion by critical additives, animal drugs or selected trace
elements is out of the question and there should be no
differences to the declaration after treatment.
To fulfil these requirements there are several means
available within the process of feed compounding. The
first risk to be minimised is the raw material supply.
Then the mill needs a proved process quality and an ef-
fective hygiene regime. Risks should be minimised un-
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Figure 1 - Screw and stress profile over the expander
length
til animal feeding, where the responsibility of the feed-
miller for safe feed cannot be controlled anymore.
HACCP
Within the feedmill a certified quality management sys-
tem is advisable with integration of a HACCP-system.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point or HACCP is
a strategy for minimisation and control of risks. It orig-
inates from de food industry and is close to the Codex
Alimentarius of the food production and food mar-
keting as well as to ISO quality management. The sys-
tem identifies, valuates, checks and documents hazards
for the food safety.
Hazard analysis has to catch all thinkable hazards,
which can be structured as:
A) Physical hazards, such as:
• Treated hide, wood, trace of faeces and slurries
• Seed and breeding material
• Wastes, sand gravel, soil, glass, parts of metal
• Bone, fish-bone, packing material
B) Biological and micro-biological hazards, such as:
• Bad material, undefined biological by-products
• Pathogenic germs (Escherichia coli bacteria,
pathogenic salmonellae)
• Moulds, yeast, prions (animal meal, animal fat)
GMOs?
C) Chemical hazards, such as:
• All undesired materials (notice maximum content)
• Wrong material composition (foreign substances, ex-
ceeding of tolerances)
• Insufficient material purity (e.g. <95%)
• Too high moisture content
 Processing
Figure 2 - Temperature and pressure profile for
different animal feeds
• Undefined products
• Toxins and mycotoxins
• Pesticides
• Heavy metals
Expanding as a means
Quality management together with HACCP should lead
to a defined quality and safety of the products. A ben-
eficial effect for product safety can be established by us-
ing expanding technology. The beneficial effects of the
expanding technology for the product safety are main-
ly caused by the high intensity – short-term treatment
of the ingredients. Expanding puts a high-energy con-
centration in the total material volume and realises
changes of the material structure. The processes that
are carried out inside the expander are a combination
of conveying, mixing, shearing, energy dissipation and
expanding. The screw and stress profile over the ex-
pander length can be characterised as shown in Figure
1. Depending on the recipe feeds have a different tem-
perature and pressure profile. For example the fat con-
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Figure 3 - Pellet abrasion (Pfost method) in
dependence on the fat addition and energy
input into the expander for broiler feed
tent influences the temperature and pressure
reached inside the barrel (Figure 2).
Germ reduction
When using the expander for reducing germs
temperature and moisture content of the mash
are critical. In general a higher moisture content
(13+%) and a higher treatment temperature (110-
130˚C) leads to a greater reduction of the num-
ber of germs. However, depending on the recipe,
the optimum reduction in germs is not always
at the highest temperature or highest moisture
content. This reduction of germs of around 106
to 107 is realised in a very short time (seconds)
in contrast to chemical treatment (organic acids)
where the same reduction is achieved in two to
three days after addition.
Additional beneficial effects
Another advantage of expanding is its effect on the in-
activation of anti-nutritive factors (ANFs). Expanding in-
activates protease inhibitors, especially trypsin in-
hibitor (present amongst others in raw soybeans). This
reduction of ANFs increases the bioavailability of nu-
trients of peas and beans and therefore allows a high-
er content of these raw materials in the diet. Also the
fibre structure of the mash is modified, which im-
proves digestibility.
In terms of product safety the expander functions as
an excellent pre-conditioner for the pellet press. Pellet
durability is increased, which reduces the carry over
risks due to a reduction of dusting fines. This is en-
hanced by the option to increase feed energy content
by adding more fat to the mixture (Figure 3).
Implementation in the factory
In the feedmill the expander is located after the short-
 Processing
Summary Figure 4 - Integration of the expander as pressure
conditioner or as an alternative technology
Improvements of product safety and consumer protection require the ap- for feed compounding
plication of the HACCP concept. Product quality of feedmills will be guar-
anteed by proved process quality, i.e. mainly by reliable hygienic treat-
ment and minimised carry over.
Both versions of expanding technology – expander as pressure con-
ditioner before pellet press and expander as essential machine of al-
ternative technology – enable improved product safety, mainly because
of high intensity-short term treatment and high-energy concentration in
the total material volume.
Implementation of expanding technology means increased product safe-
ty of the feedmill by proved process safety. The knowledge about the
influencing parameters shows further possibilities for effective application
of modified expanding technology to reduce remaining risks at feed com-
pounding.
Improvement of the consumer’s protection by integration of HACCP re-
quires in addition to risk management, the use of new technologies, which
is an investment.

term conditioning of the meal. After expanding there

can be different product flows depending on the desired
final product (meal or pellets). The two routes of prod-
uct flow are expressed in the diagram of Figure 4.
When the expanded feed is processed as a meal some
essential effects can be distinguished. The meal has
an excellent hygienic quality with a reduced activity of
ANFs. There is a low danger of segregation, because of
mixture homogeneity in small volume elements. The
high porosity enables an uncritical application of liq-
uid additives in the final product. The expanded meal
also has excellent long-term homogeneity in liquid
feeding units. The sinking velocity of the expanded
meal in the soup is much lower than mash feed or pel-
lets when mixed with water. ●

Edited version of a paper presented at 5th International Kahl

Symposium in Reinbek, Germany.

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