Increasing the ingredient flexibility of floating feeds

William Henry, Director of Technology and Research & Development, Extru-Tech, USA

The environment in which aquatic feeds being produced in Asia today has changed dramatically from even a few years ago. Now, more than ever, the ‘efficiency’ of production is critiqued at the same levels as ‘quality’ and ‘quantity’ of production.

This presentation will focus on the greatest input cost to most aquatic feed production process’s, and that is raw materials.

When reviewing the ‘Total Cost of Production’ for a specific type of feed, the raw material cost is typically in the range of 80 to 90%. Needless to say, a 10% savings on the raw materials will have a greater impact on production cost efficiency than most likely anywhere else in the process.

This strategy of increasing the process’ ingredient flexibility will be addressed from two primary angles. We will first discuss changes and enhancements in the core pieces of equipment in a typical extrusion process. And secondly, a review of proper/recommended process management directives will be presented.