Is your horse’s daily salt supplement good for the environment?

For consumer acceptance, vegetable oils sold for human consumption must be bland in flavor, free of odor, and have color consistency. To achieve these quality requirements, a number of compounds must be removed from the raw oil after it has been extracted from the harvested seed or nut. One of the refining steps is the removal of color.

Vegetable oil contains color pigments like carotene and chlorophyll. The level of these pigments varies between oil batches and create inconsistency in the product. In order to create an end product that is visually consistent for consumers these pigments are removed using human-edible bentonite clay. By adding the proper amount of clay based on the color of the oil, the target color for retail sale can be achieved. After sufficient contact time for the pigment adsorption to occur, the clay is separated from the oil by filtration. 

The problem

While the refined oil moves on into the human food chain, the bentonite clay that was used during depigmentation has no purpose and is generally moved to landfill. In the United States alone this is estimated to be in the region of 172 million pounds of oil-saturated clay each year. This poses an environmental hazard on a huge scale. 

An alternative

However, bentonite clay has long been used as a valuable feed ingredient in livestock nutrition. The clay remaining after edible oil depigmentation has the added benefit of being 30 to 40 percent saturated with high quality edible vegetable oil as well as containing valuable color pigmentations that have known health benefits. All these components are human edible, high quality, and produced in a food plant operating in compliance with FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practices.

The Sustainable Feed Innovations solution

Using a unique patented process, Sustainable Feed Innovations combines the oil saturated bentonite clay with a number of stabilizing ingredients to make high value quality supplements and feed ingredients. These include Show Horse Conditioning Salt.

Show Horse Conditioning Salt is a unique equine supplement that combines the human grade oil saturated bentonite clay with salt. Together these ingredients provide numerous health benefits. The horse’s daily sodium requirement is met to stimulate hydration_, the bentonite supports a healthy gastric environment, feed utilization and the oil promotes coat quality. 

With an estimated 172 Million tons a year of oil saturated clay being shipped to landfill in the United States alone the Sustainable Feed Innovations line of animal feed ingredients and supplements aims to reduce landfill waste while improving animal health and performance.