What is functional feed?

Functional feed is an indispensable material for food production around the world, playing an important role in improving livestock productivity and maintaining health, as well as maintaining the yield and quality of livestock products.
It is produced by formulating natural extracts and chemical compounds that are functional ingredients, and is classified into "feed additives" that consist only of specified ingredients, and "mixed feed" that mixes specified ingredients with feed raw materials. Our group handles both.
The Idemitsu Group commercializes products that use cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) as an active ingredient, as well as " MOLUCCA'' that uses Bacillus natto as an active ingredient, as functional feeds.

Cashew nut shell liquid helps reduce methane gas emissions derived from cow burps

Cows have four stomachs, and the first stomach (rumen), which is closest to the mouth, contains a large number of microorganisms that digest the grass they eat and turn it into energy. Some of these processes generate methane gas, a greenhouse gas, which is emitted into the atmosphere as burps. If the methane gas derived from the burps of domesticated ruminant animals (cows, sheep, goats, etc.) is converted into carbon dioxide, it is estimated to be approximately 2 billion tons per year worldwide, which is more than the amount of carbon dioxide produced by human activities worldwide. This corresponds to approximately 4% of the greenhouse gases generated by For this reason, in response to the recent global movement to combat climate change, methane gas emitted by livestock has become a problem.
The keyword that helps solve this problem is "cashew nuts." Feeding cows with feed containing cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) not only improves milk productivity, has a positive effect on reproductive performance, increases weight of beef cows, maintains rumen function, but also reduces methane emitted from the rumen. ^* has been reported.
CNSL is a difficult material to handle, but with our group's technical capabilities, we have developed processing technology that makes it easy to handle and prevents changes in the active ingredients, allowing us to provide products that can be fed to livestock with peace of mind.