Impact of storage conditions and premix type on fat-soluble vitamin stability.

Feed ingredients and additives could be a potential medium for foreign animal disease entry into the United States. The feed industry has taken active steps to reduce the risk of pathogen entry through ingredients. Medium chain fatty acid (MCFA) and heat pulse treatment could be an opportunity to prevent pathogen contamination. The objective of experiment 1 was to determine the impact of 0, 30, 60, or 90 d storage time on fat-soluble vitamin stability when vitamin premix (VP) and vitamin trace mineral premix (VTM) were blended with 1% inclusion of MCFA (1:1:1 blend of C6:C8:C10) or mineral oil (MO) with different environmental conditions. Samples stored at room temperature (RT) (~22 °C) or in an environmentally controlled chamber set at 40 °C and 75% humidity, high-temperature high humidity (HTHH). The sample bags were pulled out at days 0, 30, 60 and 90 for RT condition and HTHH condition. The objective of experiment 2 was to determine the effect of heat pulse treatment and MCFA addition on fat-soluble vitamin stability with two premix types. A sample from each treatment was heated at 60 °C and 20% humidity. For experiment 1, the following effects were significant for vitamin A: premix type × storage condition ( 0.031) and storage time × storage condition ( 0.002) interactions; for vitamin D3: main effect of storage condition ( 0.001) and storage time ( 0.002); and for vitamin E: storage time × storage condition interaction ( 0.001). For experiment 2, oil type did not affect the stability of fat-soluble vitamins ( 0.732) except for vitamin A ( 0.030). There were no differences for fat-soluble vitamin stability between VP and VTM ( 0.074) except for vitamin E ( 0.016). Therefore, the fat-soluble vitamins were stable when mixed with both vitamin and VTM and stored at 22 °C with 28.4% relative humidity (RH). When premixes were stored at 39.5 °C with 78.8%RH, the vitamin A and D were stable up to 30 d while the vitamin E was stable up to 60 d. In addition, MCFA did not influence fat-soluble vitamin degradation during storage up to 90 d and in the heat pulse process. The vitamin stability was decreased by 5% to 10% after the premixes was heated at 60 °C for approximately nine and a half hours. If both chemical treatment (MCFA) and heat pulse treatment have similar efficiency at neutralizing or reducing the target pathogen, the process of chemical treatment could become a more practical practice.