New approach to dietary electrolyte
Perstorp’s commitment to focused innovation involves challenging conventional wisdom and practices. An example of this is their new approach to dietary electrolyte balance (dEB) where the use of sodium bicarbonate in monogastrics is replaced by ProPhorce™ AC 299, a sodium formate based solution.
Most nutritionists see the significant performance improvements of optimizing dEB all year round. An increase of the dietary electrolyte balance is usually achieved through the addition of sodium bicarbonate. Perstorp’s approach shows that other than sodium, the sodium bicarbonate offers no additional benefits; in fact, it may even have a negative effect on overall performance.
Sodium bicarbonate: reducing the effect of acidifiers
“It is a question of basic chemistry. Adding sodium bicarbonate to any acid will neutralize it to a certain extent. That is one of the reasons so many people use it as an antacid. This works because in this reaction a proton (H+ ion) is removed from the gastric acid, effectively increasing the pH and releasing CO2 and water,” states Jason Lorjé, Portfolio Director for Acid Solutions at Perstorp. He goes on: “This has a number of implications. Firstly, an increase in pH hinders the effect of the pepsin enzyme that requires a low gastric pH to work optimally. Secondly, we can show that it also neutralizes any acidifiers you have added to the diet effectively reducing their effect. By using sodium bicarbonate you may provide sodium, but either at the cost of your acidifier, your digestive performance or both. We believe we have a nutritionally better solution.”
ProPhorce™ AC 299: more effective against pathogens
Lorjé refers to replacing sodium bicarbonate with ProPhorce™ AC 299 which is a specifically formulated free flowing source of sodium formate. Commonly used as an acidifier sodium formate is also a source of highly available sodium. As such, it is an effective antimicrobial and benefits digestion by optimizing gastric pH. Perstorp have studies which show that ProPhorce™ AC 299 is as effective as sodium bicarbonate as a sodium additive, but is a significantly more efficient antibacterial against pathogens.
Increased nutritional performance and economic benefits
While ProPhorce™ AC 299 has been on the market for a number of years, an optimization of the production platform means that the Swedish manufacturer has a solution that they believe will be the new gold standard sodium source. “We can show that the current gold standard, sodium bicarbonate, should be replaced with ProPhorce™ AC 299 to increase nutritional performance and economic benefits,” concludes Jason Lorjé.