Improve nutrient absorption and reduce nutrient losses in your animal nutrition formulations

In animal feed formulation, every nutrient matters. Yet a significant portion of the vitamins, minerals or enzymes added to premixes or pellets is lost before even being absorbed: processing heat, oxidation, interactions between ingredients… These invisible losses have a direct impact on the nutritional performance and profitability of formulations intended for animal nutrition.

Faced with this challenge, manufacturers are seeking reliable solutions to protect sensitive actives and improve their bioavailability. This is precisely the core expertise of Innov’ia, a recognized specialist in the formulation and custom production of functional ingredients. Thanks to its encapsulation, coating, and spray drying technologies, the company supports animal nutrition players in designing more stable, effective and economically efficient formulations.

In this article, discover how to reduce nutrient losses and maximize absorption thanks to tailor-made technological solutions.

In animal nutrition, formulation efficiency relies on a precise balance between added nutrients and those actually absorbed by the animal. However, many factors disrupt this balance and lead to nutritional losses:

• High temperatures during extrusion or drying, degrading heat-sensitive vitamins;
• Oxidation of sensitive compounds (vitamins, fatty acids, enzymes);
• Humidity and exposure to light, which affect stability;
• Chemical interactions between certain minerals and vitamins, reducing their bioavailability.

These phenomena lead to a decrease in the nutritional value of feed. To maintain performance, formulators often need to over-fortify dosages, which increases production costs and reduces the stability of finished products. At scale, these losses lead to variability in animal performance (meat yield, egg production, animal health, etc.) and an overuse of natural resources.

Better nutrient protection therefore means acting on profitability, stability and sustainability simultaneously.

Some nutrients are particularly vulnerable to processing and storage conditions:

• Vitamins A, D, E, C and B, highly sensitive to heat, oxidation and light;
• Essential amino acids, which may degrade under high temperatures;
• Enzymes and probiotics, whose biological activity drops when exposed to temperature variations or mechanical compression;
• Fatty acids and minerals, prone to oxidation and chemical interactions.

Protecting these nutrients ensures their release at the right time, in the right digestive environment, while preserving their activity. Encapsulated or coated functional ingredients play a key role: they limit losses, stabilize actives and optimize their bioavailability for more efficient and profitable animal nutrition.

To improve the efficiency of animal feed formulations, adding more nutrients is not enough: their real availability must be guaranteed at the moment the animal needs them. This is the purpose of the functional ingredients developed by Innov’ia for its clients.

Through microencapsulation, coating and spray drying processes, sensitive nutrients are protected within a suitable matrix acting as a physical and chemical barrier.

This protection allows:

• Preservation of actives against heat, humidity or oxidation;
• Prevention of undesirable interactions within premixes;
• Controlled nutrient release at different levels of the digestive tract;
• Improved homogeneity and stability of formulations.

These technologies ensure better bioavailability—meaning more complete nutrient absorption. For formulators, this translates into optimized nutritional value, more accurate dosages and more consistent field performance.

The challenge is not only protection—it is intelligent release. By encapsulating or coating nutrients, Innov’ia enables targeted release in the digestive tract zones where absorption is optimal.

Result: nutrients retain their effectiveness until their point of action, maximizing biological response and limiting upstream losses.

This approach offers a dual benefit:

• Economic, through reduced overdosing and increased formulation stability;
• Nutritional, through improved absorption and a direct impact on animal health (growth, feed efficiency, resilience).

By integrating tailor-made functional ingredients, premix and compound feed manufacturers gain a powerful lever to improve profitability, product consistency and environmental footprint.

At Innov’ia, nutritional performance is achieved through mastery of ingredient processing technologies. With more than 30 years of experience and a state-of-the-art R&I center in La Rochelle, the company develops and adapts advanced technologies to meet the specific needs of animal nutrition.

Its core expertise includes:

• Microencapsulation: to protect sensitive actives and control their release.
• Spray drying: to convert emulsions or suspensions into stable, homogeneous powders.
• Coating: to isolate nutrients from external aggressions and limit interactions.
• Granulation and prilling: to facilitate handling and improve density and flowability.
• Fluid bed agglomeration: for better homogeneity and progressive release.

Each technology is selected based on the nutrient profile, desired dosage form and targeted nutritional outcome. The goal is not merely to stabilize an active, but to design a complete solution that enhances the usability and performance of the final product.

Through a co-development approach, Innov’ia works closely with clients—premix manufacturers, nutritionists or feed industry players—to design tailor-made formulations, from prototype to industrial production.

Innov’ia’s technologies stand out through their industrial reliability and reproducibility. Each developed functional ingredient undergoes stability, solubility and controlled-release testing to ensure consistent performance over time.

Customer benefits include:

• Increased nutrient stability during storage and processing;
• Improved absorption in the animal’s body;
• Longer shelf life for finished products;
• Guaranteed safety and regulatory compliance supported by stringent certifications (FSSC 22000, FAMI-QS, Organic).

With four modern industrial sites and more than 45 R&I experts, Innov’ia provides partners with flexible and certified production capacity, ensuring measurable, reproducible results that meet the highest quality standards.

As raw material prices rise and environmental requirements become stricter, limiting nutrient losses becomes both a strategic and ethical lever. Every gram of preserved vitamin, enzyme or mineral represents both a cost saved and a resource conserved.

Through its microencapsulation and coating technologies, Innov’ia helps partners optimize formulation profitability while reducing their environmental impact. Improved nutrient bioavailability allows:

• Lower dosages without compromising efficiency;
• More stable formulations, reducing waste during storage or transport;
• Better feed performance, and therefore improved yield;
• Contribution to more sustainable animal nutrition with fewer nitrogen and phosphorus emissions, thanks to the development of innovative products.

In other words, Innov’ia’s innovations create a virtuous circle: technical performance turns into economic and environmental performance—an essential advantage for manufacturers seeking competitiveness and responsibility.

Innov’ia’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond its technologies to its entire value chain. The company has invested more than €7 million in environmental facilities to reduce its carbon footprint and reinforce sustainability.

Its production sites comply with the strictest standards (FSSC 22000, GMP, FAMI-QS, Halal, Kosher and Organic certifications on request), ensuring full traceability and optimal ingredient safety.

This ongoing commitment to quality and the environment positions Innov’ia as a responsible industrial partner capable of combining innovation, compliance and sustainability in the animal nutrition sector.

Choosing Innov’ia means partnering with a comprehensive technological expert capable of supporting your formulation projects from R&D to industrial production. The company combines over 30 years of experience, a high-level R&I center and four certified production sites to ensure consistent quality and outstanding responsiveness.

Key strengths:

• Recognized expertise in encapsulation and coating of sensitive actives;
• Tailor-made approach based on co-development and adaptation to each specification;
• Full traceability and compliance guaranteed by international certifications;
• Technical and scientific support at each stage of the project.

By choosing Innov’ia, you benefit from a trusted partner to develop feed formulations that are more efficient, more stable and more profitable, adapted to the current challenges of animal nutrition.

In a market where nutritional performance and cost control are inseparable, reducing nutrient losses represents a major challenge for animal nutrition players. Through its encapsulation, coating, and ingredient processing technologies, Innov’ia provides concrete answers to these challenges: better protection for better absorption.

By optimizing nutrient bioavailability and stability, formulations become more effective, more sustainable and more profitable. Innov’ia’s tailor-made approach and technological rigor allow each client—premix manufacturers, nutritionists or feed industry players—to design high-value solutions aligned with their constraints and objectives.

💡 Reduce losses, enhance your formulations and improve nutritional performance: connect with Innov’ia experts today to build the next generation of functional ingredients dedicated to animal nutrition.