Cutting out palm oil from animal diets

"Dairy farmers are likely to come under increasing pressure to remove palm oil from their cows’ diets following recent retail moves to cut the level of saturated fats in milk," says Mark Townsend, sales manager of Ufac-UK.

Marks and Spencer has made it known that it will be selling milk with six per cent less saturated fat and Denmark has just announced tax penalties on foods with high levels of saturated fats.

Because there are considerable environmental and ethical benefits from removing palm oil, in addition to advantages to human health, Mark Townsend believes this heralds the start of a trend which will filter down to both pig and poultry industries. "Retailers will want reduced saturated fats in many food products, including butter, cheese and meat, not just milk."

"In Europe, palm oil replaced the use of tallow in diets following the BSE crisis, but palm oil is also high in saturated fats," he said.

However, Ufac-UK, a specialist company with particular expertise in handling vegetable oils, has developed products which are totally palm-oil free and palm kernel free and which can be used at no extra cost. The company claims to be the only UK manufacturer of dietary energy supplements that are totally palm-oil free. These include Dynalac for dairy cows and Megajule for pigs and poultry and can be easily incorporated into farm-mixed diets, compounds and blends.

Environmentalists have criticised the fact that rain forests have been cut down to make way for palm oil production. Ufac uses a particular blend of vegetable oils, which overcome these problems. These vegetable oils also have a further environmental benefit of reducing methane production by the animals, said Mr Townsend.

Note to Editors: Ufac (UK) Ltd is a leading supplier of energy supplements to farmers and the trade. It exports to over 20 countries world-wide. The company has particular expertise in dealing with fats and oils.