Thermal properties and conditioning temperature control of formula feeds containing high content of whey powder for weanling pigs

Abstract: Whey powder is a kind of thermosensitive feedstuff, which is particularly prone to pyrogenation and protein denaturation in conditioning and pelleting processing of pellet feed for weanling pigs. Pellet mill can be blocked easily when the feed formulation is designed with high level of whey powder. Studies on thermal proprieties of whey powder and formula feed containing different levels of whey powder are required for parameter optimization in thermo processing of formula feed. As corn meal, soybean meal, whey powder and fish meal are the most common and important ingredients in the diet of weanling pigs, 33 kinds of formula feeds consisting of different levels of corn meal (22.6%-70%), soybean meal (13.7%-46%), whey powder (0-30%) and fish meal (0-10%) were obtained by D-optimal mixture design method in this work. Proximate composition of 4 ingredients including moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude ash, crude fiber, starch, lactose contents was determined. The specific heat of these 4 ingredients at the temperature range of 25-120 ℃ and 33 kinds of formula feeds at 25-110 ℃ were measured by DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) at a programmed heating rate of 10℃/min, and the prediction models of specific heat as a function of temperature were established. Thermal denaturation of whey powder and formula feeds containing high levels of whey powder was also analyzed by DSC. The moisture contents of corn meal, soybean meal, whey powder and fish meal were 12.01%, 10.96%, 3.84% and 7.28% (wet basis) respectively, and the crude protein contents were 8.08%, 47.26%, 11.24% and 65.73% (wet basis) respectively. The specific heat of corn meal ranged from 1.614 to 2.705 kJ/(kg·K), soybean meal from 1.844 to 2.529 kJ/(kg·K), whey powder from 1.355 to 2.911 kJ/(kg·K), and fish meal from 1.592 to 2.464 kJ/(kg·K). Whey powder showed significantly lower values of specific heat at 25-100 ℃ compared to the other 3 ingredients, but significantly higher value at 120 ℃ (P<0.05). The specific heat of corn meal increased linearly with the increase in temperature, and that of soybean meal increased logarithmically with the increase in temperature. The specific heat of whey powder followed a cubic polynomial relationship with temperature, and fish meal displayed a quadratic polynomial relationship with temperature. The specific heat of formula feeds containing no less than 6.25% whey powder followed a cubic polynomial relationship with temperature, which was the same as that of whey powder. However, the specific heat of formula feeds containing no whey powder displayed a logarithmical relationship with temperature, similar with that of soybean meal. Analysis of variance showed that the specific heat of formula feeds was significantly dependent on temperature, ingredient proportion and the interaction of the 2 factors (P<0.001). Temperature had the most significant effect on specific heat, followed by the level of whey powder. An endothermic peak with an enthalpy of 4.14 J/g was observed on the DSC thermogram of whey powder, which may be caused by the denaturation of whey protein. The onset temperature, peak temperature, and termination temperature were 90.23, 109.79, and 115.25 ℃, respectively. During this thermal denaturation process, the specific heat of whey powder raised from 1.745 kJ/(kg·K) at onset temperature to 2.798 kJ/(kg·K) at peak temperature, and then declined to 2.662 kJ/(kg·K) at termination temperature. Whey powder particles exhibited a spherical shape with numerous bulges and micro pores on the surface after the thermal treatments of 20-90 ℃, but an irregular shape with smooth surface and agglutinate status after the thermal treatments of 110-115 ℃ based on micrographs obtained from the scanning electron microscope. Similarly, 20 kinds of formula feeds containing high levels (≥14.548%) of whey powder also displayed endothermic peaks on the DSC thermograms, but the onset temperatures (67.46-74.99 ℃), peak temperatures (77.95-87.69℃), termination temperatures (81.47-91.72℃) and enthalpy (0.38-1.00 J/g) were lower than that of whey powder. Mixture with corn meal, soybean meal and fish meal could decrease the thermal stability of whey powder and facilitate the denaturation of whey protein obviously. Consequently, in order to reduce the denaturation of whey protein and the blocking of pellet mill, the conditioning temperature of formula feed containing high level of whey powder for weanling pigs should be lower than 70 ℃. In addition, the onset temperature, peak temperature, termination temperature and enthalpy of formula feed were significantly positively correlated with whey powder content (r=0.697, 0.905, 0.903, and 0.946, respectively, P<0.001). This investigation provides fundamental theory and data for process optimizations of thermo processing such as conditioning, and pelleting of formula feed containing high level of whey powder for weanling pigs.