Animal Feed Additives
2 ingredients from 3 Chinese manufacturers
The listing is narrow and centres on betaine and on premixed nutrient blends. Betaine is a methyl donor used in feed to spare methionine and choline and to help fish and shrimp hold water balance, and it also acts as an attractant that improves intake in aquaculture diets. The two salts differ in what accompanies the active part. Betaine HCl carries chloride, is strongly acidic in solution and is corrosive to equipment at higher inclusion, while Betaine Citrate is less acidic and gentler on mixing lines.
Anhydrous betaine, which is neither salt, delivers more betaine per kilogramme than either, so offers should be compared on betaine content rather than on product weight. Nutrient Premixes are blends built to a customer formula, where the carrier, the particle size match to the finished feed and the stability of the vitamins in the mix are what matter.
Sourcing from China
Betaine reaches the market by two routes: extraction from sugar beet molasses, which follows beet processing in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, and chemical synthesis, which sits with fine chemical producers in Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu. The routes are not distinguishable on assay alone, so origin should be stated where a natural claim is intended. Premix blending is fragmented across many small operations working to customer formulas. Assay on a betaine basis, moisture and caking behaviour in storage are the practical checks.
