November 2, 2010

India's Ensigns Health launches cattle feed sweetener

EnSigns Health Care Pvt Ltd and the NutraSweet Co USA have recently launched 'Sweetos', a cattle feed sweetener in India.

Sweetos has been developed with neotame, a high intensity sweetener. Amino acids based sweetener Neotame is 8,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar and is a patented product of the NutraSweet Co USA.

Ensigns Health Care is one of the leading manufacturers of Sweetos, low calorie sweeteners for the food industry. Together, the two companies have launched this sweetener to be added to cattle feed.

Presently, molasses is used as a feed sweetener to mask the low palatable taste of certain non-conventional feed ingredients. But, the prices of molasses have sky rocketed due to its use as a raw material in alcohol production and other chemical manufacturing industries. Besides, there are stringent regulatory measures for purchase and use of molasses.

"Sweetos is an economical substitute for molasses. Sweetos guarantees the masking of unpleasant tastes and odour and improves the palatability of feed. This product will be economical for farmers and manufacturers of cattle feed. It can also be used in mineral mixture," said CEO Craig Petray of the NutraSweet Company.

Sweetos is 20% cheaper than molasses, which costs INR14 (US$0.32) per kg. It is priced at INR11 (US$0.25) per kg, which is available in both powder and liquid form.

Ensigns has a manufacturing facility at Wagholi, where the company manufactures low calorie sweeteners for the food and beverage industry containing sucralose.

The NutraSweet Company is looking at launching the same product in Brazil soon.