Unisplendour breaks ground on China methionine plant

Chongqing Unisplendor Co. has broken ground on the second phase of a three-phase project in Ningxia, China, to expand its total methionine production capacity by more than 200,000 tons, according to a report provided by Smart Agriculture Analytics.
The first phase of the expansion project is in operation, with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons.
In 2012, China consumed 194,000 tons of methionine, including imports of 183,000 tons.
Unisplendour is China’s leading producer of methionine, and the only domestic producer of methionine with independently owned production technology IP.
In September 2010, Chongqing Unisplendour Tianhua Methionine Co. Ltd. announced that it had built the first production plant in China for feedgrade DL-methionine, allowing domestically produced methionine to be purchased for the first time.
Unisplendour also has started work on a 10,000 ton 2-Naphthol production facility.

Adisseo publishes technical reference book for methionine

Adisseo has published Methiopedia - The Methionine Reference Book, intended for nutritionists, purchasers, formulators and technical managers within the premix and feed industries, as well as students, who want to enhance their knowledge of methionine and its use.
"Being one of the first companies to have synthesized powder methionine in the 40's, we considered that it could be of great interest to collect all the scientific information that Adisseo has gathered in research studies, trials and customer experience," says Pierre Casamatta, Adisseo global business director, methionine and sulfur products. "Adisseo experts have compiled information on methionine from around the world, including the latest developments, from fundamental research to in-vivo trials performed both in independent experimental facilities and on commercial farms."
The book offers a complete description of the three forms of methionine - L-methionine (L-Met), D,L-methionine (D,L-Met) and D,L-methionine hydroxy (D,L-HMTBA) - with their characteristics and properties. General chemical processes, metabolism and utilization of each form are detailed, and precise data on hydrolysis, absorption, and intestinal transport of these different sources are presented.
"Methiopedia includes research highlights on digestion and metabolism. Statistical models for dose-response are discussed," says Professor R.A. Swick, from the University of New England, Australia.
Besides physiological data, Methiopedia also provides a review of important animal performances (feed conversion, body weight gain) with practical diets including D,L-Methionine or D,L-HMTBA, especially for broilers. These recent data have been compiled from trials on animals conducted at different institutes across the world, such as BARC, (Bangkok Research Center), Thailand; The China Agricultural University, Beijing, China; IRTA, Spain; INRA, France, as well as Adisseo's facilities (CERN - Center of Expertise and Research in Nutrition - Commentry, France). "These trials and their meta-analysis show new evidence of the biological equivalency of both forms," says Pierre Dalibard, global technical manager, Adisseo.
Furthermore, the technical aspects of incorporating D,L-Met or D,L-HMTBA in feeds are developed by Adisseo experts in Methiopedia. They detail the different parameters involved in dosing and mixing accuracy, up to recovery tests, to ensure that the required level of methionine is reached in feed for powder and liquid forms.
Many technical results of recent trials carried out by Adisseo are provided in the book's appendix, which also contains a selection of relevant abstracts or articles on methionine presented at the latest Adisseo Advancia Seminars. Every year since 2007, these meetings gather worldwide scientists and nutritionists to share research progress on sulfur amino acids.

National Organic Program extends use of synthetic methionine

A note in a recent Federal Register posts an interim rule extending the acceptability of synthetic methionine for organic poultry through October 2012.
Additives will be restricted to four pounds per ton of feed for egg producing hens, five pounds per ton for broilers and six pounds per ton for turkeys. Calculations performed by industry experts indicated a significant increase in cost of diets to achieve acceptable levels of methionine in the absence of synthetic products including DL-methionine and methionine hydroxy analog.
There is no scientific justification thus far for banning either synthetic methionine or lysine from organic diets as these compounds are the same structure as the equivalent amino acids found in vegetable ingredients and are absorbed and metabolized in the same way as plant-source amino acids.

US organics board recommends synthetic methionine be allowed in hen feed

The Methionine Task Force of the U.S. National Organic Standards Board recently petitioned for an extension of the deadline on using synthetic methionine in organic laying-hen diets to 2015.
The petition placed an upper intake limit of four pounds of 100% synthetic methionine over the productive life of a hen. The board’s livestock committee recommended that synthetic methionine supplements remain on the organic program’s National List of Allowed Substances with a step-down rate of use.