Method for the determination of processing influences on the nutritional value of feedstuff raw materials

1. A method for determining processing influences on nutritional value of a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff, the method comprising

a) subjecting a sample of a processed feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff to

a1) a quantitative analysis of at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of trypsin inhibitor activity, urease activity, protein solubility in alkali and protein dispersibility index;

a2) a determination of a ratio of a reactive amount of lysine to a total amount of lysine comprising a quantitative analysis of the reactive amount of lysine and the total amount of lysine, followed by a formation of the ratio of the reactive amount of lysine to the total amount of lysine; and

a3) a quantitative analysis of an amount of at least one amino acid selected from the group consisting of methionine, cysteine, cystine, threonine, leucine, arginine, isoleucine, valine, histidine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, glycine, serine, proline, alanine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid;

b) plotting parameters obtained in a1) to a3) as a function of time points of processing of the sample in a);

c) determining an area in the plot obtained in b), where a value of the trypsin inhibitor activity, expressed as mg of trypsin per g sample, is more than 4, an increase in pH value in determining the urease activity is more than 0.35, a value of the protein solubility in alkali, expressed as a percentage of protein in the sample that is soluble in an alkaline solution, is more than 85%, and/or a value of the protein dispersibility index, expressed as a percentage of the original nitrogen content of the sample, is more than 40%, and assigning the thus obtained area as under-processed;

d) determining an area in the plot obtained in b), where the ratio of the reactive amount of lysine to the total amount of lysine is less than 90%, a value of the protein dispersibility index, expressed as a percentage of the original nitrogen content of the sample, is less than 15%, and/or a value of the protein solubility in alkali, expressed as a percentage of protein in the sample that is soluble in an alkaline solution, is less than 73%, and assigning the thus obtained area as over-processed;

e) determining an area in the plot obtained in b), where a value of the trypsin inhibitor activity, expressed as mg of trypsin per g sample, is less than 4, a value of the protein solubility in alkali, expressed as a percentage of protein in the sample that is soluble in an alkaline solution, is between 73 and 85%, a value of the protein dispersibility index, expressed as a percentage of the original nitrogen content of the sample, is between 15 and 40% and/or the value of the ratio of the reactive amount of lysine to the total amount of lysine is at least 90%, and assigning the thus obtained area as adequately processed; and/or

subtracting the areas determined in c) and d) from the plot of b) and assigning the thus obtained area as adequately processed;

f) generating a processing scale by standardizing the areas obtained in c) to e) to equal size, sorting them from over-processing to under-processing or vice versa and assigning a continuous scale to the standardized and sorted areas;

g) inserting the values of the parameters obtained in a1) to a3) into a power series, and obtaining a mean of the values obtained from each power series, wherein said mean is designated as the processing condition indicator (PCI); and

h) plotting the processing conditions indicator obtained in g) into the processing scale obtained in f) to indicate whether a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff is over-processed, adequately processed or under-processed.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising

i) determining the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) coefficient of an amino acid in a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff for an animal species by

i1) quantitative analysis of the amount of said amino acid (AA intake ) in the same sample as in a);

i2) administering said sample to the animal species and determining the endogenous loss of said amino acid (AA basal, excret. )and the ileal amino acid outflow (AA ileal, outflow ); and

i3) inserting the values of the parameters obtained in i1) and i2) into formula (II):

SID

[

%

]

=

[

AA

intake

-

(

AA

ileal

,

outflow

-

AA

basal

,

excret

.

)

AA

intake

]

×

100

,

(

II

)

and

j) plotting the standardized ileal digestibility coefficient obtained in i) as a function of the processing conditions indicator obtained in g) and/or expressing said standard ileal digestibility coefficient in a calibration equation as a function of the processing conditions indicator obtained in g).

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the animal species is an omnivore, a carnivore, a herbivore and/or a ruminant.

4. A computer-implemented method for assessing processing influences on nutritional value of a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff, the method comprising

A) subjecting a sample of the same feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff as in a) of the method according to claim 1 to near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy;

B) matching the absorption intensities at the respective wavelengths or wavenumbers in the NIR spectrum obtained in A) with the corresponding parameters and their values determined in a1) to a3); and

C) plotting the matching of B) as a calibration graph and/or expressing the parameters determined in a1) to a3) in a calibration equation as a function of the absorption intensities at the respective wavelengths or wavenumbers matched in B).

5. The computer-implemented method according to claim 4 , further comprising

D) matching the absorption intensities at the respective wavelengths or wavenumbers in the NIR spectrum of a sample obtained in B) with the processing conditions indicator obtained for the same sample in g); and

E) plotting the matching of D) as a calibration graph and/or expressing the processing conditions indicator in a calibration equation as a function of the absorptions intensities at the respective wavelengths or wavenumbers matched in D).

6. The computer-implemented method according to claim 5 , wherein the calibration graphs and/or the calibration equations of C) and/or of E) are stored on a computer or a cloud.

7. The computer-implemented method according to claim 4 , further comprising

F) subjecting a sample of a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff of unknown origin or of the same origin as in a) to NIR spectroscopy;

G) reading off the values of at least one of the parameters of a1) to a3) matching to the absorptions in the NIR spectrum obtained in F) from the calibration graph of C), and/or inserting the absorption intensities at the respective wavelengths or wavenumbers in the NIR spectrum obtained in F) into the calibration equation of C) to obtain the values for the parameters of a1) to a3);

H) inserting the values for the parameters obtained in G) into power series and obtaining the mean of the values obtained from each power series, wherein said mean is designated as the processing condition indicator (PCI); and/or

I) reading off the PCI from the calibration graph of E) and/or inserting the absorption intensities at the respective wavelengths or wavenumbers into the calibration equation of E) to obtain the processing conditions indicator; and

J) plotting the processing conditions indicator obtained in H) and/or I) into the processing scale to indicate whether a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff is over-processed, adequately-processed or under-processed.

8. The computer-implemented method according to claim 7 , wherein in G) the same parameters as in a1) to a3) are obtained.

9. The computer-implemented method according to claim 7 , further comprising

K) inserting the processing condition indicator obtained in H) into the calibration equation of j) and/or reading off the functional value for the processing conditions indicator obtained in I) to obtain a specific digestibility coefficient (D AA ) of an amino acid in the feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff of F).

10. The computer-implemented method according to claim 9 , further comprising

L) determining a differential amount between the desired value and the real value for the amount of an amino acid in a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff from the difference between a maximum of an ileal digestibility coefficient of said amino acid and the specific digestibility coefficient of said amino acid obtained in K).

11. The computer-implemented method according to claim 10 , further comprising

M) determining the digestible amount of an amino acid in a sample of a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff by multiplying the amount of said amino acid in the sample of a feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff obtained in G) with the specific digestibility coefficient obtained in K).

12. A process for preparing a feedstuff, the process comprising

F) to L) of the computer-implemented method according to claim 10 , and

at least one of

N) further processing the feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff, if the feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff is indicated as under-processed, and

O) supplementing the differential amount of an amino acid obtained in L) to the feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff, if the feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff is indicated as over-processed.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the feedstuff raw material and/or feedstuff is soy, soybeans, or a soybean product.

14. The method according to claim 1 ,

wherein the quantitative analysis of the reactive amount of lysine in a2) comprises:

(i) incubating the sample in O-methylisourea;

(ii) analyzing the sample from (i) for homoarginine;

(iii) derivatizing the sample from (ii) with ninhydrin;

(iv) measuring absorbance of the sample from (iii) at a wavelength of 570 nm;

(v) subjecting the sample from (iv) to a hydrolysis;

(vi) determining a weight and a molar quantity of homoarginine in the sample from (v); and

(vii) determining the reactive amount of lysine from the molar quantity of homoarginine obtained in (vi).