Apple pomace in horse feed: fibre and palatability without starch

Dried apple pomace has been a fixture in equine feed for decades, and for reasons that go beyond taste. It delivers fibre at a very low protein and starch contribution, which is exactly the combination many horse recipes need.

Fibre without starch

Apple pomace is what remains after juice pressing: skin, pulp and seed fractions. The sugars largely leave with the juice, and the dried material contains essentially no starch. For horses prone to metabolic problems, that matters more than any single nutrient value, because starch reaching the hindgut undigested is the mechanism behind several common disorders.

Typical dried apple pomace sits near 28 % crude fibre and roughly 10 % moisture, with a low crude protein contribution.

Palatability is a functional property

The characteristic fruit aroma increases acceptance, and acceptance is not a marketing argument in equine nutrition: it drives chewing, and chewing drives saliva. Saliva buffers gastric acid, which protects the stomach lining. A palatable fibre carrier therefore contributes indirectly to gastric health, not only to intake figures.

Choosing the form

• Flakes keep the visible plant structure. Useful in mueslis and wherever the horse owner should recognise the ingredient.
• Pellets, 6 or 8 mm suit industrial handling, blending and transport.
• Ground to 3 mm works where the material must disappear homogeneously into a compound feed.

Regulatory position

Dried apple pomace is a single feed material, botanically Malus spp., listed in the catalogue of feed materials under no. 5.4.1 and in the GMP+ database as a dried fruit and vegetable product, 13.040. Product supplied for animal nutrition must comply with Directive 2002/32/EC on undesirable substances in its current version.

For apple-derived materials, patulin is the contaminant worth a specific question to your supplier, since it originates from mould on the fruit before processing.

Storage

Correctly dried pomace keeps for around 24 months from production when stored cool and dry, below 25 °C and at a maximum of 70 % relative humidity. Moisture pick-up is the main risk in practice, not time on the shelf.