Investigation the effect of different processes on production line energy consumption, quality and hygienic parameters of broiler chicken pellet

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effect of different processes on production line energy consumption, quality and hygienic parameters of broiler chicken pellet. This experiment was performed in 40 treatments and each treatment included 5 replications in the form of a factorial experimental design (2×2×2×5), To evaluate the effect of two sizes of feed particles with different geometric mean diameters (500 and 1000 μm), two types of heating temperatures (80 and 85 ̊C), two different conditioning times (40 and 120 seconds) and 5 types of processing (vertical conditioner, vertical conditioner + expander, expander, horizontal conditioner and horizontal conditioner + expander) were performed. According to the results, the lowest energy consumption at different times and temperatures used in the experiment was related to processing with horizontal conditioner + expander, expander and vertical conditioner + expander, respectively (P<0.0001). Diet processing with vertical conditioner had the highest quality (P<0.0001). Also, processing with conditioner alone or with an expander could reduce the microbial load of the diet (P<0.0001). In general, the results showed that pellet grain processing increases its quality and durability and is effective in reducing the microbial load of the diet.