This is the category where the disclosure gap is widest. Buyers are asked to choose between products on the basis of a mechanism diagram and a citation to someone else's meta-analysis, while the two numbers that would let them compare — LPC content and HLB — are absent from every public datasheet we could find.
That includes ours, partially. We publish HLB 8–12 for our LPC emulsifier. We do not publish an LPC percentage. So this page is not us pointing at an industry failing from outside it; it is us describing a norm we also participate in, and telling you what to ask so that the norm costs you less.
Three words get used interchangeably in sales material and they are not the same thing:
| Term | What it actually is | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Lecithin | Crude phospholipid mixture, usually soy-derived | Weakly surface-active at feed inclusion rates — a different product class, sold at a different price |
| Lysolecithin | Lecithin enzymatically treated (typically phospholipase A2) so one fatty acid is removed per molecule | This conversion is what makes it work as an emulsifier at low inclusion |
| Lysophospholipid / LPC | The chemical class; lysophosphatidylcholine is the species products are usually characterised by | The conversion rate — how much of the lecithin actually became lyso — is the whole product |
Since conversion efficiency is the core process know-how, it is also the thing least likely to be disclosed. Which means a buyer comparing two bags of powder has no direct way to tell whether one contains twice the functional material of the other.
| Field | Kemin Lysoforte | Other suppliers checked | SILSEP LPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active class | Lysolecithin from enzymatic conversion of soy lecithin | Phospholipid / lysophospholipid complexes | Lysophospholipid biosurfactant |
| LPC content % | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| HLB value | Not published | Not published | 8–12 |
| Dosage | 1 lb/ton complete feed for pigs and poultry; 15 g/head/day for cattle (as published) | Generally not published in accessible form | To energy level in the formula |
| ME uplift kcal/kg | Not published; peer-reviewed meta-analysis cited instead | Not published | Not published |
| Form | Dry powder, described as pellet-stable | Powder | Powder, stable through pelleting |
Figures are as published by each supplier as at September 2026. “Not published” means we could not locate it in public materials — it is not a judgement about the product. Suppliers checked included Kemin, Berg + Schmidt and Easy Bio.
Suppliers in this category support their products with peer-reviewed literature rather than with a kcal/kg figure — Kemin, for instance, cites a meta-analysis of 33 trials in British Poultry Science showing improved broiler performance across varied fat levels and sources. That is a legitimate way to support a product, and better than no evidence at all.
But an averaged effect across many diets is not a number you can put in your matrix. The effect size depends on:
If someone gives you a single kcal/kg number without asking any of the above, that number was not generated for your operation.
Related: dosing guidance for aqua feed and the aquaculture FCR solution page.
SILSEP LPC Emulsifier is a lysophospholipid biosurfactant at HLB 8–12, dosed to the energy level in your formula, stable through pelleting. We publish the HLB because it is the one figure that tells a formulator where the product sits between water-in-oil and oil-in-water behaviour.
We do not publish LPC content, and we have no head-to-head trial data against Lysoforte. If either matters to your decision — and they reasonably might — ask us under NDA, and run the parallel trial above. We supply trial quantities from a single carton so that testing costs you almost nothing.
Lecithin is a crude phospholipid mixture, usually from soy. Lysolecithin is lecithin that has been treated — typically enzymatically with phospholipase A2 — so that one fatty acid is removed from each phospholipid molecule. That single change is what makes it surface-active enough to work as an emulsifier at feed inclusion rates. Lysophospholipid is the broader chemical term for the resulting class; lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) is the specific species most products are characterised by. In marketing copy these words are used loosely, so ask which one is actually in the bag and at what content.
Because it is the number that would let you compare products directly, and because conversion efficiency is the core process know-how in this category. Across the suppliers we could check — including Kemin's Lysoforte range, Berg + Schmidt's phospholipid products and Easy Bio's Lipidol — we could not find a published LPC percentage or HLB value in public materials. That includes us: we publish HLB 8-12 for our LPC emulsifier but not an LPC percentage. We are naming that rather than pretending we are the exception.
Nobody in this category publishes a directly usable kcal/kg figure, and you should treat any that you are given verbally with care. Suppliers reference peer-reviewed meta-analyses showing improved growth performance across varied fat levels and sources — Kemin cites a 33-trial meta-analysis in British Poultry Science, for example — but an averaged effect across many diets is not a number you can drop into your own matrix. The honest answer is that the uplift depends on your fat source, fat level, species and age, and the only figure that means anything for your operation is one you generate in it.
Usually less than the marketing implies. An emulsifier works on the interface between fat and the aqueous phase of the gut, so its scope for improvement scales with how much fat there is to emulsify and how hard that fat is to digest. Highly saturated fats, young animals with immature bile salt production, and high-energy aqua diets are where the effect is largest. A low-fat diet fed to mature animals is where it is smallest.
Feed conversion ratio against a control is the practical endpoint, and it needs enough replicates to detect the size of effect you are hoping for — typically a few percent, which is easy to lose in noise. Apparent fat digestibility gives you a more direct mechanistic read if you can run it. Do not judge an emulsifier on pellet quality or on how the feed looks; those are not what it is for.
See LPC Emulsifier specifications Request a trial quantity
Last updated: 3 September 2026 · Lysoforte is a trademark of Kemin Industries; other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners. SILSEP is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Comparative statements are based on publicly available information as at the date above.